“On August 24, 2011 Steve Jobs resigned from his CEO position at Apple. With Jobs moving on to more important matters, the question ‘What would Steve do?’ might be one of the worst that Apple executives and employees could ask during the next decade,” Zoe McKay writes for Forbes. “Just step back in time to see why.”
“On December 15, 1966 Walt Disney, founder and then president of The Walt Disney Company, passed away. It didn’t take but a few years for one of the subsequent CEOs and presidents, Card Walker, to consistently ask the question ‘What would Walt do?’ when trying to make strategic choices,” McKay writes. “This question spread throughout the company with the distribution of a small book of Walt Disney’s sayings, further weaving the ‘What would Walt do?’ logic even deeper into the decision making fabric of the company.”
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McKay writes, “In short order, Disney ended up with a series of tired, formulaic movies that produced little box office entertainment and the complete cancellation of its 29 year old, hour-long weekly program, Walt Disney, on CBS television… A far better question that Disney executives and employees could have asked between 1966 and 1984 is ‘What had Walt Disney personally done over the years to create and sustain such a vibrant, innovative company?'”
Read more in the full article here.