I'm the former publisher Forbes (1998-2018) and its futurist and editor-at-large. I write the “Tech Connector” column for Forbes Asia, serve as host of the “Innovation Rules” video series for Forbes.com, and perform as a speaker and panel moderator at business and financial events around the world.
Watch sparks fly if you ask the above question in a hotbed of entrepreneurship such as Silicon Valley. That happened when Brian Chesky and Paul Graham, cofounders of Airbnb and Y Combinator, respectively, gave thumbs up to “founder mode” while ruthlessly trashing “manager mode.”
Coming from tech pillars such as Chesky and Graham, it’s an epic takedown of managers and their cohorts, such as strategy consultants, M.B.A. programs and financiers, who’ve never founded or run a company themselves. Founder or manager mode? It is a fight that may never be won. Success stories exist for both modes of leadership. Founder fans cheered Apple’s late Steve Jobs, imperious but effective.
Certainly, founder companies make for better stories. Founders are original, driven, quirky, apt to work 100-hour weeks, drive fast cars and shoot off their mouths. But life with colorful founders is not always so fun. For every successful one, more founder-led companies devolve into a mess of personality cults, cronyism, whimsical side trips, unproductive drama and chaos.
Microsoft’s quietly charismatic chief executive Satya Nadella managed to revive his company after the Gates-Ballmer era had fizzled. The world’s most underappreciated tech CEO is probably AMD’s Lisa Su. For half a century, Intel always led and AMD followed. Su and her team have flipped that script.
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