[moduspol]

The level of "badness" required probably varies based on the company's needs. Those guys might have to make less popular decisions if they were in charge of, say, Radio Shack ten years ago. Or maybe different company needs just call for different kinds of CEOs.

[indigochill]

My read of Nadella's early changes to Microsoft was that they were pretty unpopular at first (Really? We're going to put cloud tech ahead of Windows?) and also that he made no bones about letting go of people who didn't get in line with his vision.

I do think he's doing the right thing, but I could also see an argument that he's "ruthless" when it comes to driving Microsoft in the way he sees best.