Fortune - USA (2021-02 & 2021-03)

445 VOTES

102 FORTUNE FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021 THE WORLD’S MOST ADMIRED COMPANIES — THE CEOs

UNDERRATED / OVERRATED

WHICH CEOs DESERVE MORE ATTENTION,

AND WHICH GET TOO MUCH? FORTUNE ASKED

EXECUTIVES AND DIRECTORS FOR THEIR VOTES.

JEFF BE ZO S

AMAZON

407 VOTES

Amazon's hypercompetitive

culture inspires as much criti-

cism as admiration of late.

ELON MUSK

TESLA/SPACEX

294 VOTES

Fortune’s Businessperson of

the Year for 2020 remains

profoundly polarizing.

TIM COOK

APPLE

146 VOTES

The pandemic barely slowed

Apple’s rollout of new phones,

watches, and services.

FACEBOOK IS HARDLY THE ONLY ONLINE PLATFORM to have struggled to curb the spread of

misinformation. But over the past year, with COVID-19, the killing of George Floyd, and

the presidential election each spurring waves of algorithmically amplified falsehoods

and hate speech, Zuckerberg’s company came under unprecedented scrutiny—and an

expanding circle of critics faulted the CEO and cofounder for doing far too little, years too

late. Advertisers began voting with their dollars in meaningful ways, pulling back and even

pulling out, as revenue growth slowed. An antitrust suit by the Federal Trade Commission,

meanwhile, seeks to undo Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp—taking

aim at some of Zuckerberg’s signature accomplishments.

MARY BARRA

GENERAL MOTORS

151 VOTES

Last spring, GM was making PPE

for health care workers; by fall, it

was posting healthy profits.

DOUG MCMILLON

WALMART

135 VOTES

Walmart has been a bulwark

against COVID, keeping

stores open and hiring widely.

NADELLA’S PEERS HAVE NOW VOTED HIM “most underrated” five years in a row—an indication,

perhaps, of his ability to steer the company through a major reinvention while generating

shockingly little drama. Tech analysts believe (though Microsoft won’t confirm) that the

Azure cloud business Nadella has championed now accounts for as much revenue as the

Windows software that turned the company into a behemoth a generation ago. The suc-

cessful absorption of LinkedIn and software development site GitHub have demonstrated

the 53-year-old CEO’s ability to win on multiple fronts, as has the Xbox’s sustained cred

in gaming circles. Microsoft’s share price, meanwhile, has more than quintupled during

Nadella’s seven-year tenure—a sign of investors’ long-term confidence in his big bets.

SAT YA N A DELL A MICROSOFT 328 VOTES

MARK ZUCKERBERG FACEBOOK

MOST UNDERRATED CEOs BASED ON 5,250 RESPONSES

MOST OVERRATED CEOs BASED ON 4,489 RESPONSES

JAMIE DIMON

JPMORGAN CHASE

280 VOTES

Some bank analysts think

JPMC has been too compla-

cent in the fintech race.

SOURCE PHOTOS: NADELLA: ABDULHAMID HOSBAS—ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES; BARRA: PATRICK T. FALLON—BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES; COOK: ROY ROCHLIN—WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES; MCMILLON: RICK T. WILKING—GETTY IMAGES; ZUCKERBERG: JOSH EDELSON—AFP/GETTY IMAGES; BEZOS: ELIF OZTURK—ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES; MUSK: YASIN OZTURK—ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES; DIMON: GIULIA MARCHI—BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES

ILLUSTRATIONS BY SAM KERR