Talk to almost anyone who knows Satya Nadella, the new boss of Microsoft, and sooner or later they will come up with the same observation: he is the anti-Steve Ballmer.
跟几乎熟悉萨蒂亚•纳德拉(Satya Nadella)的任何人聊，早晚都会得到同一个看法：他是和史蒂夫•鲍尔默(Steve Ballmer)完全相反的一类人。
The man who has stepped aside after 14 years as head of the world’s biggest software company has always exuded an overabundance of energy, running the gamut from ebullience (jumping sweatily around a stage to inspire an audience) to temper tantrum (throwing a chair across the room when a lieutenant quits).
在执掌世界最大的软件公司14年后，业已卸任的鲍尔默总是显露出过剩的精力：从沸腾的激情（为了振奋观众在台上满头大汗地狂跳）到火爆的脾气（一名高管离职时，他气得抓起一把椅子扔到房间另一头），在他身上都表露无遗。
The thoughtful, Indian-born engineer who has filled his shoes is from a different mould. “In personal style, he’s the opposite,” says Reed Hastings, the chief executive of Netflix and a former Microsoft director. “Steve is boisterous.
接替他的工程师生于印度、喜欢安静思考，有着不一样的性格。Netflix首席执行官、微软(Microsoft)前董事里德•赫斯廷斯(Reed Hastings)说：“就个人风格来讲，他是史蒂夫的反面。史蒂夫属于狂暴的那种，萨蒂亚则很沉稳。”但光用“沉稳”这个词来形容纳德拉还不够。常常沉浸于深度思考的他眼神锋利，可脸上略带狐疑的微笑又软化了这种锋利。如果说鲍尔默是一位精力旺盛的营销领袖，那么纳德拉就是一个典型的计算机工程师。
Satya is steady.” Steady hardly does it justice. Intellectually intense, he has a piercing gaze softened by a faint, slightly quizzical smile. If Mr Ballmer was the effervescent marketing dynamo, Mr Nadella is the quintessential engineer.
“他是个理智的人，不属于那种拍桌子的类型，”微软前任高管约翰•康纳斯(John Connors)说。但他补充道，纳德拉除了冷静，也是“为数不多的”懂生意的人，拥有“很高的情商”。
“He’s a cerebral guy, he’s not a pound-the-table kind of guy,” says John Connors, a former senior Microsoft executive. But along with the cool, he adds, Mr Nadella is “one of these rare guys” who is also business savvy with “a strong emotional IQ”.
至于这是否足以使微软夺回技术界霸主地位，则是另外一个问题。微软仍在依靠庞大的Windows和Office业务盈利意味着，鲍尔默把带领公司突破传统PC业务的任务留给了继任者。
Whether that will be enough to put Microsoft back on top in the technology world is another question. While milking its giant Windows and Office businesses for cash, Mr Ballmer has left it to his successor to drag the company out of its PC past.
康纳斯表示，由于产品种类多，经营微软如今也成为了一项“复杂得让人抓狂的”任务。加上整个公司的重组刚进行一半，任务看起来十分艰巨。数周内，纳德拉也会继承鲍尔默遗留工作中最棘手的部分：收购诺基亚(Nokia)挣扎中的手机业务及其3.5万名提心吊胆的雇员。
Running Microsoft has also become “insanely complicated” because of its wide range of products, says Mr Connors. Top that off with a company-wide reorganisation that is halfway to completion, and the task looks daunting. Within weeks, Mr Nadella will also inherit one of the thorniest parts of the Ballmer legacy: the acquisition of the struggling Nokia handset business and its 35,000 nervous employees.
现年46岁的微软新掌门是第一个坐上美国技术业最高位置的生于印度的高管，尽管印度一直在向美国科技行业输送人才（近年来，在美国西海岸初创企业的创始人中，印度工程师的身影十分抢眼）。
At 46, the new Microsoft chief is one of the first Indian-born executives to make it to the top of the US tech industry – though engineers from the subcontinent have long supplied much of the brain power, figuring prominently in recent years among the founders of West Coast start-ups.
纳德拉生于印度IT业中心海得拉巴(Hyderabad)，赴美前获得了门格洛尔大学(Mangalore University)电子工程学位。来美后，他继续深造，取得计算机科学硕士和MBA学位。
Born in Hyderabad, a centre of the Indian IT industry, Mr Nadella took a degree in electrical engineering at Mangalore University before moving to the US, where he went on to complete a masters in computer science and an MBA.
在一份精心打磨的官方简历和给员工的介绍邮件里，纳德拉着重谈了自己对板球运动的痴迷（他曾是一名右手型的旋转投球手）和对家庭的热爱。他谈及自己与Anupama Priyadarshini长达22年的婚姻（相当于他在微软工作的时间），他们的3个孩子，以及他所说的“学习的渴望”。
In a carefully airbrushed official biography and an introductory email to staff[THIS WEEK?], he made much of his cricket obsession (he was once a right-handed off-spin bowler) and devotion to family. He wrote about his marriage to Anupama Priyadarshini – at 22 years, as long as his attachment to Microsoft – and three children, as well as what he called a “thirst for learning”.
