In 2014 Microsoft was very rich, but it was falling behind. A new boss changed how people worked together — and the company grew bigger than ever.
Harder version: read this lesson at C1 level →
Look at each word. Say what you think it means. Then tap the card.
Tap a card to see the meaning.
Write one word from the cards in each gap.
1. Two cafés in my street for the same customers.
2. My little brother never wants to his chocolate with me.
3. Everybody makes a sometimes. Don't worry about it.
4. I pay a monthly to listen to music on my phone.
5. This old painting is very — it's worth millions.
6. In some countries, taking off your shoes at home is part of the .
1. compete · 2. share · 3. mistake · 4. subscription · 5. valuable · 6. culture
Read each part. Then answer the questions before you read the next part.
In the 2000s, Microsoft was a very rich company.
Most computers in the world used Windows. Most offices used Office. These two products made enormous profits.
But Microsoft was losing the new markets. Google won internet search. Apple and Android won smartphones.
Microsoft made its own phones, but very few people bought them.
Inside the company, there was another problem: the culture.
Teams did not share ideas. They competed against each other.
Every year, managers had to give some workers a bad score, even when the whole team worked well. Many people said this made colleagues fight, not help each other.
The company stopped this system in 2013. In February 2014, Satya Nadella became the new boss. He was an engineer and had worked at Microsoft since 1992.
True or false? Click your answer.
1. In the 2000s, Microsoft made a lot of money.
2. Microsoft's phones were very popular.
3. Some workers got a bad score every year, even in good teams.
Nadella changed things quickly.
Before, Microsoft wanted everyone to use Windows. Now it put its programs on Apple and Android devices too. Office came to the iPad in 2014.
Some decisions were painful. Microsoft had bought Nokia's phone business, but it did not work. In 2015 the company lost most of that money and cut about 7,800 jobs.
Microsoft also changed how people paid. Before, you bought Office once. Now many people pay a subscription every month or year.
Nadella said the most important change was the culture. He wanted people to learn all the time, not to pretend they knew everything.
He made a mistake himself in 2014. He said something wrong about women and pay rises. On the same day, he publicly said he was wrong.
Microsoft also bought companies that people loved: the game Minecraft, LinkedIn and GitHub. It let them work in their own way.
True or false? Click your answer.
1. Nadella stopped Microsoft programs working on Apple devices.
2. The Nokia phone business was a big success.
3. Nadella said sorry quickly for his own mistake.
The changes worked. Microsoft's cloud business, Azure, became one of the biggest in the world.
In 2014 the company was worth about 300 billion dollars. In 2019 it was worth one trillion. Later it was worth more than three trillion.
Then Microsoft made a big bet on artificial intelligence. It invested more than ten billion dollars in OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT.
It spent enormous amounts of money on new data centres. In July 2025, Microsoft was briefly worth four trillion dollars. It was one of the most valuable companies in history.
But there is a difficult part. Microsoft cut about ten thousand jobs in 2023, and thousands more in 2025. The company was making record profits at the same time.
Some people say this is normal: the company is moving money to AI. Others say the kind words about culture are easy when everything is going well.
And some experts say the cloud market helped Microsoft much more than the culture did.
So here is the question. Did the new culture change Microsoft? Or did the market change it?
True or false? Click your answer.
1. Microsoft was worth one trillion dollars in 2019.
2. Microsoft did not invest any money in artificial intelligence.
3. Microsoft cut jobs only when it was losing money.
This story is about how a company changed. To say how, we use adverbs.
Adjective — describes a noun: She is a careful driver. · The test was easy.
Adverb — describes a verb (how someone does something): She drives carefully.
Most adverbs: adjective + -ly: slow → slowly, quiet → quietly, public → publicly. If the adjective ends in -y: easy → easily, happy → happily.
Careful — irregular: good → well, fast → fast, hard → hard. And hardly means almost not: I hardly slept.
After be, look, seem, feel we use an adjective: You look tired. (NOT tiredly)
| Adjective | Adverb | Example |
|---|---|---|
| slow | slowly | The bus moved slowly. |
| easy | easily | She won easily. |
| good | well | He plays the guitar well. |
| fast | fast | Don't drive so fast. |
| hard | hard | They work hard. |
Use the word in brackets as an adjective or an adverb. Change it if you need to.
1. Nadella changed many things at the company very . (quick)
2. Before an important meeting, I always read the numbers . (careful)
3. 2015 was a year for the people in the phone business. (difficult)
4. He made a mistake, and he apologised on the same day. (public)
5. After the changes, the teams worked together. (good)
1. quickly · 2. carefully · 3. difficult · 4. publicly · 5. well
Each sentence has one mistake. Say the correct sentence out loud, then check.
1. She speaks English very good.
2. He always drives very careful.
3. They work hardly every day, even at weekends.
4. It was a quickly change, and nobody was ready.
5. You look very tiredly today.
1. She speaks English very well. (good → well)
2. He always drives very carefully. (how he drives = adverb)
3. They work hard every day, even at weekends. (hardly means almost not)
4. It was a quick change, and nobody was ready. (describes the noun change = adjective)
5. You look very tired today. (after look = adjective)
Take your time. Short sentences are fine.
Tell me the Microsoft story in your own words. Six or seven sentences is enough.
Tell me about something you do well, something you do slowly, and something you do carefully.
Give an example for each one.
Think of a team you have been in — at work, at school or in sport.
Did people compete or share? Was it a good team?
Is it easy or difficult for you to say “I was wrong”?
Tell me about a time someone said sorry to you. How did you feel?