Microsoft is implementing significant changes at the top. Satya Nadella will transfer some of his core responsibilities as CEO to the new position of CEO of commercial business, which will be taken by Judson Althoff. The idea is that this will give Nadella more time to focus on AI.
This restructuring will allow engineering leaders and Nadella to focus on the highest technical ambitions. This includes data center expansion, system architecture, AI science, and product innovation.
Nadella emphasizes that this “isn’t just evolution, it’s reinvention, for each of us professionally and for Microsoft.” Each team member must develop new skills and embrace new ways of working to drive innovation across the entire stack.
New role for proven strength
Judson Althoff will take on an expanded role as CEO of Microsoft’s commercial business. For the past nine years, he has led the global sales organization and designed Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS). According to Nadella, MCAPS has become the company’s most important growth engine.
Althoff will lead a new commercial leadership team that shares responsibility for product strategy, go-to-market readiness, and sales activities. The new structure is designed to deliver the execution excellence that customers expect.
Operations closer to the customer
“We are in the midst of a tectonic AI platform shift,” Nadella said in an internal communication. According to him, the company must both manage its current commercial activities and build the new AI frontier.
The reorganization brings marketing, operations, and engineering together under one roof. Takeshi Numoto and his marketing team will report to Althoff, while Numoto will continue to be connected to Nadella for business models and corporate branding.
The operations organization is moving to the commercial business to shorten the feedback loop between customer needs and service delivery. Carolina Dybeck Happe will continue to report directly to Nadella because of her role in the business transformation.