Interesting article, but the author is blind to the many, many, _many_ other companies who "bucked the trend" and went down in flames. It would have been a lot better if he compared Jobs successes with other people's horrible failures in doing the exact same thing. Unfortunately, sadistic bosses and evil managers will look at this article and think "Hey, I can be as nasty as I want and it will improve my company."

There's no trend bucking, here! Being an asshole is a long standing tradition in upper management.

What's unusual about Steve Jobs is that his vision, and the resulting products, DON'T SUCK. I'm glad he didn't compromised on it's execution. NOW we can all see that there's no reason he ever should have.

A look back at the John Scully days brings that into sharp relief. Hell, look around on the Subway: ipods everywhere, I carry a MacBook, white Apple stickers stuck over Dell emblems on those dog-ugly chassis... I love it!

Doesn't even Microsoft routinely engage in the sincerest form of flattery? Yet their products remain are SO poisoned by group thinking by engineers for engineers. (Although I do quite like playing with PowerPoint 2007. It ain't productive exactly, but ya sure can make pretty pictures really fast.)

Charisma helps at a tactical level, no doubt, as much as bad manners hurts. But I bet what carried him all these miles, is that people who work, wheel and deal with Steve Jobs harbor no doubt where they stand with him. At the end of the day, you feel no need to screw him over because, if nothing else, he didn't lie to you.

When Steve Jobs gives up the helm (dead, tired, FIRED), look out, because it's slam back to mediocrity. Because you can't TEACH vision. You can't TEACH people to care.

Read this: Got a singular vision? Think different? Well, then you BETTER be an asshole to get it done. Vision not so great? Products turn out to suck? Well, then out with you. Go stand with the other assholes who aren't Steve Jobs.