In Part 1 of our two-part series on IT superheroes, we featured Elon Musk, the team of Mark Zuckerberg & Sheryl Sandberg, Tim Cook, Jack Dorsey, and Larry Page. Today, I’m shining the spotlight on 5 more entrants to the Geek Hall of Fame.
Jeff Bezos
While Amazon has both fans and haters, nobody can argue that Jeff Bezos hasn’t changed the world. While there are many reasons Amazon has gone supernova and exploded into one of the biggest companies ever, it all stems from logistics. Amazon has transformed not only the way we buy things, but also how companies sell, stock and ship goods through a network of fulfillment centers around the world. And of course, IT pros know that Amazon is a MAJOR cloud player. In fact, Amazon Web Services has more than 10 times the computing capacity as the next 14 cloud companies put together !
Steve Huffman, Alexis Ohanian and Yishan Wong
The next time someone tells you that achieving a goal is impossible, remind them that many people said the same thing to Huffman, Ohanian and Wong when they targeted Facebook and Twitter with their community-based platform Reddit. But that’s exactly what they did back in 2005 – and instead of being sent to the dustbin of history, Reddit is still going strong. Today, it’s the #9 ranked US site on Alexa, which isn’t far behind Twitter at #8 or Facebook at #2. If you haven’t tried Reddit yet, my advice is, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”; what it lacks in design elements and production value, it more than makes up for in usability, speed and versatility across various browsers and devices. And there’s seemingly no end to the topics of conversation, either. You’ll find all kinds of threads, from Game of Thrones to political to sports and more. It’s informative, entertaining, and yes, a great way to waste time when you need a break from being an IT pro!
Jack Ma
Jack Ma is a Chinese businessman who founded the Alibaba Group, which owns Alibaba.com and Aliexpress.com. The logistics and fulfilment system he spearheaded is arguably the best ever (sorry Bezos!), and the breadth of products and merchants (both B2B and B2C) that use it each day is staggering. You can find pretty much everything on Alibaba.com and Aliexpress.com, from low cost coffee mugs to large-scale industrial equipment.
Satya Nadella
Although Bill Gates will always be linked with Microsoft, current CEO Satya Nadella is carving out his own legacy, too. He started with Microsoft back in 1992 with a focus on business servers, online services, Cloud services, the Azure project, and so on. Although lots of people aren’t Microsoft fans (bugging people to upgrade to Windows 10 hasn’t generated much love!), Nadella can be credited with focusing on simpler products, particularly when it comes to online services.
Rob Carter
Last but not least on our list of superheroes is Rob Carter, an IT superhero who is relatively unknown among the general population. He’s the CIO of FedEx and the driving force behind the implementation of a technology-led logistics, communication and tracking system that has made FedEx one of the world’s biggest and most recognizable companies. So the next time you get a real-time text on your smartphone telling you precisely what’s going on with your package – whether it’s in the same city or on the other side of the world – you can thank Carter for helping make that happen. The same goes for businesses, which no longer have to field endless streams of inquiries that start with, “Where’s my order!”
Your Turn
Obviously, there are MANY more IT superheroes that I could have focused on here – there are literally thousands of them, although some are better-known than others and their contributions have been serious game-changers.
What do you think of my list? Please share your comments and opinions below. Who are the IT superheroes in your life?