The 10 greatest CEOs of all time

No. 2
Bill Allen thought bigger
ITS PLANES helped win the war-yet victory in 1945 looked like death for Boeing. Revenues plummeted more than 90% as orders for bombers vanished overnight. And bombers, everyone knew, were what Boeing was all about.
Everyone, that is, but its new leader. An understated lawyer who said he wasn't qualified for the job, Bill Alien never saw Boeing as the bomber company. It was the company whose engineers built amazing flying machines. In 1952 he bet heavily on a new commercial jet, the 707. At the time, Boeing had no business being in the commercial market, or at least that's what potential customers said. ("You make great bombers up there in Seattle. Why don't you stick with that?") Yet Alien's time frames were bigger too. He saw that Boeing could compete by changing the industry. Under his leadership, Boeing built the 707,727, 737, and 747-four of the most successful bets in industrial history. At a board meeting described by Robert Serling in Legend & Legacy, a director said that if the 747 was too big for the market to swallow, Boeing could back out. "Back out?" stiffened Allen. "If the Boeing Aircraft Co. says we will build this airplane, we will build it even if it takes the resources of the entire company." Like today's CEOs, he endured the swarming gnats who think small: short time frames, pennies per share, a narrow purpose. Allen thought bigger-and left a legacy to match.