Ex-Microsoft COO Bob Herbold Questions Apple’s Vision

By: Zain Nabi  |   March 26th, 2013   |   Apple, News

Once enjoying a very solid position in the stock market, Apple has lost its share value considerably during the recent times. However, there is no denying that a lot of this has to do with the overall trend in the industry that has seemingly become saturated. Still, the share price, argues Ex-Microsoft COO Bob Herbold, is not only determined by the market trend; in fact it has a lot to do with the people running the company.

 

In an article for Forbes, the former Microsoft COO has question Apple’s vision and the potential of its leadership. Comparing the era of Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs with the present time, Bob asserts that Jobs was “the ultimate visionary leader”. He believes that the public trusted Jobs, and their trust was translated into an increase in Apple’s stock value.

 

Talking about the leadership and its visionary attitude, Bob, who was Microsoft’s COO from 1994 to 2001, says:

 

“The leader needs to be paranoid about making the core offerings of the organization more exciting and more impactful with its customers. That sounds simple, but doing it with clarity and speed is absolutely necessary. You must avoid any kind of bureaucracy that can water down the impact of your efforts or slow it to a snail’s pace.”

 

Bob maintains that the reason behind Apple’s success during Jobs’ tenure was that the latter stayed involved personally in all the activities of the company and gave his input from conceptualisation to development of any product. He says:

 

“The leader needs to personally get involved with the details. The vision and the distinctiveness may be based on hard-core scientific technology or can be related to improving the customer experience.”

 

By the looks of the things, Bob does not seem to be taking shot at Apple’s current chief Tim Cook, who has been criticised by a number of analysts for lacking innovation. Cook seems to be more inclined towards expanding business of the company by increasing its consumer base and reaching new markets. Bob is of the view that Apple might come up with something surprising during the next few months, but he maintains that the public has not given the company that much support. According to Bob:

 

“Apple could surprise us in the next six to nine months by emerging with yet another big new idea. On the other hand, I think the stock market is telling us that the public is beginning to believe that Apple really doesn’t have strong visionary leadership. Apple will be a solid technology company but the Apple era may be on its way out.”

 

Photo: ClarkMorgan