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The biggest struggles Apple would have with a new leader is establishing that leadership in the minds of the executive team and major/influential shareholders.
by edderly 16y ago
The biggest struggles Apple would have with a new leader is establishing that leadership in the minds of the executive team and major/influential shareholders.
A lot of CEOs pretend to be a Jack Welch or Steve Jobs but are often just glorified bus drivers for their corporations. Often they are more concerned with keeping the board happy than analyzing the company product line.
Jobs is unusual in appearing to be absolutely in charge of his company, many other CEOs don't have that luxury or confidence.
- jacquesm 16y ago> are often just glorified bus drivers for their corporations. Yes, but how far would a bus drive without a driver?
- a-priori 16y agoWell, that depends entirely on how fast you're going.
- msg 16y agoAnd where you are driving to!
- pingswept 16y agoHow would the destination of a driverless bus affect its path? I think the major path affectors would be things like concrete barriers, buildings, other vehicles, bodies of water, or large rocks.
- jacquesm 16y agoI think we can safely rewrite the gp to read 'and what you're driving in to'.
- pingswept 16y agoDo you mean "and what you're driving in, too" or "and what you're driving into"?
- jacquesm 16y agoIn to as in "he drove the bus in to the lake"? Or is that supposed to be 'into'? Non native English writer here, this one is subtle enough that I don't know if 'in to' is permitted or forbidden. 9.7 Million hits for 'in to the lake' and 23 Million or 'into the lake', if it is an error it seems to be at least a fairly common one.
- pingswept 16y agoSubtlety acknowledged. "Into" is correct. "In to" is forbidden. I guess we've squeezed the life out of this one.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- nerfhammer 16y agoI don't know but the bus driver probably earns less than most of the people riding the bus
- jarek 16y agoDepends where they're driving it. Bus drivers earn significantly more than the barely-over-minimum-wage fast food and cheap-retail employees.
- malyk 16y agoNot in San Francisco!
- impendia 16y agoMost certainly in San Francisco. http://www.fixmuninow.com/faq.html http://www.fixmuninow.com/faq.html
- hugh3 16y agoOn the odd occasion that I've caught the MUNI, I've been under the distinct impression that the driver and I are the only two people on the bus who could possibly have a job.
- thwarted 16y agoDoesn't Steve Jobs take a salary of $1/yr?
- shaggyfrog 16y agoPay no attention to the stock options behind the curtain...
- ptomato 16y agoIf he was really in it for the money, though, he probably wouldn't have let $5+billion in options expire since coming back to Apple, iirc.
- edderly 16y agoWhat's your point? Or is this just some throwaway Zen?
- jacquesm 16y agoThe point is that bus driver is not a derogatory term but that people that drive buses do important work and give direction to a 10+ton vehicle that would otherwise be going nowhere and take responsibility for the lives of their passengers. Calling a CEO a 'glorified bus driver' is an attempt at playing down the importance of bus drivers and CEOs at the same time when in fact in both professions the responsibilities are substantial and the price for fuck-ups is immense. Buses and companies do not drive themselves and if there is nobody or a bad choice at the wheel the corporations, their shareholders, the buses and the passengers will suffer.
- acqq 16y ago> an attempt at playing down the importance of bus drivers A bus driver doesn't decide where to drive. You don't want to have a CEO who doesn't decide what the goals of the company are.
- jacquesm 16y agoThis is wrong twice, first, a bus driver is in full control of his vehicle, he can't decide on the route but he's totally autonomous in his decisions. Then, a CEO does not decde 'what the goals of the company are', that's something that will be decided usually in close cooperation with other managers. CEOs that act as dictators usually do not last very long, typically they'll be the ones to maintain relationships with the outside world at the highest level but that's not reason enough think that they and they alone make the decisions as to what the goals of the company are. A CEO tries to get his people 'on board' with respect to the decision that are being made, and if as a CEO you do not do that you will either find yourself between jobs or you'll face a walk-out of your managers. In many cases the 'goals of the company' are codified either in a mission statement, in the articles of incorporation or in a separate agreement between the major shareholders of the company. In a company where the CEO is also the largest stockholder it may well be the case that the CEO dictates what the 'goals of the company are', but in that case it is probably better to speak of him or her as the 'owner' of the company in that context rather than the CEO. CEOs carry out the corporate vision, they do not define it by themselves. We're writing this in a thread about Apple, and in the case of Apple it is probably right to say that Steve Jobs is the man with the vision who indeed does set the goals of his company but just as he receives only $1 in compensation for his work (he has substantial stock so that is where his real compensation is) he is something of a rarity in CEO land.