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Yes and no. I agree with the general sentiment, but the market may be changing in a way that Cook, et al. aren't suited to understand. So... maybe. Even prob
by OhMeadhbh 9mo ago
Yes and no. I agree with the general sentiment, but the market may be changing in a way that Cook, et al. aren't suited to understand. So... maybe. Even probably. But eventually there'll come a point where not having a product person high up on the org chart is going to come back and bite them in the rear end. But I have no idea of when that time will be.
- ethbr1 9mo ago> But eventually there'll come a point where not having a product person high up on the org chart is going to come back and bite them in the rear end. Are there any great examples where having a non-product-focused CEO has left the company in a good competitive position after 10-15 years?
- OhMeadhbh 9mo agoIBM, DEC, HP
- ethbr1 9mo agoI think you'd have to drill down into certain periods in their corporate history to make that argument. IBM is now notorious for having over invested in services in the 90s/00s and thus ceded their previous technical/product expertise. Similarly, HP bifurcated itself into product and not-product divisions. DEC is a weird case. Both Olsen and Palmer were arguably product people, but also missed major shift in the market (personal computing and x86 ISA consolidation, respectively).