Most new leaders change the culture as the first order of business. Nadella changed Microsoft from a company that pushed its products on customers -- without regard for whether they were best for the customer -- to one that put customers first.

Follow Nadella's approach to cultural change so your company can attract and motivate the best employees -- and they will help you win and keep more customers.

Nadella fostered innovation by encouraging people to adopt a new approach to product development. "We had to introduce and to promote new products and business models ([software as a service] vs. perpetual [licenses]). We had to drive our employees to interact with new corporate decision-makers - business vs. the original technical ones. We had to scale our employees to master new advanced products," Tenzer told me.

When you change your company's culture and approach to innovation, your top executives will complain because you are forcing them to adjust how they think and act.

Nadella issues an ultimatum to his 150 top executives: "Once you become a vice president, a partner in this endeavour, the whining is over. You can't say the coffee around here is bad, or there aren't enough good people, or I didn't get the bonus. To be a leader in this company, your job is to find the rose petals in a pile of shit. You are the champions of overcoming constraints."