Tim Cook's contribution to Apple Inc.'s
All three CEOs took over the reins of their respective companies from titans of the tech industry. While Cook took over from Steve Jobs, Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer, and Pichai succeeded Larry Page.
As such, the three CEOs of the largest tech companies in the world have had big boots to fill.
A Lesson In Leadership
Prior to taking over as Apple's CEO, Cook was the company's chief operating officer. He is credited with bringing operational efficiency to the company's supply chain. After taking over as the CEO, Cook oversaw the launch of Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple Music, among other services.
Nadella's stint as the Microsoft CEO brought back strategic cohesion at the company, exiting the failed acquisition of Nokia's mobile business, acquiring LinkedIn, and expanding the Azure cloud services business to take on Amazon Web Services and other rivals.
Nadella also mended relationships with developers and partners and engineered a turnaround for a company whose stock had remained almost flat for over a decade before he was appointed the CEO.
Lastly, Pichai helped end Internet Explorer's dominance and replaced it with Google Chrome, which now has the highest market share for web browsers.
His success with emerging technologies helped his cred, too. He led the development of different Google products like Drive, Gmail, Maps, and Android.
A Look At Stock Returns
While profitability is but one of the metrics to measure their performance in, today we take a look at which CEO's leadership has delivered the best returns as far as the investors of the companies are concerned.
For context, Cook was appointed as Apple's CEO on Aug. 24, 2011, Nadella became Microsoft's CEO on Feb. 4, 2014, and Pichai took over as Google's CEO on Aug. 10, 2015.
While Cook took over slightly earlier than Nadella and Pichai, the gap between the latter two is not as long.
Under Cook's leadership, adjusted for stock split, bonus, and rights shares, Apple's stock price surged from $13.435 on Aug. 24, 2011, to $195.89 on Dec. 19, 2023.
Likewise, when Nadella took over as Microsoft's CEO on Feb. 10, 2014, its stock price surged from $35.82 to $372.65.
As far as Pichai is concerned, Google's stock price surged from $33.039 on Aug. 10, 2015, to $137.19.
Which CEO's Tenure Has Been The Best For Investors?
So, what if you had invested $1,000 each in Apple, Microsoft, and Google the day Cook, Nadella, and Pichai took over as the CEOs of those respective companies?
A $1,000 investment in Apple on Aug. 24, 2011, would now be worth $14,581.
Similarly, a $1,000 investment in Microsoft on Feb. 10, 2014, would now be worth $10,252.
Lastly, a $1,000 investment in Google on Aug. 10, 2015, would now be worth $4,330.
Essentially, a $1,000 bet on Cook's leadership delivered the same return as the combined gains from the same $1,000 bet on Nadella and Pichai.
