The woman fixing a Microsoft mess with brutal honesty
Asha Sharma has been appointed as the new CEO of Microsoft's Xbox division, tasked with turning around the struggling business unit. She is implementing a strategy of radical transparency and aggressive cost-cutting to improve profit margins and growth.
Why it matters
As a major player in the gaming industry, Microsoft's strategic shift under new leadership could significantly impact the future of console gaming and subscription services.
Asha Sharma Summary Xbox head Asha Sharma aggressively shares bad news. ‘Clarity is kindness,’ she tells colleagues. Gift this article Check your portfolio This is a Mint Premium article gifted to you. Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.
REDMOND, Wash.—Asha Sharma had zero experience in videogames when Microsoft put her in charge of cleaning up its Xbox business.
Her approach has been to aggressively share bad news.
While videogames have never been more popular, Xbox isn’t growing. Its revenue of about $23 billion is declining, and the 14,000-person unit’s profit margin is a paltry 3%. Its GamePass subscription service has fallen far short of projections.
People who work with Sharma know all this because she repeats these facts in meetings and memos as she tries to fix the business with massive layoffs, strategic pivots and a radical reshuffling of investment priorities.
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