Why did Microsoft buy Nuance ?

I am taking this opportunity to restart my interest and passion on writing actively about tech industry trends. In the past, i was active in doing so when i was writing for techwell.com, some of my prior work can be found here.

Tech acquisitions intrigue me a lot and hence my post today is about the new of recent news that Microsoft is buying Nuance for $19 billion or so. Microsoft's second largest acquisition deal after LinkedIn.

Lets peel some layers to understand this acquisition a little better.

What does Nuance do ?

Nuance is primarily in the space of Voice recognition tech and AI. It's voice recognition technology power’s Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri. Nuance also makes software for the healthcare and automotive sectors. 

What makes Microsoft interested in Nuance ?

Nuance's products are SaaS offerings and importantly, are built on Microsoft Azure. This certainly removes a major friction in Microsoft's decision (things would be different if they were on AWS) but Microsoft's real interest can be judged from it's CEO Satya Nadela's statement:

“Nuance provides the AI layer at the healthcare point of delivery and is a pioneer in the real-world application of enterprise AI,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “AI is technology’s most important priority, and healthcare is its most urgent application. Together, with our partner ecosystem, we will put advanced AI solutions into the hands of professionals everywhere to drive better decision-making and create more meaningful connections, as we accelerate growth of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare and Nuance.”

The segment of interest (for Microsoft) is Healthcare. Nuance is expected to power Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare. Nuance's SaaS offerings in this area are clinical speech recognition products like Dragon Ambient eXperience, Dragon Medical One, and PowerScribe One.

Nuance's Healthcare segment play:

Nuance solutions are currently used by more than 55% of physicians and 75% of radiologists in the U.S., and used in 77% of U.S. hospitals. Nuance’s Healthcare Cloud revenue experienced 37% year-over-year growth in Nuance’s fiscal year 2020 (ended September 2020).

Microsoft and Industry specific vertical cloud focus:

Microsoft has accelerated its efforts to provide industry-specific cloud offerings to support customers and partners as they respond to disruption and new opportunities. These efforts include the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, introduced in 2020, which aims to address the comprehensive needs of the rapidly transforming and growing healthcare industry. 

Any other potential focus areas:

This analysis suggests an interesting perspective, though it has to be left as a speculation.

Though Microsoft has not made any overtures, Nuance’s offerings could be potentially combined with GPT-3. Microsoft secured the exclusive license to GPT-3 (developed by OpenAI) in September 2020. During the time of acquisition, Microsoft said GPT-3 could aid in areas such as “writing and composition, describing and summarizing large blocks of long-form data (including code), converting natural language to another language”.

However, OpenAI has warned against GPT-3’s use in high-stake healthcare processes and listed medical and psychiatric diagnosis under the ‘unsupported use’ of the model. But there are many other areas where the cross-pollination of Nuance and GPT-3 could yield remarkable results, including medical documentation and transcription. 

References:

• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nuance-microsoft-accelerating-better-technological-future-benjamin/
• https://news.microsoft.com/2021/04/12/microsoft-accelerates-industry-cloud-strategy-for-healthcare-with-the-acquisition-of-nuance/
• https://analyticsindiamag.com/why-did-microsoft-acquire-nuance/

Note to self:

Explore more and write on the real healthcare use cases that will get enhanced with this acquisition.

CORPORATE LESSONS FROM BOLLYWOOD

 One of the books that inspired me years back was 'The Medici Effect (What Elephants and Epidemics can Teach us about Innovation)'.

Medicis were the family from Florence, Italy who brought together the professionals from various fields like Architects, Engineers, Town Planners, Doctors, Writers etc. They helped form this community of progressive people with divergent views. The resultant amalgamation of ideas by this community is credited to have formed the genesis of Renaissance.

The moot point here is that if we allow the different fields to intersect, the magic happens.

In our day to day lives, we try to seek inspiration from our surroundings, from areas like sports, our hobbies and bring them back to our work.

Utkarsh Rai in his recent video https://bit.ly/378dBi4 takes the notion of Medici effect to a different level where brings about his lessons from Bollywood (he was the Country head of Infinera before making an unexpected switch to Bollywood) & applies them in the professional life.

The video brings about some great learnings that inspired me to draw the Sketchnote.

Loved this quote by Dr. Kevin Eschleman-
“less relevant the activity is to the person’s profession, the greater the impact on workplace performance”.
Do you agree ?

My LinkedIn Post:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6766179362304880640/

WHAT WOULD YOU ADVICE YOUR YOUNGER SELF

 A while back read this piece of #advice that Satya Nadela received in his 30s (https://cnb.cx/2FyMnTN). The advice made Satya realize that it is important to think about a deeper meaning to work.

He says-
“The technologies will all be passed in time, but the people,...how you behave … that’s the relationship that I think you seek out while being true to yourself,& what makes you happy.”

I am also reminded of India Cricket Captain Virat Kohli's letter to his younger self (https://bit.ly/3iXvtkx). Entire letter is worth reading but I will call out these lines.

"You will fail. Everyone does. Just promise yourself that you will never forget to rise. And if at first, you don't, try again."

The words of wisdom we receive from different sources can have incalculable impact in our #careers, if we are open to receive & apply them.

