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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=898
Who Should Succeed Steve As CEO?
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
September 5th 2002
Start refining your resum�. Now.
It would be difficult to contemplate Apple post-Jobs. But it will happen. One day.
"Beward the celebrity CEO", says an item at
CNN. The gist of it is that celebrity CEOs are so closely identified with the company,
that the market watches their every move - and stock prices move on virtually every
word they utter.
Better, says CNN, is the unobtrusive CEO, who simply works to improve shareholder
value, while remaining largely anonymoys to the wider public.
Jobs, Gates, Sun''s Scott McNeally, HP''s Carly Fiorina, Dell''s Michael Dell, and
Oracle''s Larry Ellison are all so integral to their companies and their company''s
future that their stock takes a hit whenever they leave the helm, however temporarily.
CNN cites the example of Ellison taking a two-month sabatical, leaving no clear-cut
successor in his wake in summer 2000. So spooked was the market, that it drove Oracle
stock down, believing it possible he might not return to the firm in an active role.
This isn''t only true of the PC industry; when Rupert Murdoch was foolish enough to
put son Lachlan in charge of a few big projects in Australia and elsewhere and he
screwed them up, Rupert was forced to make a big "I''m back in charge" announcement
just to keep the wolves from the door of News Corp stock.
Jobs himself originally said he couldn''t be more than interim CEO at Apple: "I just
don''t have it to give." Soon, however, it was clear Steve was up to his old tricks,
lulling poor old trusting Gil Amelio into a false sense of security. Jobs swooped in a
board coup and took over. "Five years", said Jobs (which are now up). But he shows no
sign of tiring of the job.
Who Could Replace Jobs?
Of the current crop, who could conceivable succeed Steve? Schiller? Tevanian? Even
Ive? None are particularly convincing choices. By and large, Jobs aside, Apple CEOs
have not been a particularly inspiring bunch.
At MS, Gates stepped aside for Ballmer, but the two of them are as thick as thieves
and Gates'' shift out of the CEO''s chair was merely a symbolic one to placate those
troublesome geese over at the DOJ.
But the question remains: who can lead Apple in the future? Should Steve be grooming a
successor? Or is the PC industry really just a bunch of personal fiefdoms?
Post your comments at:
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=898
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