The Financial Crisis: Lessons Learnt

Mr Phizackerley’s talk focused mainly on the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, explaining in detail - yet in understandable terms – the causes and events of the Crisis and how it connected to the current European Crisis.  This was of particular interest as it was useful in making connections to current economic problems today, such as high unemployment rates in Spain. He also touched upon the system of banks, their different sectors and how they work- again offering understandable and useful knowledge to those who attended. For those of us who were perhaps slightly too young to understand fully the reasons and consequences of the financial crisis, it was helpful in establishing an understanding of how “greed and fear” can cause so much damage. It was astonishing to see through his graphs how quickly the situation deteriorated, particularly in the housing market. Mr Phizackerley’s talk was also useful in demonstrating the different sectors that economics is needed for in banking, and therefore offering potential job ideas that were perhaps unexplored before. When answering questions at the end, especially with regards to the term “banker bashers”, he helped by offering firsthand experience that, although banking did have its downsides, he still believed it to be one of the most exciting jobs out there today. Overall, Mr Phizackerley’s talk offered us a greater knowledge of a crisis that beforehand we were perhaps vaguely aware of, but now fully understood its causes and consequences that are still occurring today.  His personal experience could be used by students to see potential careers, and as a whole was thoroughly interesting.

Microsoft`s new CEO

On February 4^th, Microsoft introduced their third ever CEO Satya Nadella (46), who was born in India, Hyderabad and has degrees in electronics, computer science and business administration. Being internally recruited, having joined the company 22 years ago (he previously ran Microsoft`s Cloud and Enterprise group), he is certainly familiar with the business, which will enable him to put his ideas into practice very soon.

He replaces Steve Ballmer the prior chief executive of Microsoft (2000-2014), a decision which in my opinion was already overdue, as Microsoft struggled to progress with new innovations and failed to keep up with rivals such as Amazon, Apple and Google.

Compared to Ballmer, who was very extrovert and outgoing, Nadella is more introverted and has both a calmer and more considerate approach. In addition, he has the ability to connect people and to understand the dynamics between them through collaboration and is able to inspire and motivate with his authenticity in a seemingly effortless way.

Still, it might seem quite surprising that he was chosen to be the new chief executive, because there were hundreds of suitable competitors, like former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who undoubtedly has more entrepreneurial skill.

Moreover Nadella`s main weakness is, that he has never led a company before and does not have as much of an understanding of business compared to Ballmer. This increases the likelihood, that both Ballmer and Gates, the latter having resigned from being a chairman to move to a technological advisor role, would affect and maybe even restrict Nadella in his decision making process.

On the other hand Microsoft`s new CEO has a broadly developed skill set and can definitely rely on his proficient grasp of technical know-how. Furthermore Nadella understands how Microsoft must evolve in order to compete in the modern world; he also understands that the company has to continue to push many of its older, still profitable businesses forward.              

In conclusion, it will be interesting to see in which new directions and to what extent he will independently lead Microsoft in the future, and whether we will see a more similar company to Bill Gates` time and what revolutionary innovations we can expect from him.