GuitarWarp

In leadership or management, why is it that some people just seem to get it and are able to make it happen smoothly while others can't?  In War and Peace, I've often been impressed by Tolstoy's contrast between the well-meaning but bumbling protagonist Pierre and his pragmatic friend Prince Andrei. There is a business leadership lesson there! Pierre, the illegitimate son of a nobleman, is an idealist who inherited a vast estate, but was appalled by the serf system of Russia that had existed for centuries. So in his indecisive and idealistic way, after agonizing forever on it, he tries to free his serfs all at once. But it leads to misunderstanding, his own stewards taking advantage of his serfs, and riots. It's a dismal failure! By contrast Andrei, in a casual conversation, had been impressed by Pierre's idea and on his own when he gets back to his estate devises a brilliant incremental plan of reform and easily executes it with no drama at all, long before Pierre

When it comes to technological disruptors of our time, and your life, two names come out swinging: Steve Jobs of Apple and Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Both have left imprints on the canvas of various industries, transforming the world of technology and commerce. In a round-by-round face-off, who emerges as the reigning champion of disruption? Round 1: Market Share Shift Jobs, with Apple, challenged giants like IBM and Microsoft, and with the advent of the iPhone, created a seismic shift in the phone industry. However, Bezos, in his corner, monopolized online retail with Amazon, establishing an e-commerce empire. Bezos lands a more significant punch in this round. Round 2: Change in Consumer Behavior Jobs reinvented our relationship with technology, making it more personal, intuitive, and appealing, while Bezos reshaped the way we shop, setting new customer service benchmarks. In this round, it's a draw. Round 3: Revenue Impact While Apple has been phenomenally profitable, Amazon's di