Comment by hn_throwaway_99
7 days ago
Literally everything I've ever read about Forstall and his behavior post-Jobs makes me think he would have been an awful CEO. It just sounded like he was "Game of Thrones-ing" from the second Cook became CEO. E.g. it was widely reported that Ive and Forstall could barely stand to be in the same meeting with each other. I may have some criticisms in my mind about some of Ive's design post-Jobs, but I don't think I have ever heard other folks be critical of Ive's leadership style or personality - everything I've read about him uses words like "inspirational", "remarkable", "calm", etc. I've read tons of criticism about Forstall.
Mind throwing some links my way? I love me some Scott Forstall anecdotes.
Here, I'll start:
- https://randsinrepose.com/archives/innovation-is-a-fight/
- https://youtu.be/IiuVggWNqSA
- https://amazon.com/dp/B07D435DFQ
Nothing new probably - I just remember diving down the rabbit hole from the Wikipedia page on Forstall a couple years back, e.g. stuff like this: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20514464.
But more importantly, I take issue with the main theme of your first link, as it's stuff I've heard a bunch elsewhere. I can agree that "innovation requires some tension", but I think it's a huge mistake to think that because Forstall had some (or at least looked like he had some) of the qualities of Jobs that he was the right man for the <no pun intended> job. I.e the argument usually goes something like "Hey, Jobs was disagreeable and kind of an asshole, so since Forstall is disagreeable and even more of an asshole he should be CEO."
But that clearly misses the fact that Forstall could in no way engender the level of respect that Jobs had, and I don't think people would have respected him more if he became CEO. People really admired Jobs at a deep, deep level, and that was clearly not the case for Forstall based on the many other Apple execs who couldn't stand him.
That's unfortunate, I would read Creative Selection if I were you
TBF Jobs wasn't a well-rounded human being either.
It all comes down to what results they can produce inside the organization, people will bear the worst assholes if the output can justify it somehow.
I would agree about Ive, based on what he chose to mention about his team in a recent interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLb9g_8r-mE