Steve Jobs: One last thing!

As I was extolling the greatness of the latest and official biography of Steve Jobs, I omitted to link his professional life story with whatever is being teach in schools and particularly business schools, where the end – namely making money – still remains the name of the game. This means that every action a successful leader should take must be correlated with profits.

This stands in stark contrast with the best way to create a durable and successful enterprise by sheer forces of passion, commitment and focus on quality or any other unique characteristic an organization can generate. Companies that began and lasted by staying true to that approach have always been the most successful financially despite the foibles and idiosyncrasies of the their leaders that might not have been a textbook example of corporate behavior.

That passionate leader is the hot wire that let the current of success pass into the organization. Remove that leader through demotion, sale of the company or any other reason and the “magic” too often disappears. This elusive and potent life form is unfortunately a dimension that business schools and case studies haven't been able to put their fingers on...