CEOs of four major tech companies—Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon—answered U.S. lawmakers’ questions about potential abuses of power. Themes from both Democrats and Republicans included relationships with third-parties, social media monitoring, advertising, search results, and other potential antitrust moves.

The CEOs joined by video and started with an opening statement. After that, no one was spared tough questions. Sundar Pichai was grilled about search engine results and Google’s business in China. Mark Zuckerberg defended its acquisition strategy. Jeff Bezos responded to accusations of using vendors’ data to build competitive products. And Tim Cook, who received the fewest questions, defended practices for developers, including fees charged through the App Store.

Discussion:

• Watch the CEOs’ opening statements. Which were the strongest and weakest? On what criteria do you base your analysis?

• Which leadership character dimensions do the CEOs exhibit or fail to exhibit.

• Assess the CEOs’ delivery skills. What differences and similarities do you notice?

• Now assess the technology set-up: lighting, background, camera angle, eye contact, and so on. What lessons do you learn for your own video meetings?