Asserting that given the challenges raised by the coronavirus pandemic, Microsoft is financially strong, its India-born CEO Satya Nadella has expressed faith that the company will emerge from the crisis “pretty strongly.” However, in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Nadella said the big question will be whether the pandemic is seriously impacting the demand in the US and Europe, and other developed markets.
“We feel confident about how we can satisfy the job demands of home kits. On the supply side, we’re getting back on the track,” Nadella said when asked if Microsoft will be able to produce those items later this year, including the new Surface devices and a retrofitted Xbox gaming console had promised before the COVID-19 outbreak. “The problem now will be getting the goods finished and the launch. Much of the time we’re going to concentrate on quality as well as the situation in terms of demand and, most importantly, on people’s health,” he said.
However, the company said last month in a statement that it would not be able to hit its revenue target range for the quarter for the business segment that includes Windows. Several other firms followed in taking guidelines down.
All in all, however, the firm is holding up, Nadella, who is the third CEO of Microsoft, said. “We have a great balance sheet, we are a very balanced company, we have a combination of annuity, non-annuity, which is also better than even the last time we went through the financial crisis,” he said.
“I feel confident that we are going to come out of that, frankly, pretty good,” Nadella said. He said the cloud technology and services at the organization were holding up under increased demand.
Microsoft, which was one of the original firms to advise their workers on work from home, said the organization should follow public health guidelines in every country where it operates when it comes to returning employees to facilities.
Nadella, who has worked from home since the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, said he’s sharing an office with his daughters and they’ve helped him set up his desk.
He said that he is endorsing some form of fiscal stimulus from the US government.
“I think the government is doing the right thing, which is, it’s focusing on the jobs who are most affected and the sectors that are most affected, especially on small businesses,” Nadella said. “Because those are the parts of the economy that bear the brunt of this quarantine especially remain at home,” he said.
