In a wide-ranging interview with CRN, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has outlined the importance of strong partnership deals for the company, explaining how there are “trillions of dollars” more in opportunities available.

“What I think is unique about the way we approach our business, our business model and the partner ecosystem is we fundamentally wouldn’t exist as a company if not for the partner ecosystem taking what we build, adding value to it and then, most importantly, jointly being as obsessed about how do the outcomes of it help the world get better one business at a time, one community at a time,” Nadella said.

He points to the 300,000-odd partnerships that contribute to 95 per cent of Microsoft’s revenue.

“One of the things that I feel the most-proud of as a company is when you go drop yourself anywhere on the planet, there will be a Microsoft partner ecosystem,” Nadella said. “And for the most part, if you say what is the software industry of that country or that region, it’s essentially these partners. In 2021, that is more needed—that is, that ecosystem building, that ability to take digital technologies and democratize their access across industries, across first-line and knowledge work.

“Today, 5 percent of the world’s GDP is spent on tech,” he said. “In 10 years’ time—in fact, this COVID crisis may have accelerated it—that’s going to be 10 percent. We are lucky enough to be in an industry that’s going to double, and the partner opportunity therefore is clear.”