How Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and 19 other famous CEOs are doing, according to their employees

Pfizer CEO Ian Read

CEO approval rating: 88%

"Overall the company really does believe and strive to be a "good actor" and improve lives and health. The integrity of most top leaders is authentic and they are well intended."

But "many years of continuous cutbacks combined with the company being entirely driven by shareholder return and street analysis makes for a very uncertain / unstable environment. As much as they want to treat people well and live their values - those always take a backseat to the money." — Anonymous employee

Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky

CEO approval rating: 95%

"Takes care of employees, advancement opportunities, huge breadth of internal opportunity, committed to patients." — Scientist

United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz

CEO approval rating: 96%

"I am proud of my company again and that's because of our beloved CEO Oscar. He has made the world of difference to me and so many of United family. He is a wonderful and kind person." — United Airlines customer service representative

Delta Airlines CEO Edward Bastian

CEO approval rating: 93%

"Delta has a great company culture, led by senior leadership who generally does a great job of balancing the various stakeholders. When pressed to make a decision, leadership supports employees and are fair." — Anonymous employee

GM CEO Mary Barra

CEO approval rating: 91%

"Lots of room for advancement. Good management and leaders." — Quality engineer

McKinsey & Company CEO Dominic Barton

CEO approval rating: 97%

"McKinsey invests in its people's professional development more than any other company in the management consulting industry and possibly also across industries. At McKinsey you will continuously build your capabilities and toolkit through formal training, on-the-job training, coaching and mentorship." — McKinsey & Company senior partner

Bain & Company CEO Bob Bechek

CEO approval rating: 98%

"It's in the DNA of Bainies to support one another, coach, and mentor. I feel like I have an amazing set of mentors supporting my career, all the way from Senior Directors to my peers to our ACs." — Bain & Company manager

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan

CEO approval rating: 82%

"Pick a strategy and stick with it, giving it a chance before giving up and moving onto a different transformation. Change is good, but t0o much change is not." — Former vice president

JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon

CEO approval rating: 92%

"[JP Morgan is the] best-managed bank to work for.

"CEO Jamie Dimon inspires trust and leads well." — Former executive director

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein

CEO approval rating: 92%

"Great culture. Great people willing to mentor you. Very integrated globally. Mega deals are the norm. Clients have a lot of respect for the firm. Employees are very focused on delivering the best for clients." — Former analyst

Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson

CEO approval rating: 59%

"Completely incompetent management, spendthrifts, idiots, fools." — Senior software engineer

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon

CEO approval rating: 68%

"Treat your lower ranking employees with some more respect and gratitude for the work they do. Try to be friendlier to other employees and customers. That was Sam's rules in the first place." — Customer service supervisor

Apple CEO Tim Cook

CEO approval rating: 93%

"Great people focused on culture, inspiring company with constant change and innovation keeping you busy and engaged at all times. World-class leadership structures enable teams to be nurtured and developed continually." — Business manager

HP CEO Meg Whitman

CEO approval rating: 55%

"Management by walking around is a forgotten motto. Upper management is disconnected from what is going on in the trenches."

"Figure out how to rekindle the spirit of innovation before it's too late. Come down from the ivory towers and mingle with the masses, listen to them, you will be surprised how much you may learn about what works and what doesn't." — Senior technical marketing manager

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey

CEO approval rating: 76%

"Listen to middle management — I mean really listen. And show your employees that the company will be as loyal to them as they are to the company." — Anonymous employee

Google CEO Sundar Pichai

CEO approval rating: 96%

"Great team (coworkers and management). Management fully supports opportunities for professional growth and advancement." — Google data center operations employee

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

CEO approval rating: 98%

"It might sound cheesy, but the best part of working at Facebook is knowing that management truly cares about my success and wellbeing. The benefits are nice, but being trusted and supported with stellar people? That's what really counts." — Facebook writer

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos

CEO approval rating: 86%

"Jeff Bezos and his 'S-Team' are brilliant and continue to make great decisions for long-term growth." — Software development manager

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty

CEO approval rating: 62%

"For a company that promotes employee advocacy, it does a terrible job keeping up employee morale and giving the power to the employee. All the power stays in the hands of senior management.

