To change strategy, you rarely need a fancy offsite or large presentation. In my experience, large strategy shifts at companies often happen with a simple email or conversation from the CEO or blessed by the CEO.

It’s rare to find a public example so when I ran into this email from Kevin Scott (CTO of Microsoft), it was a delight – this is the kind of conversation you want to encourage in your companies.

Why is this good?

• Kevin identifies an industry/tech shift where MSFT is losing. He does it at personal cost (more on that later) and undoubtedly one that risks annoying many internally.
• He never throws anyone under the bus except taking some blame himself.
• He highlights what he used to believe and most key, what caused it to change (team ambition + infra capabilities)
• Satya in turn quickly recognizes this.

I have never met Kevin nor do I know whether this email catalyzed Microsoft’s subsequent investment in OpenAI but if I were a betting person, I would assume it played a role.

Strategy changes almost never come from a fancy offsite. They come from late night emails or hallway conversations or a Slack message that takes on a life of its own when recognized by the reciever. If you’re a CEO or leader, it is on you to create a writing culture where the above can happened and there’s organization lore around it.