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Linux Business

Linus Makes Business Week's Best Managers List 168

Posted by CmdrTaco from the meow-meow-meow dept.
andhar writes "Linus Torvalds has made Business Week Magazine's 2004 list of Best Managers, where he finds himself in the company of luminaries such as Hector Ruiz (AMD), John Henry (Boston Red Sox) and Steven Spielberg (Dreamworks SKG). The article lauds the influence of Linux on the server market and drops the names of such heavyweights as IBM, Dell, HP and Intel as Linux supporters. Linus is quoted, calling all you kernel coders a herd of cats."
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Linus Makes Business Week's Best Managers List More

Linus Makes Business Week's Best Managers List

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  • "Linus did this... Linus did that..." (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:07PM (#11254044)

    "Linus ate at McDonalds!" "Linus uses 2 ply toilet paper!" etc etc. Why not make a section devoted strictly to Linus (linus.slashdot.org) for the fawning and drooling and leave the Linux section to all things about Linux proper? That and some other minor changes would allow the readership to disable stories about what movie Linus watched over the weekend and other fluff if they wanted.

    Unless, of course, you're all too busy designing more ugly colour schemes [slashdot.org].
    • Okay, so spill it already.

      What movie did he watch over the weekend?

      *drools*
    • Why not make a section devoted strictly to Linus (linus.slashdot.org) for the fawning and drooling

      The problem as I see it, is that Linus doesn't have an RSS feed available to us.

    • "Linus ate at McDonalds!" "Linus uses 2 ply toilet paper!" etc etc. Why not make a section devoted strictly to Linus (linus.slashdot.org) for the fawning and drooling and leave the Linux section to all things about Linux proper? That and some other minor changes would allow the readership to disable stories about what movie Linus watched over the weekend and other fluff if they wanted.

      If I recall RMS properly, Linux is only the kernel everything else is GNU, so I would say that Linus/Linux kernel = Linux

  • It's a nice piece... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by _PimpDaddy7_ ( 415866 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:09PM (#11254076)
    This is a great article. I read it most of it last night. Goes through good managers, WHY they are good, how they turned around the company(Xerox as an example) and talks about bad managers and WHY they are bad, mistakes they've made, etc.

    This article should be read over and over again by the countries PHB. But I know they won't listen.

    Check out the pic of Linus, I think he's in a CORNfield or something LOL

    • Re:It's a nice piece... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Serious question - what happens after Linus? When he is bumped off by hired MS goons or whatever, who out of Andrew, Alan, Andrea etc will take the lead? And will they have the gravitas to be able to successfully herd cats the same way?
    • You sure it's not a Korn field [kornshell.com]? (ok, lame Unix humor, I know)

      (sorry, I'm not talking about the band - although the Korn dev [att.com] did get a Kornshell book signed by the band [kornshell.com])

    • Re:It's a nice piece... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by peragrin ( 659227 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:36PM (#11254346)
      it's simple

      Good managers, work for the employees. When times are tough they take their fair share of the cuts. When times are good they share the wealth.

      Bad managers, blame everybody but themselves, and give themselves raises and/or bonuses for cutting staff. When times are good they give themselves huge raises, while maybe giving the rest a few scraps.

      The wealth doesn't have to be cash either. Though it usaully is in the case of bad managers.

      Guess which one Linus Torvalds, and which one is Darl Mcbride? All you have to look at is their quarterly reports. Darl's Salary is still a million dollars a year, yet he has to trim stay up.
      • Actually, Darl McBride is failing as a leader because litigation alone doesn't make for a good long term strategy. Even if you have some defensible (defendable?!) IP (which SCO doesn't), you should have some sort of plan for creating more. Unless, of course, you're a shill in a pump-and-dump scheme.

      • Re:It's a nice piece... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by iabervon ( 1971 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @01:42PM (#11255067) Homepage Journal
        What's really remarkable about Linus's place in the list is that he doesn't actually have any employees. He doesn't control any finances. He doesn't even influence the people who control the pay of the people he manages. He's such a good manager that people accept his management for no reason other than that it is good. It's quite remarkable that he can actually do this, and also that a business magazine recognizes that this is going on.

        A bet Linus could have a great time going to classes in an MBA program and heckling the instructors.
      • Please read before flaming!

        How you rate Darl depends what you're looking for. OK, Darl would suck to work for if you're a developer, but he has achieved what he set out to do: pump and dump.

        Two or three years ago SCO stock holders had toilet paper stock that had no future and no trade value. Over the last year Darl managed to pulp the price to over 18 bucks giving a lot of people an excellent exit option. If you rate him on that, he did rather well.

