SF Business Journal Names Jobs Top Exec Of The Year

by , 11:00 AM EST, December 30th, 2003

Being big fans of all things Apple such as many of you are, anyone asking you to pick a CEO who has done the best job of running a company, no one would be surprised if you gave them Steve Jobs as your pick. If asked why you chose Mr. Jobs you would likely point to the iTunes Music Store, the iPod, the new G5 Power Mac, or OS X Panther and mumble something about innovation. A few of you might even point to Pixar's movie track record and and offer a few words about hits and profits. Fewer still would offer words the included both Pixar and Apple, though many of you know Jobs leads both companies.

The San Francisco Business Times has also asked itself who is the best CEO this year and came to the same conclusion: Steve Jobs. The newspaper explained its choice in detail in an article titled, appropriately enough, Executive of the Year. Here's an excerpt:

Steve Jobs has been lauded as a technology visionary since he co-founded Apple Computers more than 20 years ago, but even he couldn't have foreseen how doubly good 2003 would be.

Both companies where Jobs is CEO -- Apple and Pixar Animation Studios -- notched profitable years despite continued anemia in the larger tech economy.

Much more importantly, each broke ground in its respective industry, and in a way that heralds a razzle-dazzle z future.

At Apple, Jobs rolled out iTunes, positioning Apple as a leader in the burgeoning digital music field and driving sales of its popular iPod gadgets. As of mid-December, Apple said users had downloaded 25 million songs from iTunes.

And Pixar? All it did was release "Finding Nemo," its fifth straight blockbuster film. By year's end, Nemo was the highest-grossing animated film of all time, with a box-office total of $400 million and rising. Released on DVD last month, it became the best-selling animation DVD ever -- in two weeks.

All this is even more surprising, given one thing that Jobs has rarely been called: a good executive. With two companies to steer, it's been vital that Jobs surround himself with good people, and give them the leeway to do their jobs -- skills at which he has been notoriously deficient in the past.

The article goes on to discuss some the historic details of Mr. Jobs' leadership of both Apple and Pixar. It is a good read so stop by the San Francisco Business Journal's website for the .

The Mac Observer Spin:

Executive of the Year