Fortune names Jobs ‘CEO of the decade’
As Apple rolls into what looks to be yet another record setting holiday shopping quarter, on the heels of the company’s most profitable quarter ever, giving an accolade to the man who’s listed by name among the patent and trademark docs for the iMac, iPod and iPhone seems a safe bet. Shallow praise for the father of the Jesus phone?
Even the relatively uneventful years of Steve Jobs professional life make for good reading. Those were the times when he shepherded Pixar and NeXT Computer through some lean, dry times to their respective dates with destiny that made him a multi-billionaire, Disney’s biggest shareholder and the man who not only created Apple, but saved it and several related industries several times over.
Now, as the cup of Jobs’ genius continues to “runneth over” for at least the 12th year running, up pops Fortune to name Apple’s chief executive the “CEO of the Decade.”
How’s this for a gripping corporate story line: Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death, one securities-law scandal, an also-ran product lineup, and his own often unpleasant demeanor to become the dominant personality in four distinct industries, a billionaire many times over, and CEO of the most valuable company in Silicon Valley. — Adam Lashinsky, Fortune.
And, in truth, Jobs deserves all of the accolades heaped on him and more. Yet, the question that really interests me is and one that may ultimately decide the Apple CEO’s legacy, when the time comes, how will he acknowledge and handle failure? As a post-translplant 54 year-old, his fourth act may yet prove to be the most stunning so far.
However, for Thomas Alva Edison, another man familiar the frailties of the human body who famously took the ideas of others and turned them into necessities, failure was his inability to concede that alternating current (AC) was safer and more efficient than direct current (DC), which he obstinately championed until he died, a fact that taints the stunning achievements of his life to this day.
What will ultimately will prove to be Steve Jobs’ blind spot? Perhaps his legacy is already secure…
What’s your take?
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