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Shantanu Narayen
Born
Adobe's move from Creative Suite licences to Creative Cloud subscriptions changed both customer payments and revenue recognition. Under Narayen, the 2013 transition replaced large periodic upgrades with recurring access. It is a clear case of reshaping the economics of an existing product, with the important customer trade-off that continued access depends on continued payment.
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Shigetaka Komori
Born
As photographic film demand collapsed, Komori redirected Fujifilm's chemistry and materials expertise towards businesses including healthcare and cosmetics. Healthcare was already part of the company; the achievement was expanding alternative sources of income while the old cash generator shrank. This is a useful example of examining what a workforce knows, rather than defining it by its current product.
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Antoine Riboud
Born
Riboud turned the glass group BSN towards the products its packaging contained. Investments in drinks and food were followed by the 1973 merger with Gervais Danone, making food central to the group. The shift unfolded over years, not one dramatic exit, and offers an unusually tangible example of moving into customers' industries to find a different source of growth.
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Lou Gerstner
Born
Gerstner kept IBM together when breaking it up was a serious option. The company increasingly sold customers integrated technology and services instead of organising its future around separate hardware businesses. His contribution is useful for understanding how a large organisation can change what customers buy from it while retaining capabilities that would be harder to combine after a break-up.
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Reed Hastings
Born
Netflix's shift from posting DVDs to streaming subscriptions changed its delivery costs, technology and relationship with content suppliers. Hastings helped drive that transition, but the proposed Qwikster split in 2011 provoked customers and was abandoned. The distinction matters: a sound direction did not make every attempt to reorganise the customer experience sensible.
More about Reed Hastings6
Satya Nadella
Born
Azure and Office 365 existed before Nadella became Microsoft's chief executive. He accelerated the emphasis on cloud services and making software useful across different devices, loosening the company's dependence on Windows as the centre of the customer relationship. This is a case of changing priorities and distribution around established assets rather than inventing an entirely new business from scratch.
More about Satya Nadella7
Steve Jobs
Born
Apple's iPhone and the 2008 App Store extended its business beyond selling computers into a platform connecting device owners and independent software developers. Apps made the hardware more useful, while the store gave Apple an ongoing role in software distribution. Look here for the relationship between a physical product and a surrounding commercial ecosystem.
More about Steve Jobs8
Andrew Grove
Born
Intel's 1985 withdrawal from DRAM memory chips concentrated resources on microprocessors. Grove helped lead that decision as president, before becoming chief executive in 1987. The change was specific: Intel did not abandon every memory product. It shows the practical difficulty of moving investment away from the product category that had helped establish a company's identity.
More about Andrew Grove9
Michael Dell
Born
Dell's direct computer sales model became the foundation for a much broader enterprise technology business. The 2016 EMC acquisition brought major storage capabilities into a group selling infrastructure to organisations as well as PCs. The useful comparison is between supplying an individual machine and serving a customer's larger computing estate, with substantially more integration work behind the latter.
More about Michael Dell10
Jensen Huang
Born
Nvidia developed from a graphics-chip supplier into an accelerated-computing business combining processors, systems and software. Under Huang, investment in tools such as CUDA helped make its hardware useful beyond games. By fiscal 2024, data-centre revenue far exceeded gaming revenue, making the change visible in who bought the company's products as well as in its technical ambitions.
More about Jensen Huang11
Hiroshi Yamauchi
Born
Nintendo's path from playing cards through toys to electronic games took place over decades under Yamauchi. Home consoles and game software ultimately created a very different business from the original card manufacturer. His example is especially useful for distinguishing a durable change in capabilities and distribution from a company merely adding another product to its catalogue.
More about Hiroshi Yamauchi12
Hubert Joly
Born
Joly changed the role of Best Buy's shops as the retailer responded to online competition. Price matching, supplier-funded spaces inside stores and fulfilling online orders through physical locations made the estate part of the response. The operational lesson is concrete: an expensive existing network can earn its keep differently when purchasing, supplier relationships and fulfilment are redesigned together.
