14 DAY TRIAL // Every other year the people at ChiefExecutive.net profile companies that are the best and the worst at what they do, and they’re careful to pick different names every time to provide “a fresh set of management insights.” One of the top scoring CEOs listed in this year's rankings is the late Steve Jobs.
Before delving into why the CEOs they picked are either the best or the worst in the field, the magazine makes a few notes, such as the fact that the write-ups reflect company events and performance up until June 30, 2011.
In other words, things like Steve Jobs’ resignation as CEO in August, or News Corp.’s hacking scandal are not used as factors in their tracking.
The report also tracks things like success based on hard work and success based on luck. There are also the “destroyers” - the CEOs ranking the lowest in Chief Executive’s chart.
These people are said to be mainly focused on “Let’s buy another company” strategies and, apparently, that doesn’t work for the magazine’s editorial staff.
Of Steve Jobs, ranking no.5 in the ‘Most Valuable CEOs’ chart, they had this to say:
"It’s unavoidable. Despite the “dependence-on-Steve-Jobs” risk element in our scoring methodology, Apple still blew the doors off in terms of wealth creation. And there is a lot to admire—in the main, intent and ability. Apple is all about creating “hit records”—blockbuster products and services, on purpose. They want to. They’re serious. They’re good at it. Because they’ve built the ability to create hit records, from perceiving nascent/obvious-in-retrospect market needs through designing and delivering products and services matched to those needs, and that excite. They have, well, flair. Apple’s success is built on design: of their offerings, of the businesses they’re in (the iTunes and app-store ecosystems) and of the way they shape, hone and control the offerings that get out the door—thus managing their brand. There’s little question that Steve Jobs is a unique talent. And one of the ways in which he’s applied that talent is creating an organization design that may well be able to replicate Apple’s performance to date even now that he’s no longer at its creative heart, or wooing its fans."
Steve Jobs passed away earlier this year due to complications caused by a returning pancreatic cancer.
Only a few months before the disease claimed his life, Jobs had delivered one of his iconic keynote presentations at his company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
According to family, friends, co-workers and his biographer - Walter Isaacson - Jobs worked on Apple products until his last day. The man was dedicated, to say the least.