Here is a brief excerpt from an article by Steve Lappin on LinkedIn. To read the complete article and check out others, please click here.

 

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Since the sad passing of the visionary Steve Jobs, Apple seems to be losing its magic. Today it made a bold and eye-catching appointment by poaching Angela Ahrendts, the CEO of Burberry.

For me this raises three fundamental questions:

o Can she really make an impact?
o What does this mean for CEO Tim Cook and can they work successfully together?
o What does this mean for the future of Apple?

From my work as a CEO confidant and co-author of The Secrets of CEOs, I have met with thousands of different business leaders. I realized that there was not one way of being a CEO but seven different types in the Western world. Each typically has different motives, strengths and challenges.

Steve Jobs was a corporate entrepreneur. He was driven by the obsession and love that he had for his products, and his personal mission to put a dent in the universe. He achieved this through relentless determination, and the support of his trusted lieutenants.

Angela Ahrendts and Tim Cook are both very different characters from both Steve Jobs and each other, and have different CEO types. It is important to understand these types and thatAngela and Tim will have different ways of working:

Tim Cook came from a logistics background and is a professional manager operator:

Angela Ahrendts is a combination of two types of CEO, which we typically don’t see in one individual leader:

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To read the complete article, please click here.

Steve is a personal confidant to many of the world’s top CEOs. He is the host of BBC “CEO Guru”, which features in-depth, on-the-record interviews with the CEOs of the biggest and fastest-growing companies. Founder of WorldOfCEOs.com, Steve is the co-author of The Secrets of CEOs: 150 Global Chief Executives Lift the Lid on Business, Life and Leadership, published by Nicholas Brealey (2008). You are cordially invited check out these websites:

Twitter link

World of CEOs link

xinfu.com link

Facebook link

BBC link