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| COURSE CONNECTOR |
| ARTICLE SUMMARIES AND QUESTIONS |
"Apple: The Genius Behind Steve," pp. 70-80: Another year, another Steve Jobs FORTUNE cover. Arguably no business chief typifies the "visionary CEO" archetype better than Apple's Jobs, who appears to have a supernatural ability to refashion whole industries with a wave of his hand. In spite of his almost mystical business powers, however, Jobs is all too human. He survived a brush with death in 2004, when he was diagnosed with a rare, treatable form of pancreatic cancer, and he showed up at a company event last June looking frightfully skinny and pale. So like it or not, succession talk is probably appropriate. But who could possibly follow a magic act like Jobs? The logical choice is Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer. Cook actually has replaced Jobs once already — he filled in for him during Jobs' recovery from cancer surgery. Aside from that brief interlude of visibility, Cook toils uber-industriously but quietly behind the scenes at Apple. For that reason, he is a bit of an enigma. What is clear, though, is that while his temperament is in many ways antithetical to Jobs', he is equally obsessive and exacting about his work, suggesting that if he gets the call to replace Jobs, he just might fill the shoes better than the world thinks.
This article profiles Tim Cook, the hard-working, under-the-radar chief operating officer of Apple, who may one day replace charismatic CEO Steve Jobs.
Discussion Questions:- What has been Tim Cook's greatest contribution to the success of
Apple? What was his first objective shortly after arriving at the company
in 1998? What was the rationale behind it? How has it helped increase
Apple's profits?
- Why do some detractors, including an unnamed Silicon Valley investor cited in the article, think that Cook would be an unwise choice to succeed Steve Jobs? Do you agree? Why or why not? What qualities does Cook have in his favor?
- What other Apple executives could be in line for the top job? What experience and personal attributes make them viable candidates? In your opinion, who is the best choice to replace Jobs?
"The President’s Challenge: CEO in Chief," pp. 82-88: There's no great love lost between President-elect Barack Obama and big business. Throughout his presidential campaign, his stump speeches brimmed with references to the "greed" of Wall Street and overpaid CEOs. Reflecting in his memoir, Dreams from My Father, on his brief post-college stint as a researcher and later financial writer at a corporate consulting firm, he even went so far as to say that the job made him feel like a "spy behind enemy lines." How ironic, then, that Obama will become sort of a captain of industry when he is inaugurated in January. Thanks to massive, unprecedented government intervention, he will be steering a government that will be deeply involved in owning and regulating business. He will be in a position to pick future winners and losers from among those companies that come to the federal bank with their hat in their hand. He will oversee the use of taxpayer money by private lenders. And as he guides an economy already slipping into a painful recession, he will sit atop the biggest pot of funding and capital available — the U.S. Treasury. That's a lot of corporate-style power for a lifelong critic of, well, corporate-style power. Americans can only hope that the role suits him more than perhaps even he ever imagined.
Students take a closer look at the slate of pressing economic concerns that President-elect Barack Obama must address when he becomes "CEO" of the United States.
Discussion Questions:
- In the political sense, why will the challenges of stabilizing the
fragile housing market and simultaneously promoting globalization and
unionization be especially tricky for Barack Obama to navigate? If
you were one of Obama's economic advisors, how would you recommend
that he deal with these issues?
- How might the nation's financial regulatory structure be reshaped
during Obama's administration? Why does that worry some economists?
- In what areas is Obama likely to increase federal spending? In your opinion, which investments would have the best probability of jump-starting the economy? Explain.
"Ospraie in a Corner," pp. 94-102: By the time Dwight Anderson got a chance to create his own hedge fund, courtesy of Paul Tudor Jones in 1999, he had already made the decision not to merely resell or reprocess another manager’s investing thesis. Hence, he created his fund, Ospraie, to profit from the long upward move in the price of real things — commodities. His plan was to make commodities markets less nerve-wracking for investors through two tactics. The first was to trade not only commodities but also the stocks of companies whose prices would mimic the movements of the commodities. The second was to know what he was investing in. Anderson was the sort of guy who lunched with farmers in Brazil before taking a position in sugar. For a while, the plan worked. In the bull market, Ospraie's focus on diligence was richly rewarded, and earlier this year, Ospraie reached its peak, with $9 billion in total assets under management across several funds including the main Ospraie fund, a fund-of-funds business, and a private-equity-style Special Opportunities Fund. But over the summer, the bear market came roaring in, and Ospraie's buy-and-hold philosophy made it especially vulnerable. By Sept. 2, its main fund was shuttered, proof that even the best investment thesis can be brought down by bad timing.
In this article, students read how Dwight Anderson’s once strong Ospraie hedge fund became one more victim of the market’s horrendous year
Discussion Questions:
- What special talent does the author call the "definition . . . of
a hedge fund"? Do you believe Dwight Anderson is possessed of this
particular skill? Explain your answer with regard to the fate of Ospraie's
main fund.
- In what sense did poor timing, as opposed to misguided investment theory, work against Anderson? What Ospraie vehicle might ultimately reward Anderson’s patient investment style? Why?
- What earlier commitment pushed Anderson and Ospraie's board to decide to close the main fund? Why was that a shrewd move in hindsight?
"'You Have Victims Working for You. You Have Batterers Working for You Too,'" pp. 122-133: It’s rarely a topic of corporate conversation, yet it can deeply affect any organization touched by it. It is domestic violence, and it is progressively becoming an issue that companies will have to confront. Traditionally, companies try to stay out of employees’ personal lives, particularly their relationship problems. But changing employee attitudes and demographics, as well as the efforts of some trailblazing CEOs, are converging to drag this issue out of the closet. With so many women in the workforce, and with e-mail, text messaging, and cellphones connecting them to the office around the clock, domestic violence comes to work whether executives like it or not. Moreover, it affects the bottom line. For one thing, it threatens workplace safety, and from an HR perspective, it is more volatile and potentially dangerous than drug addiction or alcoholism. It also impacts attendance and focus, whether the employee is the victim or the batterer. So what is the solution? Different companies take different approaches, with standouts like Liz Claiborne, Allstate, and Verizon Wireless leading the charge. Nevertheless, considering that only 13% of CEOs responding to a 2007 survey indicated that corporations ought to play a major role in addressing domestic violence, there remains much progress to be made.
Students examine the myriad effects that domestic violence can have on a company that employs a victim (or a batterer) and what to do about it.
Discussion Questions:
- What factors make the workplace so central in a domestic violence situation? Why does Allstate CEO Thomas J. Wilson call money the batterer’s “weapon of choice”? How can this lead to disruption at work?
- Compare and contrast the measures that corporate pioneers in combating
domestic violence — Liz Claiborne, Allstate, and Verizon Wireless — have
taken. In light of the personal accounts related in the article, which
approaches appear to be most effective in keeping employees safe? Why?
- To what legal ramifications can dealing with domestic abuse expose companies? Why does the article recommend that companies should not try to solve domestic abuse problems themselves? What resources are available to companies preparing to take action on the issue?
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