Satya Nadella became Microsoft's CEO in February 2014. The company was profitable, but widely seen as stuck: built around Windows, late to mobile, and known for teams that competed with each other.
Nadella changed the story first. Microsoft's mission became "to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more." He pushed the culture from know-it-all to learn-it-all, a shift he wrote about in his book Hit Refresh. The new story made room for moves the old one had blocked, starting with a big bet on the cloud.
When Nadella took over, Microsoft was worth about $381 billion. In January 2024 it crossed $3 trillion, only the second company ever to get there.
Strategy tends to change after the story does. If your team is still telling last year's story, it will keep making last year's decisions.