J
udging from the onslaught of books, articles, and blog posts extolling Steve Jobs' virtues and condemning his vices, the question of whether leaders can replicate Jobs' results by emulating his methods is an important one. Since most managers quantitatively analyze the factors which that impact affect the performance of their firms, we find it surprising that this great debate has raged in a context largely uninformed by any hard data.
To the contrary, numerous commentators have passionately presented their anecdotal perspectives, either revering or reviling Job's take-no-prisoners approach; there is no middle ground. In his recent Wired article, Ben Austen aptly labeled these two camps acolytes and rejecters. Acolytes see Jobs as brilliant, citing his leadership as the reason behind Apple's phenomenal results. Rejecters see him as arrogant and deeply flawed, leading Apple to meteoric success in spite of his often boorish behavior.
To read the original article: Was Steve Jobs a Role Model for Leaders? - Darren Overfield and Rob Kaiser - Harvard Business Review
