Oracle CEO Larry Ellison sat down with CBS correspondent Charlie Rose for an interview recently, which is set to air on Tuesday on the “CBS This Morning Show.” Amongst a host other topics, Ellison and Rose spoke about Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs.
Ellison and Jobs had a well-known relationship throughout the years, and Ellison to the opportunity to bestow is admiration for Jobs. “He was brilliant,” Ellison said in a preview of the interview released Monday. “He was our Edison, he was our Picasso. He was an incredible inventor.”
According to cnet.com:
“Ellison was a close friend of Jobs and has frequently commended the Apple co-founder’s skill, insight, and attention to detail. As far back as 1998, Ellison sang Jobs’ praises, saying that he was Apple’s best chief executive. And, when Jobs passed away in 2011, Ellison said, ‘Steve would translate good ideas into a finished product unlike anyone in the industry.’
“In the CBS preview Charlie Rose asks Ellison about what he thinks the future holds for Apple now that Steve is gone, and he thinks its future is doomed.
“‘Well, we already know,’ Ellison told Rose. ‘We saw, we conducted the experiment. I mean, it’s been done. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. We saw Apple without Steve Jobs. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. Now, we’re gonna see Apple without Steve Jobs.'”
Although Ellison’s comment on what happened to Apple when Jobs left the first time around in the ’80s and ’90s, the comparison to present day Apple is incomplete.
When Jobs left Apple in ’80s he was forced out by then-CEO John Sculley. The company took a downturn because it moved away from Job’s core ideas.
Present-day Apple has Job’s DNA all over it. On his second turn at leading the company, Jobs had become CEO and he was able to lay out a succession plan. That puts today’s Apple in a much better shape to thrive than the company he was forced out from in the ’80s.
Whether or not Ellison made an accurate prediction, his analogy is off-base.
The CBS interview is scheduled to air today. You can view the preview here.
