Narayana Murthy held sway over Infosys for three decades. Here are some international personalities who have had a lasting impact on their companies for a comparable period of time.

Steve Jobs: The icon to define all icons. You don't buy Windows because of Gates or IBM because of Watson, but many people buy Apple Macs and iPhones because of Steve Jobs. He has had a roller coaster ride — after co-founding Apple in 1976, he was ousted in 1984, only to come back in 1996 to launch the iMac and follow it up with the iPhone and the iPad. The computer magazine Byte observed in December 1994 that, “Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to describe the history of the computer industry for the past decade as a massive effort to keep up with Apple.” Today, if the same is true in the tablet and smart phone space, it is principally due to the enduring vision of Jobs.

Thomas John Watson, Sr : The original IT icon. For 42 years, from 1914 to 1956, Watson led IBM and made it into a global brand. The company, which recently celebrated its 100th birthday, owes a lot to his vision.

Bill Gates : His name is synonymous with personal computing and more recently, philanthropy.

Gene Amdahl : He wrote Amdahl's Law, which defines the limits of parallel computing, and started a company that bore his name. For a while, Amdahl Corporation gave some amount of competition to Big Blue itself.

Seymour Cray : Founder of Cray Research and supercomputing pioneer. His 1976 Cray-1 and others that followed typically remained the fastest commercially available supercomputers in the world. Cray is often called the father of the supercomputer.

Gordon Moore : Co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Intel. You know that you have made it big when you have a law named after you, especially if this law has defined computing power for over 45 years.

comment COMMENT NOW