Satya Nadella posted a mission-styled memo to Microsoft employees yesterday. There’s good stuff in there, and while Nadella writes in clear prose, he does use jargon and corporate speak that might make it difficult to read between the lines. So we will attempt to distill his words into plain speak. Here we go:

Our Worldview

• The world is changing with mobile and cloud, and we will lead that change
• And more subtly: while my predecessor is sales-oriented, I’m mission-oriented

Our Core

• I don’t like Steve’s tagline of “devices and services.” We’re not Apple so there’s too much focus on hardware; and services is too broad of a word
• The new tagline is “mobile-first, cloud-first.” It’s not about how (devices and services) but about why (mobile and cloud)
• People play and work. We’re going to win by being the best on the work part
• Cloud is key for enterprise
• Xbox is still important
• By mobile-first, we mean mobile experiences. It doesn’t necessarily have to be about mobile devices

Our Culture

• More change is coming
• Need to understand customers better
• Need to do things faster
• Fewer decision-makers, but more power and accountability for those who are
• Notably missing: words about cross-division teamwork, which was a focus for Ballmer before he left