Technologies will come and go, so you need to be able to both ask and answer the question: What do you do as a company, why do you exist?

You’re trying to take something that can be described in many, many sentences and pages of prose, but you can convert it into a couple lines of poetry and you still get the essence, so it’s that compression. The best code is poetry.

The opportunity ahead for Microsoft is vast, but to seize it, we must focus clearly, move faster and continue to transform. A big part of my job is to accelerate our ability to bring innovative products to our customers more quickly.

Be passionate and bold. Always keep learning. You stop doing useful things if you don't learn. So the last part to me is the key, especially if you have had some initial success. It becomes even more critical that you have the learning 'bit' always switched on.

This is a software-powered world.

Every time you think all the technology that had been created already, all you have to do is look around and then there's someone new who's born with a new idea.

Our ambitions are bold and so must be our desire to change and evolve our culture.