PCMag.Com - In 2009, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs stepped down unexpectedly – for the first time.
Now, Tim Cook, Apple’s new chief executive, is in the same place as he was before, being asked to lead a company that’s associated, in many minds, with Jobs himself.
In 2009, I asked Marshall Goldsmith, the author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, and 23 other books, and a columnist for the Harvard Business Publishing Web site what he thought Cook should do. Below are excerpts from that conversation.
Let’s talk about Tim Cook. What sort of problems does he face, taking over for an iconic CEO like Jobs?
Big problems. Its not any fault of his. His problems are not that something’s wrong with him. His problems are that he’s replacing an icon. I was at UCLA when John Wooden was the basketball coach. The next coach was Gene Bartow, who got fired for winning 90 percent plus of his games. He wasn’t John Wooden. It’s incredibly difficult to replace someone who has seen as an icon.
The only thing I don’t think people don’t understand about good leaders is that they’re both good and lucky. A lot of it is timing. If Jack Welch was still the CEO of General Electric, he wouldn’t nearly be the icon he is today. The timing was good. General Electric’s stock would have tanked whether he left or if he had stayed. But he happened to leave at the right time and so he came off as an iconic, do no wrong figure. But he was lucky. I’m sure he was a great CEO, but the thing is you can be a great CEO and the corporate results can tank.
With Cook running the company, do people see him as a natural #2, or as someone who is filling in temporarily?
(Editor’s Note: Jobs is remaining at Apple as chairman, a position that Apple has never had before.)
Right now it’s unclear, because the message is that he’s filling in temporarily. Whether that’s a correct or incorrect message no one knows. So right now he is sort of an odd place.
Let me give you what I’d say would be a positive scenario. Steve Jobs is really different than most CEOs. Most CEOs entire identity is running things. Jack Welch’s entire identity was being a leader, a manager, a person who ran things. Well, Steve Jobs’ major identity is being a brilliant creative inventor, innovator. I believe that Jobs could not be the CEO and still make an important positive impact on the company and not ruin life for another person. Most people can’t do that, that’s not their identity. More
