“I marvel every day at how people can excel – and that’s what really gets me going.”

The way I measure my life is ‘Am I better than I was last year?’

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.

That means at times we’ll develop new categories like we did with Surface. It also means we will responsibly make the market for Windows Phone, which is our goal with the Nokia devices and services acquisition.

Many companies aspire to change the world. But very few have all the elements required: talent, resources and perseverance. Microsoft has proven that it has all three in abundance.

A big part of my job is to accelerate our ability to bring innovative products to our customers more quickly.

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

I sign up for more online courses than I can complete. I fundamentally believe that if you are not learning new things, you stop doing great and useful things. So family, curiosity and hunger for knowledge all define me.

That’s both because of the physicality of computing–where the speed of light still matters–and because of geopolitics.

Be passionate and bold.

This is a critical time for the industry and for Microsoft. Make no mistake, we are headed for greater places – as technology evolves and we evolve with and ahead of it. Our job is to ensure that Microsoft thrives in a mobile and cloud-first world.

I think playing cricket taught me more about working in teams and leadership that has stayed with me throughout my career.

The opportunity ahead for Microsoft is vast, but to seize it, we must focus clearly, move faster and continue to transform.

This notion of universal Windows apps is a very powerful concept because we’re now aggregating the 300-plus-million-socket run rate of Windows into one opportunity for our developers.

What was true then and what is true now is that we create technology so others can create more technology.

Be passionate and bold. Always keep learning. You stop doing useful things if you don’t learn.

Microsoft is the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world.