When founders leave: lessons for Apple from Microsoft, Intel, and Sun

[DainBramaged]

The Internet is crawling with Jobs reports today. Nearly every news aggregator puts Apple's new leadership situation ahead of hurricane Irene evacuations. (Though always-classy AOL promotes the 10-year anniversary of Aaliyah's death and some scandalous Blake Lively pictures instead. Finger on the pulse!)

So the CEO torch has been passed to Chief Operating Officer and occasional substitute CEO Tim Cook. Visionary founder and leader Steve Jobs takes a strictly strategic role as Chairman of the Board, and may dump his trademark turtlenecks for a Sinatra-style tuxedo.

Torches pass down all the time, sometimes even from standout leaders in Steve Jobs' class. So let's look at a few famous stories of charismatic leaders passing the baton to see what history suggests about Apple under the leadership of Cook.

Case study 1: Microsoft from Bill Gates to Steve Ballmer
Perhaps the closest analogy to Steve's resignation comes from arch-rival Microsoft. Bill Gates made Microsoft into the most valuable company in the world before stepping down: Apple's $349 billion market cap as of last night looks paltry next to Microsoft's $600 billion valuation at the end of 1999.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/08/when-founders-leave-lessons-for-apple-from-microsoft-intel-and-sun.ars