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5 iconic comback artists of the corporate world

The tale of 6 CEOs who followed 'ghar wapsi'
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Bengaluru, First Published Jul 13, 2016, 2:30 PM IST

There are dramatic stories all over the tech world, and the re-roping of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are a part of it. Steve Jobs, the co-founder and CEO of Apple, had to step down in 1985 after serving with the company for nine years. But he was roped back in 1997 and worked with the company till he passed away in October 2011.

 

This story is similar to the story of the young CEO of Tinder, Sean Rad, who was re-selected for the job he left in 2014 this year. The earlier CEO, Chris Payne, lasted only for five months.

 

Here are the stories of five other CEOs who had a similar track record:

 

Leah Busque: CEO of TaskRabbit (2008—2011, 2012—Present)

 

Leah Busque founded the company TaskRabbit in the year 2008 after she ran out of dog food one day. TaskRabbit became a popular platform for getting domestic help. The company made $4 million in transactions per month in 2011.

 

Eventually she decided to move to the role of chief product officer and appointed co-founder Eric Grosse as the new CEO. But the company soon dipped into losses and decided to get back its founder and CEO in 2012 in order to refine efforts.  

 

Jack Dorsey: CEO of Twitter (2007—2008, 2015—Present)

 

Jack Dorsey, one of the co-founders of Twitter, served as CEO for two years after it was founded in 2006. He left in difficult conditions in 2008. Later, he founded Square Inc, a company which deals with financial services.

 

However, the first CEO of Twitter was called back by the firm in 2015 to tackle the chronic issues of growth and product development. 

 

 

Steve Huffman: CEO of Reddit (2005—2009, 2015—Present)

 

Reddit was founded by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian in 2005 and they sold the company to Condé Nast in 2006. However, Steve Huffman continued to be the CEO of the company even after it was sold. Three year later, Huffman along with Ohanian left the job at Reddit and went on to fuel their new travel website, Hipmunk.

 

Ellen Pao replaced Huffman as Reddit’s CEO but could last only two months, forced out after a massive storm of controversies and allegations. After this, Huffman was roped back by the company in 2015 and assigned the job of stabilising the business. 

 

 

Mark Pincus: CEO of Zynga (2007—2013, 2015—Present)

 

Zynga, the social-gaming company was co-founded by Mark Pincus in 2007. It dominated the market for two years and was later hit hard by the viral game FarmVille.  

 

The company went into heavy losses by 2013, when Pincus swapped his role from chairman to chief product officer and pooled in longtime gaming executive Don Mattrick as the new CEO.

 

However, Mattrick failed terribly to give innovative pushes to the company. This forced the reinstallation of Pincus in April 2015.

 

Howard Schultz: CEO of Starbucks (1987—2000, 2008—Present)

 

Howard Schultz is the man responsible for making Starbucks synonymous with the smell of coffee. Schultz was promoted to the CEO of the company in 1987 after he served as a director of operations and marketing officer for five years. He took the brand far, rising to dominate the entire market. After performing brilliantly as a CEO till 2000, he changed roles, becoming the chief global strategist and also continued as the chairman. Schultz later regretted this is move. 

 

Starbucks lost its market share in 2008, due to rapid expansion and dropping quality. Schultz had to return as CEO in 2008 and gave the company a new kick. Under him, the market cap of the company rose from $5 billion in 2008 to $57 billion in 2014.

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