Unlike the Apple shake-up, this seems to have come as a complete surprise to many. Sinofsky was regarded as a possible successor to Ballmer, and that may have been his downfall. It's hard to believe it has anything to do with Windows 8 - too early for that, surely.
Call them unrepentant and unwavering in their beliefs, but in a way, I equate their stubbornness with foolishness. What's the point of being right if the direction you're steering the firm is wrong.
Of the list, I find it most unfortunate for RIM. They had such huge potential to impact and perhaps even remake the mobile industry. Too bad they lost their vision somewhere along the way and have been mediocre at best. And like many people have said, their days are pretty much numbered.
Well, it's a hot market full of startups and young people and consumers. CEOs tend to be a bit brash as well; it goes with the territory, I think. A more staid market, such as IT storage, for example, is populated by another kind of exec.
Scott Forstall at Apple, who was in charge of the mobile division that produced the widely excoriated mapping function for iPhones, refused to sign the public apology
@Mary, I agree with you. This clearly shows the overconfidence and ego of Scott Forstall. If he was the incharge of the mobile division then he should have signed public apology. When things go smooth leaders take the credit and when things go awry such leaders refuse to take the owndership. I think Tim Cook has done the right thing by replacing Scott Forstall.
The roster of big Internet firms is full of similar executives whose self-approval exceeds that of their CEOs and boards.
@Mary, thanks for the post.Its surprising to know that most of the big Internet firms is full or such executives. I wonder why they behave like this ? Do they want to show that they are great leaders by taking risky decisions? Why don't they take both the CEO's and boards into confidence ?
Regarding overconfidence, Scott Forstall at Apple, who was in charge of the mobile division that produced the widely excoriated mapping function for iPhones, refused to sign the public apology Tim Cook produced a few weeks back to users. To me, that's overconfidence. He must have known he'd anger and alienate others in the C-suite.
Don't think there's anything new here, KMT568; it's not this market. Top execs are confident people; they have a lot of conviction about their own judgment. The story I read was that in Reed Hastings' case, he really got the idea to split the product/service at Netflix, ran with it, and refused to be talked off the ledge. When it failed, as everyone knew it would, he was forced to face facts.
But that kind of overconfidence has been part of executive behavior for generations, no? Don't forget Henry Ford, the Robber Barons, the execs who crashed this time of year in the 1920s. Nothing new here.
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