Apple's first chief executive was not founder Steve Jobs but Michael Scott. Mike Markkula, who joined as an early angel investor, concluded that the startup needed a solid management foundation. That is why he recruited Scott, a former semiconductor executive, as the first CEO instead of Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the two pillars of Apple's founding. But Scott clashed frequently with the strong-willed Jobs and left the company four years later. Markkula became the second CEO, followed by John Sculley from PepsiCo as the third, who also fell into severe conflict with Jobs. The board sided with Sculley, and Jobs had to leave Apple in 1985.
Jobs' return to Apple reads like a drama. After buying Pixar from George Lucas and scoring a major hit with the animated film "Toy Story," he came back as Apple's sixth CEO in 1997. He then rolled out products such as the iMac and the iPhone, emerging as an icon of innovation. That is why many people remember him as Apple's true first-generation CEO. His successor, Tim Cook, earned a reputation as a genius of supply chain management and lifted Apple's market capitalization more than tenfold over 15 years.
With Cook's exit on the 1st of this month and the succession of John Ternus, an engineer by background, Apple's leadership is moving toward a third generation. Ternus' arrival means more than a simple generational change. Bloomberg said the most urgent task facing the new chief executive is restoring the company's technological competitiveness in artificial intelligence. Ternus, who studied mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, joined Apple in 2001 and played a central role in developing the iPad and AirPods under both Jobs and Cook. Yet some point out that Ternus' philosophy of emphasizing hardware technology could prove toxic in the AI era. To carry on the glory of Apple's golden age and stand tall as its third-generation CEO, Ternus will have to demonstrate a new form of disruptive innovation that goes beyond Jobs and Cook.
