As the search continues for the next Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corp continues, Satya Nadella huddled with local startups in a Paris technology conference, Bloomberg reported. Nadella is currently the cloud computing chief of Microsoft and is also one of the leading contenders for the CEO position, according to people familiar with the matter. He has been with Microsoft for 21 years.

In the conference, Nadella talked with startups like Video Futur Entertainment Group, a video-on-demand provider. Nadella said speaking with startups is important since "the tech cycle is such that the small guys make it big and the big guys die." As one of Microsoft's senior managers, the report said Nadella needs to do all he can to prevent the world's largest software firm from getting swallowed by startups.

In his speech at the technology event, Nadella said Microsoft must continue to search for and embrace new ideas in order to survive. He said, "It's not as if there haven't been at least four or five big changes that we've had to navigate over the last 30 years. It will come down to whether we can do that."

The search for the next CEO has become quite challenging for Microsoft, with over a hundred candidates initially identified. Several candidates have already said no to the invitation. Citing a blog post from lead independent director John Thompson, the report said the board is set to finish its search early next year.

However, even if he is not appointed as CEO, Nadella has declared that he will be staying with Microsoft. If that happens, he will be a "key lieutenant" to the new chief because of his long history at the technology behemoth, the report said. At Microsoft, Nadella has been involved with virtually everything, from small business software to the Bing search engine and cloud services.