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Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

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Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#51

Post by jnwatson »

anaganisk wrote: post #14

Umm, if the product is software the domain expertise helps for that, but im not sure how companies like Shell or United Airlines benifit from a software CEO.

"Systems thinking" is useful to manage any organization. I don't know if it scales, but I can't count the number of times I've seen an engineer put in charge of a project just because they can understand a data flow diagram.

Software is eating the world. IT costs and benefits are high. Getting IT right in many organizations is now more vital than ever before.

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#52

Post by rorykoehler »

replyifuagree wrote: post #49
rorykoehler wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it remain to be seen with Tim Cook. Cook is and has been knocking it out of the park on all fronts from product strategy to share price.

I think it took a while for the Ballmer effect to kick in at Microsoft. Organizations have creating new things baked into their DNA, and it does resist corrosion. So I am curious to see if Cook can avoid squelching that like Ballmer. Operations is great to have and Cook is really good at it. Focus on ops can destroy the creative process though. I figure another 8 years and we'll know for sure (Ballmer clocked in at 1…

The M1 chip and moving Jony Ive on points towards Cook being in a different league to Ballmer.

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#54

Post by kuu »

dogma1138 wrote: post #50
replyifuagree wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coding really does teach something that I've never learned anyplace else. I've also done just about zero in the arts, so maybe there are some parallels there, I should try music or painting someday to see. I know for sure that math and engineering classes didn't teach me what coding taught me.

And what would that be exactly?

For me it's at least the following:

- Attention to detail

- Control of flow (if this then that) mentality

- More binary thinking

- Precision when describing (programming does not allow ambiguity)

- A lot of frustration tolerance :)

That's at least my experience

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#56

Post by GeneBond »

sebmellen wrote: post #5

Does anyone find this methodology lazy, if not disingenuous? - Google/Alphabet's current CEO is a materials engineer [0] - Apple's current CEO is an MBA with a degree in industrial engineering [1]. Jobs, the founding CEO, was also not a software engineer. - Amazon's CEO, Bezos, was a software engineer [2], but it's widely known that he didn't do programming work for Amazon. I don't think he would consider himself a "…

Hi, I'm the original author. The point of the article is as follows: there is clearly a trend towards top market-cap companies being founded by software engineering CEOs, but why? The data regarding the trend is pretty clear. I believe there are two reasons:

1. Software has become a global form of super infrastructure that facilitate scaling, but there's more going on. 2. I believe that guys like Zuckerberg, Bezos, Musk and Gates are using software effectively to speed value fulfillment cycles – pretty much in everything they are doing, from rockets to eradicating disease, or just shipping packages.

Software engineering CEOs are realizing value at faster rates, IMO, by executing well on all 4 stages of the value fulfillment cycle -- see https://iism.org/post/glossary-value-stage-82. I mean, these guys are all billionaires, so clearly the market thinks they are valuable (Larry, Sergey and Ma Huateng as well).

As to why: I believe it’s the relationship between emerging infrastructure and the value fulfillment cycle. Software happens to be the emerging super infrastructure, so software engineers are naturally emerging as the next generation of industrialists. Not to say there aren’t other emerging trends of significance; but for now, software and software variants is the emerging super infrastructure. Discovery of value has always been the result of iterative discovery – software just happens to facilitate quick iterations of value attempts, and software engineer tend to be more Agile than traditional plan driven companies.

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#57

Post by tchalla »

replyifuagree wrote: post #49
rorykoehler wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it remain to be seen with Tim Cook. Cook is and has been knocking it out of the park on all fronts from product strategy to share price.

I think it took a while for the Ballmer effect to kick in at Microsoft. Organizations have creating new things baked into their DNA, and it does resist corrosion. So I am curious to see if Cook can avoid squelching that like Ballmer. Operations is great to have and Cook is really good at it. Focus on ops can destroy the creative process though. I figure another 8 years and we'll know for sure (Ballmer clocked in at 1…

> I think it took a while for the Ballmer effect to kick in at Microsoft.

Tim Cook is about 2/3rds through of Ballmer's tenure. If you were to take a bet today, do you see Tim Cook doing the direction of Ballmer?

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#58

Post by Austin_Conlon »

rorykoehler wrote: post #52
replyifuagree wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it took a while for the Ballmer effect to kick in at Microsoft. Organizations have creating new things baked into their DNA, and it does resist corrosion. So I am curious to see if Cook can avoid squelching that like Ballmer. Operations is great to have and Cook is really good at it. Focus on ops can destroy the creative process though. I figure another 8 years and we'll know for sure (Ballmer clocked in at 1…

The M1 chip and moving Jony Ive on points towards Cook being in a different league to Ballmer.

Also Microsoft lost all relevance in being a mobile phone platform under Ballmer. I can't think of a similar blunder from Cook, maybe losing mindshare from creative professionals, but that's a much smaller market that Apple could be making a comeback in.

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#60

Post by Aerroon »

kuu wrote: post #54
dogma1138 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what would that be exactly?

For me it's at least the following: - Attention to detail - Control of flow (if this then that) mentality - More binary thinking - Precision when describing (programming does not allow ambiguity) - A lot of frustration tolerance :) That's at least my experience

I would also add classification and focusing on edge cases.
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