"Listen to your employees and actually follow through with the promise of caring about each one. Do not write off 'millennials' just because they are younger than you." — Graphic designer

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk

Tesla CEO approval rating: 86%

SpaceX CEO approval rating: 98%

"Leadership gives you the resources and authority to work autonomously (and/or within a small group) to accomplish the company's goals, which frequently means that even junior engineers are given opportunities to contribute meaningfully to the company right out of the gate, which gives you an intense feeling of ownership and responsibility." — SpaceX propulsion development engineer

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

CEO approval rating: 95%

"Excellent leader at the helm, seeing changes every day in the right direction. Good compensation, excellent benefits, terrific culture." — Sales employee

Source: Business Insider India

These 5 companies are betting on Ethereum to completely reinvent the back end of the internet

Helping diversify the blockchain economy

Company: Maiden

What it's building: Co-founders Shira Frank and Raine Revere are developing an organization that's equal parts consultancy, startup incubator, and training service, all focused on blockchain technology.

How its system will be used: Frank and Revere are focusing on women, people of color, gay people, and members of other marginalized groups. They're hoping to educate such people about blockchain technology and help them set up their own blockchain-related startups.

The outlook on blockchain technology: "I’m actually of the opinion that blockchain [technology] won’t necessarily be that visible, that it’s actually [an] infrastructural change," said Revere. She continued: "It will affect consumers more pervasively than they will ever realize."

Creating a new universal ID

Company: uPort

What it's building: Michael Sena and his team are developing a kind of universal identification. At its most basic, it's just a unique address on the Ethereum protocol. But it's designed to function a lot like a Google or Facebook ID.

Instead of having to use a unique ID to log into every site or service they access, people would be able to use their uPort ID for each one.

How its system will be used:uPort is aiming its service at blockchain and Ethereum developers who need to a way to authenticate users that is more complex, yet easier to use, than the anonymous serial numbers blockchains typically assign them.

The outlook on blockchain technology: Sena said it will be "a couple of years" before it has a significant impact on consumers.

Helping investors manage their cryptocurrency stashes

Company: Omega One

What it's building: Chief Technology Officer Alex Gordon-Brander and his team are designing a professional-grade system that will allow investors to trade different kinds of cryptocurrencies through various exchanges in one central place and will show them all of their account balances.

How its system will be used: Omega One is aiming its system at professional traders, investors, and institutions to help them manage their cryptocurrency portfolios.

The outlook on blockchain technology: It will be "five years or 10 years" before it's in widespread use, said Gordon-Brander.

"When you change fundamental things around, like how human beings organize and how human beings change value, that translates to changes in every sector of society," he said. He added that the kinds of changes that blockchain technology will spur "are, in some ways, as hard to predict as the current internet landscape would have been in 1995 or '98."

Digitizing the power grid to offer lower cost electricity

Company: GridPlus

What it's building: Lead Architect Matt Walters and his team are developing a virtual energy grid that will sit on top of the national energy system. Once deployed, GridPlus will sell energy to consumers at a small premium to wholesale prices.

The energy will be distributed using tokens — essentially, digital coins — which can be saved or passed to other people if they're not used. Since tokens are easily divisible, Walters said users will be able to pay in smaller fractions than they can with dollars. For example, a consumer could use her tokens to just pay what it costs to illuminate a single lightbulb for 15 minutes, something that would amount to a small fraction of a cent.

How its system will be used: GridPlus will start off as a retail energy provider in Texas, whose deregulated energy market is easy for companies to enter. The company's goal is to eventually cover the entire country. It's also working with Tokyo on a similar project.

The outlook on blockchain technology: "I think all of this will happen in the next two years. It's not even far out," Walters said.

"Already we're seeing that blockchains, especially Ethereum, because of its ability to facilitate these token launches, is providing access to liquid capital for the purpose of building new businesses that far exceeded what existed before, be it in investment banking, venture capital or private equity," he said.

Keeping track of volunteer work and other socially beneficial activities

Organization: ixo Foundation

What it's working on: CEO Anne Connelly and her team are developing a blockchain product that lets people log and then verify their volunteer jobs, charitable activities, and socially beneficial work, such as how many trees they planted, or how many hours they tutored a child. Once their activities have been verified in the system, the blockchain record of them can be used to apply for grants and subsidies.

How its system is being used: As a pilot project, ixo worked with UNICEF to build an app called Amply to help teachers in South Africa take attendance. The government there subsidizes preschool for lower-income kids, but the subsidies are based on attendance. Normally, teachers have to take roll on paper and then physically submit their roll sheets, a time-consuming process. The app allowed teachers to quickly and easily take attendance on their mobile phones instead.

The outlook on blockchain technology: "I think it's going to be massively pervasive in a year or two," Connelly said. "Typically they say with this level of innovation it takes a lot longer to happen then we expect, but when it does, it's much more impactful."

Source: Business Insider India