24/7 Wall St.

Visionary CEO vs. caretaker CEO.

MacDailyNews starts a food fight with a simple question: “How much would Apple Inc. be worth today had a Jeff Bezos-type CEO taken over the reins?”

From the comment stream to Amazon closes on Apple in the race to trillion-dollar market cap:

R2: Does [MacDailyNews] MDN think CEOs like Jeff Bezos grow on trees? He, like Steve Jobs, is a generational talent. If he was to die or step down, Amazon would also have trouble replacing him.

FactChecker: Did MDN say they thought CEOs like Bezos grow on trees? No. They did not. MDN simply asked a very simple question. Why do you sound upset about it? Is it because you know that Tim Cook is really just a boring, visionless caretaker and that Apple could do better, yet you hold some affinity for TC, perhaps due to his incessant [Social Justice Warrior] SJW virtue-signaling? Regardless of the rarity of talent, Apple could certainly have a CEO who managed to keep all of his company’s product lines up-to-date, at the very least. Even a run-of-the-mill CEO would be able to competently manage that. If Steve Jobs reincarnated and saw Apple’s top-of-the-line Mac was still being sold despite being 5 years old, he’d drop dead again instantly.

spyintheskyuk: Certainly it would be nice to have one who led from the front both inside and outside the company creating new products and services rather than waiting to see if others can make a go of it and then play catch up with mixed results that usually costs more in the long run anyway.

Laughing_Boy48: Amazon owns Wall Street’s heart, mind and soul. Apple is already seen as a has-been company and that in itself is really sad for loyal shareholders. Everything Amazon does is seen as perfect while everything Apple does is seen as some screw-up. Supposedly, both Google and Microsoft are going to pass Apple in overall value and all hope will be gone for Apple’s comeback. Apple should really have gotten into the cloud business where money flows like water.

Danox: But no profit…

Laughing_Boy48: As unsettling as it is, as far as Wall Street is concerned, Amazon, in terms of growth potential, has already passed Apple a year ago. Apple isn’t as hungry as Amazon is and that’s the end of it for loyal Apple shareholders. I well remember the Apple bulls making fun of Amazon’s scarce profitability while Bezos poured money into Amazon for growth. In a short while, Amazon will soon pass Apple in overall value because Apple had no interest in growing its business in leaps and bounds.

You Wish Bezos for Apple? Why? He’s a megalomaniac, fueling a monopoly, and what’s to be admired in his likely legacy? Biggest and most powerful appeals to me like, meh. No, I’m not saying he’s not a brilliant and savvy biz-man, but if I could chose his or SJ’s legacy related to creative/inventive leadership, there’d be no question. Maybe I should be more appreciative of personal assistants sold in “3-packs” that likely gain too much personal info, AWS supporting the military, and his creating a work place that sounds like a bit of a hell hole? Meanwhile TC has the originality of a limp fish and he’s often sidetracked with the notion it’s up to him to change the world, but at least he’s not proactively wrecking AAPL’s ethos, like I image Bezos would.

Davewrite:  I agree with most of your post except maybe Cook “not proactively wrecking AAPL’s ethos.” I sort of doubt Steve Jobs would have a 2013 built Mac like the Mac Pro, a flagship machine, being sold as ‘new’ in 2018 on Apple’s webpage, it breaks his ethos of ‘the best’ the world. If people think it’s a fluke we also got a 2014 Mac Mini… Steve Jobs didn’t want to celebrate Apple’s 30 anniversary etc as it also was a ‘distraction’. etc. Compare it today Apple going whole hog into all kinds of ‘celebrations’ even external, actively engaging on political stands, often with the barest connection to Apple’s business. I can go on but you get the gist.

My take: I could go on, but you get the gist. Sometimes I think don’t hear enough around here from the other side.