More on Apple

The comment Jobs was a jerk caught Rico's eye in a column by Rana Foroohar in the current issue of Time:

Technology has been a consistent bright spot in the US economy over the past few years, and no company has epitomized that better than Apple... Walter Issacson, who wrote a biography of Steve Jobs, said: "Business schools often ask me what Steve Jobs teaches us about leadership. It's not that he parked in the handicapped spot, or that he was nasty to people. It's that he took responsibility for his products from end to end, that he put products above return on investment, and that he wasn't a slave to focus groups.
As Jobs told Issacson: 

My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products. Everything else was secondary. Sure, it was great to make a profit, because that was what allowed you to make great products. But the products, not the profits, were the motivation. It's a subtle difference, but it ends up meaning everything. The people you hire, who gets promoted, what you discuss in meetings.

Rico says the guy may have been (okay, was) a jerk (he did park in the handicapped space, and was certainly nasty to people, usually those who deserved it), but Apple got to $500 a bucks a share in spite of that...