If you’ve ever been looking to see the most successful CEOs in the world, it’s not hard to find results.
You’ll be presented with those CEOs who head up companies who have just reaped gigantic profits – or those who have caught the news headlines for some other reason.
The thing is, it takes time to become a successful CEO – or one of the best. A flash in the pan won’t suffice – they have to have been getting results on a consistent period for a significant period of time. As our headline gives away, we’ve set this time period at twenty years.
In other words, we’ve found four CEOs who have proven themselves time and time again in the last two decades. They might not necessarily have been active throughout that whole period, but they have made such a mark in their respective industries in that time that they simply have to be mentioned.
Here we go…
Bill Gates
Any list of this ilk would not be satisfactory without a mention to one of the world’s best ever CEOs – even though he no longer holds his position.
For 25 years, between 1975 and 2000, he helped Microsoft become the biggest technology company in the world. His management style was unique, but ultimately effective and all of the products that he developed all of those years ago are still going strong to this day.
Charles Phillips
If we remain in the tech industry, Charles Phillips’ business affairs as CEO of Inforare something else that are most definitely worthy of a mention.
Over the last few years he has made Infor become genuine competitors to the likes of SAP and Oracle – a feat nobody expected.
As well as this, let’s not forget Phillips’ success at both Morgan Stanley and Oracle. It’s rare to find someone who has tasted so much success in the same industry, but with multiple companies, and this is why Phillips is another must-see member on our list.
Eric Schmidt
Sure, Google has been a giant for a long time now. However, it would be fair to say that the ten years Eric Schmidt spent at the search engine were its most fruitful by far.
Not only can Schmidt’s success be measured in terms of profit, but you only have to look at the developments the company made as a whole to analyze his impact. They deviated massively from being just a search engine and now dominate countless other markets – mainly because of almost 100 acquisitions that Schmidt rubber-stamped.
Meg Whitman
We all know the concept of eBay – but just imagine the days where just thirty people worked there. That was the story when Meg Whitman joined as CEO in 1998, yet over a period of ten years she increased this to over 15,000.
When you consider the fact that she took revenue from $4 million to $8 billion and also took the company into other markets via Paypal and Skype – her inclusion on this page is an absolute no-brainer.