Steve Ballmer and the Problem With Rock Star CEOs | To build a Great company, Rock ON

To be or Not to be… A Rock Star CEO.

For old fashioned corporate honchos, Rock Star & CEO may be an oxymoron.

First of all, was Balmer really a Rock Star ? Was the image creation of media & also, may be, by Microsoft ?
Microsoft missed the boat on search, on mobile, and on the cloud, thankfully did not miss on gaming with Xbox (my son is a proud owner!)
Or is it a problem with the culture at Microsoft, which does not develop leaders ?
In the specific case of Balmer, wonder if he had a Coach

One of the most successful and flamboyant CEOs, Sir Richard Branson, says ‘To Build A Great Company, Rock On‘. But, he gives a twist to it…

He says, ‘as an entrepreneur, it is up to you to create the kind of workplace and company culture that will attract great talent‘.

Can professional CEO’s ever step into the shoes of an entrepreneur, esp if his predecessor is someone like Bill Gates in the case of Balmer ( even Cook after Steve Jobs) ?
Can Microsoft really stake claim to having ‘great talent’ or have they been riding on the “product”, even though their product was indeed a ‘service’, software ? The fact they had such a dominant presence, did they really create a company culture like GE ?
Of course, the beautiful “twist’ Sir Branson gives is the CSR angle. Involve staff, during their official time, with the company’s charity events. Let the event be a musical one… Is that not a wonderful thought ?
Very relevant to India when there is a renewed focus on CSR & iCSR (individual CSR, at employee level).
Just ROCK ON!!

Rock Star CEO