Steve Jobs honored as ‘CEO of the Decade’

MarketWatch has named Steve Jobs the CEO of the Decade. This year, MarketWatch took a different approach to its award: readers selected the CEO of the Year, and the editorial staff picked the CEO of the Decade.

Alan Mulally of Ford was named CEO of the Year. The list of candidates for CEO of the Decade  was:

  • Amazon: Jeff Bezos
  • Apple: Steve Jobs
  • Google: Eric Schmidt
  • Starbucks: Howard Schultz
  • Cummins: Tim Solso

In detailing their choice of Steve Jobs as CEO of the Decade, Marketwatch said that he “almost single-handedly went on to save the recording industry with the iPod and iTunes.” That probably a bit hyperbolic, but they also added some negatives.

For one, Marketwatch mentioned the options-backdating scandal that’s still frequently brought up. Additionally, they added the perception that he is irreplaceable. Alan Deutschman, author of the biography, “The Second Coming of Steve Jobs” said, “How many brushes with death does he have to have? He really hasn’t done anything to counter [the public perception that he’s irreplaceable]. That’s a big problem.”

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