A lot of those descriptions reminded me an an awful lot of doomsday descriptions I've read of Google and Facebook over the years, though. Granted the circumsta

A lot of those descriptions reminded me an an awful lot of doomsday descriptions I've read of Google and Facebook over the years, though. Granted the circumstances were different - they're much newer companies and they needed experienced executives to grow - but it shows that sometimes these things make sense. The growing M&A team Lashinsky describes is a good case in point. Cook handled that when they had a fraction of the $110 Billion they have today. They started adding specialists when Google swooped in and acquired AdMob, and have done well since (Siri, Anobit, Chomp). Considering how much more competitive the talent market has become, this strikes me as perfectly logical.