Co-authored by James Allworth, Maxwell Wessel, and William Robert Wheeler.  Originally featured in the Harvard Business Review.
Last night in after-hours trading, Apple’s stock dropped precipitously. The prophets of Apple’s doom emerged after a very long hibernation. Even those bullish on Apple’s prospects could hardly muster more than lukewarm praise of Tim Cook’s appointment to CEO of Apple Inc, saying, “he’s pretty good, but he’s no Steve Jobs.” We believe they’re all missing the point. Jobs has managed to perform the ultimate feat of leadership — he’s embedded himself so deeply within the cultural fabric of Apple that the company no longer needs him.
This is not the first time that Steve Jobs has left Apple. And yes, the last time it was an unmitigated disaster. After Jobs’ departure, the company went … Read More »

Disclosure: The author is a shareholder in AOL.

It’s been funny watching the financial press and the tech community eviscerate AOL’s Patch.com since last week’sdisappointing earnings call. The irony is that Patch is AOL’s last, best chance to build a growth engine. Investors shouldn’t be calling for AOL to back off the business. They should be calling for AOL to double down — not by increasing Patch’s$150M+ yearly cash burn, but by increasing commitment.
Patch has the potential to be a truly disruptive business. The startup is trying to build a platform that could replace a disaggregated network of local news sources. Consider the market. There are … Read More »

Reprinted, Original published in the Harvard Business Review Online
For another look at the Spotify launch, see “Why I’m Not Going Near Spotify (and Why You Shouldn’t Either).”
iTunes as we know it is over. It is walking, talking, and continuing to pretend it’s alive, but Spotify, Europe’s outrageously successful streaming music product, has just shown us the future.
Though you might not even be aware of the competitor that is attacking the music titan of the past decade, that iTunes business model is about to be blown up completely and swiftly. And it could even be thought of as fitting; iTunes accomplished the … Read More »