Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

The article is short on details why he thinks Tim Cook is like Steve Ballmer, except for saying that Apple is slowly missing the boat on AI. I don't know what Amazon does for AI, I haven't seen anything convincing from them, but I'll trust the author that they are working on it. However it's tough to beat Google in this space, because AI and machine learning is what Google has focused on since their beginnings. Google's own Search has…

>The problem is that a supply chain CEO who lacks a passion for products and has yet to articulate a personal vision of where to Apple will go is ill equipped to make the right organizational, business model and product bets to bring those to market. The author makes the argument that because Tim Cook does not demo new products, Apple is incapable of innovating, and is just cruising on the goodwill of the brand. What a crock. Tim Cook…

Seems like this was just wrong. Bill gates was never really that visionary about products, but was a great businessman. Ballmer was neither. Steve Jobs was a visionary in many ways, one of which was to understand that the company needed to become a machine that could outlive him not merely by appointing Tim Cook. He spoke about this at various times. He said his finest product was apple itself. I’m not saying they won’t fail, but I am saying…

I thought this was going to be click bait, but it's actually a very well written article. Are there any other examples of visionary CEOs passing on the torch to execution CEOs? Would be interesting to see if something like this lead to the downfall of companies like Kodak.