More about Hubert Joly13
Jorma Ollila
Born
As chief executive from 1992, Ollila concentrated Nokia on telecommunications rather than maintaining its remaining collection of unrelated industrial businesses. The resulting focus supported its mobile-phone expansion. Nokia's later difficulties are part of the story too: successfully changing a company's business once does not ensure it can manage the next change in technology and customer behaviour.
More about Jorma Ollila14
Henrik Poulsen
Poulsen accelerated DONG Energy's existing renewable-energy direction after becoming chief executive in 2012. Asset sales, new capital and investment in offshore wind preceded the 2017 oil-and-gas disposal and Orsted name. Later US project cancellations, after his tenure, underline the financing and construction risks that remained inside the new model even after the strategic shift was achieved.
More about Henrik Poulsen15
Feike Sijbesma
During Sijbesma's leadership, DSM shifted further from bulk chemicals towards nutrition, health and specialist materials. Acquisitions and disposals changed what the group sold and the industries it depended on. This is a patient portfolio transformation: useful for studying how repeated investment decisions can gradually give an established industrial company a different customer base and earnings profile.
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Frans van Houten
Born
Van Houten narrowed Philips around health technology, separating lighting and agreeing the sale of domestic appliances. The shift built on an existing healthcare business rather than creating one overnight. Its serious limitation is equally relevant: the sleep-device recall exposed quality failures within that chosen focus, showing why a coherent portfolio does not by itself establish operational reliability.
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Azim Premji
Born
Premji expanded Wipro from its roots in vegetable oils into computing and, subsequently, IT services. Consumer businesses continued alongside technology for years before the 2013 demerger. The gradual sequence is the point: an existing family business supplied a starting base, but building a different kind of organisation required new skills, customers and ways of delivering work.
More about Azim Premji18
Mukesh Ambani
Born
Reliance added large consumer-facing retail and digital businesses alongside its energy operations under Ambani. Jio's service launch in September 2016 brought the group directly into mobile connectivity and digital services. Unlike a clean exit from an old industry, this transformation expanded the group's business mix while retaining the capital-intensive activities that helped finance it.
More about Mukesh Ambani19
Jean-Pascal Tricoire
Born
Tricoire pushed Schneider Electric beyond supplying electrical equipment towards connected energy management, automation and software. Acquisitions helped broaden the offer around customers' systems rather than individual components. The case is useful for understanding how an industrial supplier can seek a longer relationship with customers through monitoring, integration and services built around its installed equipment.
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Carl Bass
Autodesk phased out new perpetual licences for its design software during Bass's leadership, with major changes taking effect in 2016. Subscriptions changed how customers paid and how the company recognised revenue, making the transition visible in its accounts before the benefits of recurring income matured. Compare this with Adobe to see similar economics applied to different professional workflows.
More about Carl Bass21
Brad D. Smith
Born
At Intuit, Smith oversaw the move from a largely desktop-software business towards cloud services and connected tools for small businesses. QuickBooks Online passed 3.4 million subscribers in fiscal 2018, with associated online services becoming increasingly important. The useful change is from selling accounting software periodically to maintaining an ongoing relationship around customers' financial work.
More about Brad D. Smith22
Bob Iger
Born
Disney's investment in BAMTech and the 2019 Disney+ launch gave it a direct subscription relationship with viewers, alongside its established film and television businesses. Iger's shift required technology, content spending and customer retention capabilities on a new scale. The substantial early streaming losses make this a useful example of the gap between attracting subscribers and building profitable operations.
More about Bob Iger23
John Fallon (businessman)
Pearson's 2019 digital-first textbook strategy under Fallon changed the publishing cycle as well as the format. Digital materials could be updated continuously, while print moved towards rental options rather than relying on a new edition every few years. It is a revealing case of redesigning a mature product around access and updates, with consequences for students accustomed to reselling books.
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Mark Thompson (media executive)
Born
The New York Times had introduced its digital paywall before Thompson became chief executive. His tenure strengthened the paid digital business through product, engineering and subscription growth, making reader revenue more central to the organisation. The practical interest lies in the capabilities behind the change: journalism needed systems that could attract, convert and retain paying digital readers.
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