Apple Significantly Shakes Up Its Executive Team Discussion

[Ed Hardy]

There are big changes coming to the top-level executives at Apple. This includes the departure of Scott Forstall, who was in charge of development of the operating system for the iPhone and iPad.

Read the full content of this Article: Apple Significantly Shakes Up Its Executive Team

Related Articles:

• Apple iPhone Sales in Q3 Good, Not a Record
• Steve Wozniak Wants a Bigger iPhone
• Apple iPhone 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy S III
• Apple Still Strong a Year After Steve Jobs' Death

[Drillbit]

He sounds like a control freak.

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk 2

[Ed Hardy]

Everyone likes to play "What Would Jobs Have Done?" Most agree that Apple's former CEO wouldn't have apologized for releasing Maps too soon. But would he have fired Forstall for the mistake?

He fired the man responsible for Antennagate:
The Man Behind the iPhone 4 Has Left Apple

[Adama D. Brown]

He sounds like a control freak.

Probably, but so was Jobs to a large extent.

[rkevwill]

He was pretty close to Forstall, and may not have fired him in the last couple years of his life, as the story goes, he actually "mellowed" a touch, and valued old friendships. But, if you read the book, he certainly was not shy about firing, or parting ways with old friends years earlier. I think Scott cooked his own goose, with maps, siri, and terrible interpersonal relationships within the management team.

Look at how much we here at the forums panned Maps and Siri. We should actually be pleased this happened!

[questionfear]

I think this is a good lesson in interpersonal skills. Apple may be the more high profile company, but this happens all the time in corporate America. I vividly recall my boss at Borders sweating bullets after a district manager change-he had been very close with our old DM, but the new one was more stiff and by the book. Any protections my boss had enjoyed as far as leeway under the old boss disappeared with the new one.

Replace "Apple" with "Random large corporation" and remove the names, and here's how the story reads: Strong employee enjoyed enormous freedom under the old boss. Successes were rewarded and failures were swept away. New boss comes in, and strong employee has a series of failures. All his successes were under the old boss, and the new boss sees nothing but someone who keeps failing to deliver. Is anyone surprised when the employee is fired?

I think reducing this story to "he didn't sign the maps apology" is silly, but I can easily believe that an executive with prior success got too cocky and screwed himself out of a job.