Steve Jobs was one of the most innovative and forward thinking business leaders in history, and he also made tons of money for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shareholders by revolutionizing several industries with disruptive products and technologies. The question of who may be the next Steve Jobs is not only an intellectually stimulating one; it can also lead to some very profitable investment decisions for investors who position themselves for growth by betting on the right companies and CEOs.
Tim Cook was chosen by Steve Jobs himself to be in charge of the company he founded, quite a distinction for anyone in the business world. Few people got to know and understand Steve Jobs like Cook did over the years, and the trust that Jobs deposited on his successor is a powerful statement on itself. However, Cook comes more from a business background than one of innovation and design.
When it comes to “product guys,” Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), could be a more likely candidate. Ive is a designer behind many of the company´s most successful products, and he used to work side-by-side with Steve Jobs in the creative process when conceiving products like the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. On the other hand, he hasn´t demonstrated the kind of leadership and entrepreneurial talent that made Jobs such a unique person, at this stage in his career he has proven to be an amazing designer, but not necessarily a corporate leader or entrepreneur.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has not delivered any disruptive new products after Steve Jobs. The iPad Mini is a big commercial success, but hardly an aggressive innovation in comparison to previous iPad models. Tim Cook has been quite explicit about the fact that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is working on new product categories, which should hit the markets in the middle term
, categories being the key word here, as opposed to new versions of existing products.
These new launches could be crucial when it comes to evaluating the company´s innovative drive without Steve Jobs. However, even if Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) delivers another blockbuster product, it will most likely be the result of team work combining the talent of designers, engineers, and people in areas like marketing and operations, not so much of a single visionary mind. The next Steve Jobs is not likely to come from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).
According to Walter Isaacson in his excellent biography of Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple admired Mark Zuckerberg “for not selling out, for wanting to make a company.” Zuckerberg has one important thing in common with jobs: vision, the drive to create something valuable and permanent, not just making some money the quick and easy way.
Zuckerberg has been quite clear about this in Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s regulatory filings before going public: “we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.” The social network has more than 1 billion users, so there is little doubt that Zuckerberg and his company have achieved a remarkable level of success so far.
But Zuckerberg still needs to prove that he can stand the test of time. Can Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) continue adapting, innovating and thriving in the long term? The mobile computing boom is presenting a serious challenge to the company, and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has also been losing users – especially the much coveted young users – to other social networks like Twitter and Tumblr.
At his young age of 29, Zuckerberg is off to an amazing start, but he still has a long way to go before he can be measured up against someone like Steve Jobs. Building a successful company like Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is a remarkable achievement, but Steve Jobs wasn´t about one product or one company, he had the ability to continuously innovate and disrupt different industries under different conditions.
Elon Musk likes to think big, and he is unquestionably one of the most ambitious and successful business leaders of our time. The South African American entrepreneur has already founded some remarkably innovative companies in different areas, and there is no slowdown in sight for his amazing career of entrepreneurship and disruption.
Musk was one of the brains behind the early success of PayPal, which he sold to eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) for $1.5 billion back in October of 2002. Plenty of time has passed since them, and eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) deserves its fair share of the credit for propelling PayPal into the leading electronic payment method, but PayPal would hardly be what it is now without Elon Musk.
And it’s a really big thing: PayPal is already accepted by more than 60 of the top 100 online retailers in the U.S., and it processes more than 25% of online retail transactions in the country. As of the first quarter of this year, PayPal had 128 million active accounts globally; and it´s now expanding rapidly into mobile and also offline. PayPal is at the forefront of the electronic payments revolution, and both eBay and Elon Musk are responsible for that.
Musk is also the Chairman and largest shareholder in SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY), the company which is trying to revolutionize the energy industry by promoting a clean and renewable source like solar. SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY) is the market share leader in the residential solar market, and it has been growing rapidly through both acquisitions and an expanding customer base.
The company is not profitable at this stage, but it is building a potentially very attractive business. SolarCity gets revenue from its customers in the long term. Leases last as long as 20 years, so all the money that the company is currently investing to build its business has the potential to provide huge cash flows over the next years. Solar is a risky sector exposed to changing industry dynamics and regulatory uncertainties, but Musk and SolarCity are keeping their eyes on the long term without worrying too much about short-term hurdles.
Speaking about benefitting shareholders via disruptive innovation, shares of Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) have returned an explosive 200% in the last 3 months alone. The stock seems a bit overcharged lately, but the electric car company founded by Musk – he is the CEO and largest shareholder – has many exciting things going on for investors.
The Model S has been widely acclaimed by the critics and selling better than anticipated, the company turned its first profit ever in the last quarter, and Musk has recently announced a tripling of the company’s charging stations in order to make it possible for Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) drivers to drive from Los Angeles to New York City as soon as this year.
Tesla is creating and defining the electric car industry, and it´s doing it Steve Jobs style: Instead of trying to evaluate the viability of the product with incremental steps, Musk is just moving forward at full speed and building high quality electric cars with confidence that customers will embrace the concept once they understand it´s much more than a transitory fad. For all we know, Musk may be on his way to dramatically changing the automotive industry.
Like Steve Jobs used to say, there is one more thing: Musk is the creative mind and leader behind space transport company SpaceX, a major provider of launch services that has contracts with NASA and also with private sector companies. Musk believes that SpaceX will eventually send humans to Mars. How about that for disruptive innovation?
These kinds of comparisons are necessarily too simplistic; every person is unique, and Steve Jobs was one of a kind. But if drive, vision and the talent to disrupt several industries while creating enormous value for shareholders in the long term are characteristics of the “next Steve Jobs,” then Elon Musk is an amazing candidate for that title.
The article May the Real “Next Steve Jobs” Please Stand Up? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Andrés Cardenal owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Apple, eBay, Facebook, and Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) . The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, eBay, Facebook, and Tesla Motors. Andrés is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.
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