What better source to hear the advice from the leaders who have tread the difficult path and achieved success. Sharing such nuggets of wisdom from leaders at Walmart , broadly categorized in these 4 areas:

1. Be open to change/growth
2. Be curious
3. Use others as teachers
4. Take some risks
Notes credit: Laura Berg

Read through the #sketchnote summary below.

What would be your advice to your younger self ?

My LinkedIn Post:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anujmagazine_advice-careers-sketchnote-activity-6760926715649904640-y9m_/

BREAKDOWNS LEADS TO BREAKTHROUGHS

 There was a time in Sourav Ganguly's career when he couldn't play bouncers well. He heads off to Australia to take coaching tips from Greg Chappell (yes, they were friends once!). Chappell reminds Ganguly that his strength is to get on the front foot & drive and that he was overly worried about the short ball. As he was afraid of the short ball, he was getting on the backfoot & surrendering his strength, which is getting on the front foot and drive. In essence, Ganguly got the message to be positive, play to his strengths. In 2003-04 tour of Australia with this mindset and scored a 100 at Brisbane.

In his book, 'Only the Paranoid Survives' Andy Groves narrates a story of when Intel had to cannibalize its own D-RAM business & pivot to microprocessors. It was personally a hard call for Andy as he had to let go of his prior knowledge, learn & lead the transformation. He took the challenge head-on, read, tonnes of stuff & more importantly, met the right experts to re-educate himself.

I am reminded of a quote which Simon Taufel once said "Breakdowns leads to Breakthroughs".
But it happens only if in the face of adversity like Ganguly and Andy, we are:
- Positive
- Willing to take help
- are fine with unlearning, relearning

What do you think ?

My LinkedIn Post:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6758560336363835392/

BEER MODE vs COFFEE MODE OF WORKING

In the year 1973, Zev Siegel, Jerry Baldwin and Gordon Bowker decided to get into the coffee business. They opened their first shop known as Starbucks- a coffee bean shop. For the first decade, they opened in more locations and then hired a gentleman named Howard Schultz to lead marketing and sales. He goes to Milan, and in a conference ,he comes across an espresso bar where people are drinking espressos, café lattes. He spends some time in that environment, and had an epiphany that Starbucks got it all wrong–it’s not about the beans themselves, it’s about this experience of drinking coffee.

Many of the world’s greatest breakthroughs are down to serendipity — finding success unexpectedly. And how do you increase your odds of reaching this serendipitous zone often ?

David Perell (https://bit.ly/2Ksad9F) reasons that Creatives have two ways of working: Beer mode and Coffee mode.

Beer mode is a state of unfocused play where you discover new ideas.
In contrast, Coffee mode is a state of focus where you work towards a specific outcome.

In Beer mode, you find inspiration. And in Coffee mode, you harvest that inspiration.

Does this resonate with you ? Or you extract your best being more in one of the modes ?

My LinkedIn Post:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6757316088352124929/

LUCK MATTERS MORE THAN YOU MIGHT THINK

 One of the standout stories of the ongoing India's tour of Australia is that of Indian fast bowler T. Natarajan. He had an excellent IPL season where he became known for the niche skill of bowling yorkers. As a result, he was selected for the tour as a net bowler, whose primarily role would be to help batsmen practice.

First stroke of luck- one of the rookie bowlers got injured & as a result Natarajan got included in T20s & played all the matches.
Next up,when one of the ODI bowlers complained of back spasms, Natarajan again got a look in for ODIs as a back-up bowler and made his debut.
And more recently in the ongoing 4th test match when most of the team got injured, Natarajan was selected to represent India in tests.

From being a net bowler to playing all formats for India within 44 days is nothing short of a fairy tale and something i wish many cricketers and professionals experience in their lives.

Though it can be thought of as the case of being at the right place at the right time, one must not also forget all the accolades and resultant luck only followed once he demonstrated exceptional skills & delivered results.

Can you really influence your luck?

Check a few tips in the sketchnote below (source: https://bit.ly/37q2P57)

My LinkedIn Post:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6756019929847341057/

MEASURE WHAT MATTERS

Bill Gates once said " I have been struck by how important measurement is to improving the human condition. You can achieve incredible progress if you set a clear goal and find a measure that will drive progress toward that goal...This may seem basic, but it is amazing how often it is not done and how hard it is to get right." (https://on.wsj.com/35Bmn7K)

His assertion came about learning from the evolution of steam engines. Harnessing steam power required many innovations and among the most important were a new way to measure the energy output of engines and a micrometer.

As William Rosen writes- 'Without feedback from precise measurement, invention is “doomed to be rare and erratic.” With it, invention becomes “commonplace.”

The moot point is that mastering the art and science of precise measurement is paramount in achieving the desired progress.

So what measures matter the most in product life cycle.
I quite loved the way Shreyas Doshi put together a response to this. Read summary below (+ the #sketchnote) and more in his tweet https://bit.ly/3spm2yr

Product metrics categories:
1. Health metrics
2. Usage metrics
3. Adoption metrics
4. Satisfaction metrics
5. Ecosystem metrics
6. Outcome metrics

What other product metrics you track and learn from?

Sketchnote Summary:

My LinkedIn Post:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6755303901437685760/