当你刚刚就任一把手时，几乎每个人都有理由说你的好话。西雅图的风险资本家马特•麦基尔韦恩(Matt McIlwain)说，纳德拉的人缘特别好，他得到了公司内部“普遍的喜爱和尊敬”。的确，有人担心他的友善儒雅会让他难以做出棘手的决定。华尔街的投资者已经在敦促微软削减成本，并分拆Xbox视频游戏机等业务。在微软物色新CEO的5个多月里，许多投资者呼吁引进外部人才，以便在做出艰难选择时，不受个人忠诚的阻碍。
When you have just got to the top, just about everyone has a good reason to talk well of you. But Mr Nadella, in particular, is “universally liked and respected” inside the company, says Matt McIlwain, a Seattle-based venture capitalist. Indeed, some are worried that he is too nice for the tough decisions ahead. Wall Street has pushed for cost-cutting and the spin-off of businesses such as the Xbox video games console. For much of the five months it took to find a new chief executive, many investors called for an outsider who would not be prevented by personal loyalties from making hard choices.
麦基尔韦恩说，人缘好或许意味着他在升迁之路上一直避免作出棘手决定——尤其是在性格冲突往往导致高层出现紧张局面的微软。纳德拉能够在不树敌的情况下获得升迁，使他在合适的时机成为合适的CEO候选人。
Popularity could be a sign that he ducked tough decisions on the way up, Mr McIlwain says – particularly at Microsoft, where clashing personalities have led to tensions at the top. Mr Nadella’s ability to rise without apparently making enemies along the way has left him in the right place at the right time.
但与纳德拉共过事的人说，他并不会为了避免冲突而放软身段。康纳斯说：“他会以凝聚共识的方式提出大量要求。”正如麦基尔韦恩所承认的，面对即将到来的职责与孤立，纳德拉的这种特质能否经受考验是个未知数。
People who have worked with him say this is not because he takes the soft option to avoid conflict. “He will demand a lot but do it in a very consensual way,” says Mr Connors. As Mr McIlwain concedes there is no way of telling whether this quality will survive the responsibilities and isolation that are about to hit him.
作为一名资深技术工程师，纳德拉时刻关注着企业数据中心的动态，他与重塑软件世界的最灼热趋势——云计算——有着紧密的联系。哈斯廷斯说：“如果你喜欢云计算，你就会喜欢萨蒂亚•纳德拉。”他指出，纳德拉的第一份工作是在太阳微系统公司(Sun Microsystems)，该公司是这一理念的早期拥护者。
A deeply technical engineer with an eye for what is going on in corporate data centres, Mr Nadella is closely associated with the hottest trend reshaping the software world: the cloud. “If you love the cloud, you’ll love Satya Nadella,” says Mr Hastings, who points out that his first job was at Sun Microsystems, an early champion of the idea.
在微软，纳德拉还因挑战技术教条而受人称赞。他的成绩包括将Linux系统（这款开源软件曾被视作微软的致命威胁）引入微软云平台Azure。而且有迹象显示，这位新老板想要进一步结束僵化局面——曾与他共过事的人说，纳德拉对科技行业冒出的初创企业和新创意都有浓厚兴趣。
He is also credited with attacking technology orthodoxies at Microsoft. Those have included bringing Linux – the open-source software once seen as a mortal threat to the business – to Azure, its cloud platform. And, in a sign that the new boss wants to go further in ending insularity, people who have worked with him say he has an insatiable interest in the start-ups and new ideas bubbling up elsewhere in the tech industry.
不过，对于微软未来最重要的领域——在移动计算领域反击苹果(Apple)和谷歌(Google)，他并没有直接经验。
He does not, however, have direct experience in the field most critical to Microsoft’s future: hitting back at Apple and Google in mobile computing.
纳德拉眼下面临的一个考验是，他能否把握好比尔•盖茨(Bill Gates)。这位微软的联合创始人上周卸下了董事长一职，但会作为技术顾问扮演更加活跃的角色。与这二位都打过交道的人说，他们曾在重大技术项目上有过密切合作，比如在纳德拉执掌必应(Bing)搜索引擎部门期间。哈斯廷斯说：“他在比尔面前完全能够坚持自己的观点。”
One immediate test will be whether he can keep Bill Gates in his place. The Microsoft co-founder this week gave up his position as chairman but will take on a more active role as a technical adviser. People who have worked with both men say they have been able to work closely on big technical initiatives – for instance, when Mr Nadella ran the Bing search engine. “He’s perfectly able to stand up to Bill,” says Mr Hastings.
纳德拉的好人缘如果可以保持下去，或许将成为他重建微软自信的一大资本。当上周听闻他被任命的新闻时，公司内部普遍感到欣慰。
If Mr Nadella can hang on to the likeability, meanwhile, it could be one of his main assets in rebuilding Microsoft’s battered self-confidence. There was widespread relief at the company at the news of his appointment this week.
“他们现在需要这种鼓舞。”麦基尔韦恩说，“他们置身于不确定状态已经太久，感觉有点受打击和忽视。”单凭重建自信或许不足以让微软回到正轨，使其再度成为科技行业举足轻重的创新者，但这至少是个开始。