Paul S.Otellini: A Non-Engineer On Top

Paul S. Otellini is the former president and CEO of Intel, the world’s leading manufacturer of microprocessors for personal and business computing. In 1972 he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of San Francisco. Paul went on to finish his MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley in 1974.

After receiving his MBA, Paul joined Intel. He has managed a number of the company’s businesses such as the PC and server microprocessor division and the global sales and marketing organization. A major promotion came in 2002 when Paul was elected to Intel’s board of directors and became the president and chief operating officer. He became the CEO in May 2005.

Paul was a departure from the norm since he was not a formally trained engineer. Among his achievements was his role in convincing Apple Inc. in the Apple-Intel transition.  Paul’s pay may be good but being CEO is a tough job. He oversaw the largest layoff in Intel’s history when 10,500 employees were laid-off in 2006. This was part of the effort to save $3 billion a year in cost by 2008.

Paul retired in May 2013 having been part of achieving times as well as painful adjustments.

Kazuhiro Tsuga: Taking On A Tough Challenge

Heading one of the largest companies in the world is a dream come true for any executive. It has its big responsibilities and challenges. Few executives though have as tough a challenge now being faced by Kazuhiro Tsuga, President of Panasonic Corporation. He became president of the company in June 2012 and is also its Principal Executive Officer.

Tsuga replaced the previous president amid the staggering $14.1 billion the company has lost since April 2011. The losses are not unique to Panasonic as other large Japanese electronics companies have also experienced tremendous losses due to a host of factors like the devastating earthquake and tsunami. Innovative and efficient competitors from Korea and China have also eaten into their market.  Even the American company Apple has come roaring back with new products that have taken market share.

Panasonic through its more than 95 years of existence has become a sprawling electronics juggernaut producing a wide range of products from TV sets right down to eyelash curlers. The business model is no longer working.

Some of the products along with jobs will have to be cut out. Tsuga has been chosen to lead the company through this very tough and painful period.  With his more than 30 years of company experience he knows a lot about Panasonic which will be put into good use as he tries to stem the continuing losses while coming out with products that will bring the company to a profitable future.

Filling A Big Shoe

Timothy D. Cook is the current CEO of Apple. He took over the position in August 24, 2011 succeeding Steve Jobs who died from pancreatic cancer in October 5, 2011. Cook had been the acting CEO since January 2011 when Jobs began a medical leave.

Filling the shoes of Jobs is certainly a big shoe to fill. Cook though does not seem to want to be another Jobs and has been steering the company quite nicely. Some had feared that the company’s value would go down dramatically after Job’s death but that hasn’t happened.

Cooked joined Apple in March 1998 as SVP of Worldwide Operations and also served as EVP of Worldwide Sales and Operations. He was the COO until appointed as CEO.

What many people may not know about Cook is his joining Apple then could have been considered a career risk. Apple was then not producing the great products it has now. In fact many were thinking about its extinction.  Soon after he came on board things started to look better at Apple.

Cook was responsible for managing all sales and operations worldwide, including sales activities and service and support. Aside from this he was a leader of the Apple’s Macintosh division and in developing reseller/supplier relationship strategies. Less than a year after he joined Apple the company was reporting profits in fiscal year 1998. This is was a complete reversal of the previous fiscal year which produced a staggering net loss of $1 billion.

Cook was born in Alabama on November 1960 and obtained a B.S. degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University in 1982. He earned his MBA at Duke University Fuqua School of Business in 1988.  Cook worked at IBM and other technology companies before joining Apple.