"You don’t issue a call to action for change when none is needed."
Finally, Nadella noted that “all strategy gets eaten by culture,” underscoring his letter’s mention that previous methods of business would not be held as sacred at Microsoft. As a company, Microsoft is known for a history of internal conflict. (Dilbert here is canonical.) After decades of stability, Nadella’s point appears to be that Microsoft’s former culture would consume his new vision for the company. As such, the culture itself has to change.
Implicit to Nadella’s note is the point that the Microsoft that existed before, which generated mammoth profits, is not well-fitted to where the market is today and will be in the future. You don’t issue a call to action for change when none is needed.
The document is a decent encapsulation of Nadella’s view of what Microsoft should become: Quicker to market, stronger of product, and competitive everywhere. This is no small challenge. It’s now up to Nadella not only to live up to his own vision, but to convince more than 100,000 employees to do the same.