“Steven Blank, a keen observer of startup culture and methods, has written an article in the Harvard Business Review and an extended disco version on his blog, arguing that a focus on ‘execution’ is leading Apple down the wrong pat,” Dan Woods writes for Forbes. “Blank argues forcefully that visionary CEOs like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates often make the tragic mistake of hiring a successors who are not visionaries. These execution-oriented executives focus on expanding the business they have, but miss the boat on new trends, leaving the companies as solid financial performers but seriously weakened.”
“In my view, Blank can be considered representative of Silicon Valley thinking,” Woods writes. “But, in thinking about Blank’s argument and reading comments on the article, it became clear to me there are many weak points in Blank’s thesis that deserve scrutiny and reveal some ways that the prevailing assumptions of Silicon Valley thinking are unbalanced.”
Woods writes, “Blank’s analysis would be more complete if he admitted finding a visionary is hard and risky.”
Read more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Once again:
Those who underestimate Tim Cook are in for a rude awakening. – MacDailyNews, April 9, 2014
I could see that someone like Jobs would not want to hire another visionary type who might drastically alter the course of Apple. He probably preferred someone who could execute Apples long term strategy and vision over the next 5+ years. He left Apple in good hands for execution but finding another visionary person like Jobs to lead Apple would be an impossible task and certainly no guarantee of success. Capturing that lightening in a bottle comes along once in a generation. We were lucky enough to be alive and witness the rise of Jobs/Apple.
What good is a company having a CEO who everyone hates? Wall Street, shareholders and the news media seem to hate Tim Cook. They seem to think he’s an idiot or spending too much time on gender-bending crusades. All I happen to see is a share price that never gets much closer to $130 a share and a bunch of desktop computers with weak graphics processors.
For a highly profitable company with a huge cash reserve the company is never able to shake the constant doom and gloom air that surrounds it. Now having to see a number of articles how Microsoft is building better hardware than Apple certainly doesn’t help the situation at all. This perception by everyone how Apple is a limp noodle company is quite disturbing and I can’t even tell if it’s true or not.
“…and I can’t even tell if it’s true or not”
But some of us _can_ tell. And it is simply not true. You worry too much.
All The Best.
The thing is, I’ve been telling everyone on MDN for 6-years that Tim Cook is an incompetent. He’s been screwing up repeatedly and the gay fanboys ignore it because he’s one of them.
If I was gay, I would be embarrased by Tim Cook.
I believe that you have sufficient reason for embarrassment just being yourself — straight or gay doesn’t matter.
You’re not suggesting that a majority of the BOD is gay, are you?
Apple is the most profitable company in the world, don’t you? So your vendetta against Tim Cook because he’s gay is just insane.
Tim, do yourself and the company you love a huge favor and for the love of God, step down before you drag Apple into oblivion.
You do know that Apple is the most profitable company in the world, don’t you? Oblivion?!
Sometimes a visionary is just seeing things