Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella

Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella

Student’s Name

Institution Affiliation

Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella

Overview of Both Leaders

Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Google, which is a familiar enterprise in the tech world. On the other hand, Satya Nadella is the current CEO of Microsoft Corporation, which is a Tech company. All these companies are among the most valuable companies in the world with google holding the first place. All these companies were established in the 90s and they have grown drastically to where they are currently. While both companies have got a rich history, the two leaders have overseen a tremendous number of changes within their companies, which has made them withstand various challenges.

Similarities

Both CEOs did take up their responsibilities recently from the pioneers of their respective companies. First of all, Mr. Pichai assumed the position of CEO in 2015, when Larry Page and Sergey Brin moved to preside over Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc (Triggs, 2017). On the other hand, Mr. Nadella assumed control of the CEO position for Microsoft after its popular CEO, Bill Gates stepped down. He did so to effectively manage the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which invests in research to fight diseases in third world countries. Sitya Nadellla assumed his position in April 2014 (Ritcher, 2019). Generally, both CEOs were assigned their positions almost under a similar time with only a difference of months.

At the time of their appointment, both CEOs took upon companies that were facing almost similar strategic challenges. Both companies were faced with the threat of decline in the use of PCs which made google take its first approach on investing more on mobile phones. On the other hand, Nadella was facing the challenge of how he would strategize the company to overcome the threat of a loss of profits (Ritcher, 2019).

Moreover, both CEOs had to form a team around them that would enable them to implement their vision. First of all, given that these companies are massively huge it is important to have competent leaders within the divisions found in the company. In the case of Pichai, he did shake up the leadership group that was to work under him. For example, he did appoint Ben Gomes, who was head of Search engineering at the time, to lead all of Search (Li, 2020). Also, Jen Fitzpatrick was appointed as the head of Maps and Local (Li, 2020). Most of these leaders were already working at the company before he was appointed the CEO. However, he did reshuffle them into these departments to get the best out of them given their experiences in these fields, for instance, Jen was appointed in his division (Maps and Local) given his vast knowledge on deep products(Li, 2020). On the other hand, in the case of Satya, he also did maintain a majority of the team that he found upon his appointment given their vast experience although he did reshuffle them. For example, the chief marketing officer, Chris Capossela, had been in the company form more than 25 years (Ward, 2017). He did also appoint Harry Shum as the executive vice president for artificial intelligence, given that this was one of his primary vision for the company (Ward, 2017). Generally, for both CEOs, it can be said that there clinical and calculated appointments have played a huge role in the success of their respective companies during their tenure.

Contrast

The major difference between the two leaders is that they are leading companies that are slightly different from each other, that is, Google is more of a search engine while Microsoft provides an operating system for computers. Other than that, there are no major differences between the two leaders and the form of their leadership as well as the direction they are taking their companies.

Conclusion

Both Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella have overseen their companies become successful (raise in profits) after overcoming particular trying moments for both their companies. Upon their appointments, both leaders came up with plans and strategies as well as appointing competent leaders within their teams that would enable their companies to overcome these problems, especially the case of Microsoft. Based on the leadership of these two leaders, they do illustrate how great strategic leaders understand the inherent necessity to build a team of competent leaders in their organization to help them achieve their strategic goals and objectives.

References

Li, A. (2020 June). Google reshuffles leadership. Google. Retrieved from https://9to5google.com/2020/06/04/google-executive-leadership/

Ritcher, F. (2019 July). Microsoft’s Share Price Quadrupled Under Satya Nadella. Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/chart/16903/microsoft-stock-price-under-satya-nadella/

Triggs, R. (2017 August). Two years in, Sundar Pichai facing his toughest moment as CEO. Android Authority. Retrieved from https://www.androidauthority.com/two-years-in-sundar-pichai-facing-his-toughest-moment-as-ceo-793187/

Ward, J. (2017 July). Microsoft leadership: Here’s who is accountable for what in Redmond. Windows Central. Retrieved from https://www.windowscentral.com/whos-who-microsoft-success-or-failure-heres-whos-accountable