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Steve Jobs: When salespeople run tech giants it's over

Great tech companies don't let great salesmen become CEOs. Why? They don't know squat about product.
Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor

Steve Jobs' parting shot against rivals is notable as he disses Steve Ballmer and a few others from the grave. But the broader message---once the sound bite are put in context---is that salesmen as CEO typically means the death of potentially great companies.

Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs just landed on Amazon's Kindle. The first move for me is to read some of those sound bites in context. Videos have run ahead of the release of Isaacson's book, but it always helps to have the broader picture.

60 Minutes: What did Steve Jobs say about his rivals?

First, Jobs gives Bill Gates some loaded praise. "I admire him for the company he built---it's impressive--and I enjoyed working with him. He's bright and actually has a good sense of humor. But Microsoft never had the humanities in its DNA. Even when they saw the Mac, they couldn't copy it well. They totally didn't get it," said Jobs.

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