Steve Jobs – CEO of the decade

It’s 2009, almost 2010. And like anyone who was there in 1999 knows, that means two things. 1) Some pandemic will come along and ultimately not do much (hello, swine flu, millennium bug) and 2) lists of “best” and “worst” ofs will come along to chronicle our experience of the “naughties” (let it be known: this phrase was never really used, do not use that to reference this decade in the future, please!).

Well, the first list or accolade dedicated to the last 10 years is the easiest. The best CEO is a no brainer. It wasn’t going to be Bill Gates at Microsoft after Vista-gate, hardly going to be the GM/GE top dogs, or the guys at Intel or IBM who didn’t really over-achieve by the leaps and bounds they should have.

Nope, the award goes to the guy who was booted out of his own company, brought back in, and turned that same company from a dottering old fool into one of the power houses of today’s technologic, entertainment and computing industries. Apple. Mr. Steve Jobs…!

In the period from 1985 to 1996, Jobs started another company called NeXT which was ultimately a failure. Good idea’s, bad implementation, and strange management (ironically) plagued the start up. In that time Jobs also bought Pixar from George Lucas. NeXT was then bought by Apple, and well the rest is history.

After Jobs returned to Apple, here’s what he helped get out to us, the adoring public: iTunes, Mac, Macbook, iPod, iPhone, the iTunes and iPhone App Stores, dotMac/mobileMe, Apple TV, Airport, Time Capsule, and a range of operating systems that consistently get better, easier to use and dominant over the competition.

Forbes Magazine said, when handing out the award, “The past decade in business belongs to Jobs. What makes that simple statement even more remarkable is that barely a year ago it seemed likely that any review of his accomplishments would be valedictory. But by deeds and accounts, Jobs is back.”

Despite my love of Apple, the future (27″ iMacs, new iPhones and *pray* an iTablet) and everything Jobs has, can and will do (including overcoming cancer)… I still think some other CEO’s could have gotten the award. Eric Schmidt from Google, for example. His talks (mostly available on YouTube) are awe-inspiring without trying to oversell his brand whereas Jobs is a consummate salesman.

Either way, congratulations Steve. Here’s to the next 10…