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If he were, I do not think he could be running the company. His working style and some of his personal history seem like they would not have worked in 2020s.

If he were, I do not think he could be running the company. His working style and some of his personal history seem like they would not have worked in 2020s. I could see him as a board member, occasional informal consultant. But not as head of the company. And I don’t know if he would have liked that too much.

auggierose 5y ago
That's a problem for the 2020s, then.
mlinsey 5y ago
I disagree. It's true that the management style he had during the 1980's definitely would have had a stronger and faster backlash in the 2020s - he would have been forced out of the company even sooner than he really was. But this style also didn't work all that well in the '80s and led directly to him being ousted and Apple entering a slow death spiral they had to be rescued from a decade later. His second act really was different and he was much more mature as a leader; certainly he still worked people hard and was unusually blunt compared to some other current FANG CEOs, but you didn't see the sort of petulant and intensely personal abuse that you would sometimes see from him in his first act. I think if he was CEO of Apple in the current environment, certainly there would be less hero worship outside of Apple, and a lot more people would be writing pieces critical of his leadership style and effect on the world, but there wouldn't be anything serious enough to force him from the company given how well things would be going. In other words, he'd be much closer to Musk than Kalanick both in terms of the severity of the criticism and his ability to weather it.
- hellweaver666 5y ago
  You know what they say... you either die a hero or live long enough to become a villan. That definitely would have happened with Jobs.
manmal 5y ago
People do change, and I wouldn’t dismiss the capacity of anyone to adapt to new circumstances. With Apple growing, Steve would have grown, too.
rahul003 5y ago
One could argue Elon Musk's style of working and personal history is in some ways similar to Steve Jobs, and Musk is doing fine in the 2020s.

auggierose 5y ago

That's a problem for the 2020s, then.

mlinsey 5y ago

I disagree. It's true that the management style he had during the 1980's definitely would have had a stronger and faster backlash in the 2020s - he would have been forced out of the company even sooner than he really was. But this style also didn't work all that well in the '80s and led directly to him being ousted and Apple entering a slow death spiral they had to be rescued from a decade later. His second act really was different and he was much more mature as a leader; certainly he still worked people hard and was unusually blunt compared to some other current FANG CEOs, but you didn't see the sort of petulant and intensely personal abuse that you would sometimes see from him in his first act. I think if he was CEO of Apple in the current environment, certainly there would be less hero worship outside of Apple, and a lot more people would be writing pieces critical of his leadership style and effect on the world, but there wouldn't be anything serious enough to force him from the company given how well things would be going. In other words, he'd be much closer to Musk than Kalanick both in terms of the severity of the criticism and his ability to weather it.

hellweaver666 5y ago
You know what they say... you either die a hero or live long enough to become a villan. That definitely would have happened with Jobs.

manmal 5y ago

People do change, and I wouldn’t dismiss the capacity of anyone to adapt to new circumstances. With Apple growing, Steve would have grown, too.

rahul003 5y ago

One could argue Elon Musk's style of working and personal history is in some ways similar to Steve Jobs, and Musk is doing fine in the 2020s.