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Great CEOs Must be Either Technical or Financial

by ___Calv_Dee___ on 3/11/12, 2:58 PM with 26 comments

• by jonnathanson on 3/11/12, 6:06 PM

  The problem with this article is that Rao keeps his key criteria, "technical" and "financial," pretty loosely defined and conveniently flexible. Steve Jobs, for instance, gets a pass as "technical" under Rao's framework. While there's no question that Jobs had a profound understanding of technology, he couldn't have built Apple's first products by himself. Or, arguably, with the help of any old technical co-founder. In Steve Wozniak, he had no less than a once-in-a-generation technical genius at his side. Jobs had unparalleled technical vision, but he was not "technical" in the way that, say, Bill Gates was "technical." And yet, jobs was a tremendously effective CEO.

  Furthermore, Rao's assertion that Jobs lacked "people skills" is demonstrably false. It's true that Jobs was an unrelenting perfectionist, an introvert, at times a genuine asshole, and probably narcissistic. But to say he lacked "people skills" is to ignore his profound understanding of how to communicate with people. How to inspire people, be they co-founders, employees, or customers. How to move people. These skills had to be quite strong, indeed, in order to overcome the barriers his difficult personality erected around him. When we speak of "people skills," we really need to define what we're talking about. If we're simply talking about being an affable guy, then no, most CEOs probably don't pass the test. But if we're talking about the ability to understand, speak to, lead, organize, and often downright manipulate people, then yes, "people skills" are pretty crucial.

• by overgard on 3/11/12, 5:41 PM

  The author of this article (Venkatesh Rao) also is the person behind the highly entertaining "gervais principle" series: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-o...

• by mattmaroon on 3/11/12, 5:30 PM

  This might have been a good article if there were any data at all to back up any assertion. There are just a couple mildly amusing anecdotes (Bill Gates was technical!) where real data might actually be possible.

• by astrofinch on 3/11/12, 9:39 PM

  Being a jerk CEO could be a high variance strategy: a few very visible big winners and lots of less visible losers.

• by malachismith on 3/11/12, 8:14 PM

  I'm sure we can all list a dozen great CEOs off the tops of our heads who are neither -- unless we do as the author has done and redefine each to be so broad they are meaningless. Really dumb article.

• by adrianwaj on 3/11/12, 5:19 PM

  I remember Scott McNealy saying he (and presumably his team) underestimated the impact and importance of 32 bit computing and concentrated on 64 bit. That'd be a strategic technical oversight. Maybe they wanted people to go to thin-clients. I suppose the key when you're that big is to work out when you do or can shape trends, and when you can and must follow them. Not sure Jonathan Schwartz corrected course, or by then too late.

• by rhizome on 3/11/12, 5:25 PM

  Good old Forbes, providing a forum for their preferred business configurations. The author bases the entire article on a strawman of "CEOs," but monolithic stereotypes help no one.

• by joejohnson on 3/11/12, 8:56 PM

  For a moment I thought that said "Great CEOs Must be Ethical..." Of course, that's false.

• by shingen on 3/11/12, 8:59 PM

  "Fast forward to today, and as a recent insightful post pointed out, even the "non-technical" members of famous founding pairs like Gates/Allen or Jobs/Wozniak have been extremely technical."

  So, uhm, when were either Gates or Allen ever considered non-technical? (even relatively speaking) Which of the pair is supposedly the less technical founder? Both were extraordinarily technical. Hey Rao, your ignorance is showing.

• by Chirag on 3/11/12, 5:29 PM

  Kind of disagree, CEO - Should be from more from Sales than Tech/Finance.

  As CEO's main job is to get more money, get new partnerships in place, etc.

  founders/products architects can be Tech/Finance.