CEO

Businessweek has a feature on Jonathan Schwartz, ex-Lighthouse Design and now the BMOC at SUN.

I always enjoyed SUN (sometimes a lot more than I enjoyed using SunOS or Solaris). Scott McNealy was never afraid to be a controversial figure.

Select Quotes:

“You already have zero privacy – get over it”

“Only a monopolist could study a business and ruin it by giving away products.”

“You’ve seen a huge decrease in the amount of browser innovation ever since Microsoft went out and bought Spyglass Technology and bundled it in for free into Windows. All of a sudden, people are saying ‘why do we want to innovate on Microsoft, who has cornered the market,’”

Schwartz himself, has made some bold steps. From his courting of NeXT in the late 80s to his insistance on McNealy leaving the running of the company to him, he’s not been afraid to make tough choices, decisive choices.

A couple of Schwartz quotes from his blog.

Different Isn’t Always Better, But Better’s Always Different

As with a lot of innovation, not every decision – nor product name, blog or line of code – starts on a spreadsheet. Opportunity’s often far harder to measure.

Better these guys than some wishy-washy CEO who fumbles and bumbles. Like, say, every Apple CEO post Jobs and pre-Jobs 2.0. Or the succession of bozos who’ve driven Nortel into the ground.

Shouldn’t the head honcho in an organisation be someone with vision and character? Love him or hate him, Michael Dell is a character and therefore cool. Gates was always a sneaky conniving businessman who could convince you to steal wallets after he had helped himelf to yours. In contrast, Steve Ballmer is your embarrassing uncle (like in his recent attempt to downplay Microsoft’s interest in Facebook by calling it a fad. Yes, Steve, it may be a fad but no-one believes your poker face and it’s not going to make them any cheaper). And yes, it’s a fad and I’m bored already with it.