        • I have heard that arguement before.

          I have a counter.

          SCO three years ago could of been bought out by, Sun, IBM, HP, Novell, etc.

          Now nobody can buy them, they are doomed to bankruptcy, and nobody will be able to save them.

          SCO had a better chance of partial survival inside another company. Now they are road kill. Just because they are running down the highway today doesn't mean they will live.
    • You can read 50 FREE (as in beer) pages from my new book that addresses this exact question. It's called "Management Secrets of the New England Patriots."

      James
      PatriotsBook.com
    • Check out the pic of Linus, I think he's in a CORNfield or something LOL

      This is only to be expected -- he really is outstanding in his field.

  • "Best Manager" is quite a glowing endorsement (Score:5, Funny)

    by scotay ( 195240 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:10PM (#11254092)
    Right up there with "Most Ethical Lawyer."

  • Well deserved (Score:5, Insightful)

    by suso ( 153703 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:12PM (#11254112) Journal
    I think that managing a bunch of know-it-alls is a lot harder than managing people who are just there for a paycheck.

  • Linus Torvalds (Score:3, Insightful)

    by albn ( 835144 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:12PM (#11254122) Journal
    Might as well made the list. He's adorned by many people and scored by everybody else.

    He's worked hard with a score of other people (who did not make the list) to make a nice operating system for anybody to use and modify. Before 2.4, it seemed many companies like Microsoft poo poohed the idea of how an open source operating system was going to work, and now that it has, they feel a little threatened. With the success of his kernel, I give him proper kudos.

    Oh, it is kind of funny. I do not see Darl McBride on the list. Just kind of interesting.

    • Re:Linus Torvalds (Score:5, Funny)

      by ctr2sprt ( 574731 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:25PM (#11254250)
      He's adorned by many people and scored by everybody else.
      I think your letter "n" traveled a few words to the left.

      Although the image of Linus walking around with kernel developers hanging from his clothes while assorted groupies carry scorecards is pretty funny.

      (You mean that Linus is adored by many people and scorned by everybody else.)

    • Linus Torvalds [m]ight as well made the list. He's [b]adorned[/b] by many people and scored by everybody else.

      You mean those freaks are actually [i]wearing[/i] him now? Disturbing.

    • "He's adorned by many people and scored by everybody else."

      Adorned? Scored? From your description, Linus sounds like a really hot trophy porn star.

  • Steve Jobs? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Sophrosyne ( 630428 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:13PM (#11254126) Homepage
    I can't believe Steve Jobs didn't win best manager of the year--
    ...they must be holding out for best manager of the century.

    • Re:Steve Jobs? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Meoward ( 665631 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:22PM (#11254222)

      Actually, Jobs made the "repeat performers" section of the article, along with Meg Whitman of eBay.

      • "Actually, Jobs made the "repeat performers" section of the article, along with Meg Whitman of eBay."

        Yes, he has toped the "Forbes CEO Approval Tracker" for the 18th month in a row. Full article here [forbes.com].

    • What has Jobs done? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      What has Jobs done besides smoke and mirrors? Apple's computers have not set any trends other than the look of the box (color and shape) since the Apple ][ days. His decisions have made sure that Macintoshes only appeal to a small minority of computer users.

      The iPod is flying high right now, but what will it be like in 1 year with larger capacity, easier-to-use music players for less than half the cost out there? Machines not hogtied to the obscure non-standard AAC format?

      • What has Jobs done besides smoke and mirrors?

        What has Jobs done? As a manager?

        Gee, I don't know. How did apple stock do in 2004? [yahoo.com]

        • I don't mean to bash jobs here, but stock prices are no indication of anything. One lie at one time will throw stock in one direction. One truth at another time will throw it in another.
          • Yeah, the more telling numbers are revenue figures, not stock jumps. Most day-traders I talk to regard Apple as a hideously bad short-term investment when in fact the company has billions in cash and continues to perform at or above expectations - the mark of a well-run corporation. Badly-run corporations will make unwise long-term decisions for a short-term jump in stock price. Witness the debacle that Enron became, and you can see the overemphasis placed on stock prices alone. The ticker doesn't tell the
            • I am not trolling here, I am just wondering:

              as it is not fair to suggest Jobs alone should be credited with the success of the iMac

              How would you call the iMac, power mac, $ANY mac a successes? I would not call grabbing 3% of a market a success. Heck, Linux has grabbed 22%+ of the server market and there are still tons of people who say Linux is not a success. I honestly just want to understand your logic that considers grabbing 2% - 3% of a market a success.

              Personally, I don't consider anything that

              • How would you call the iMac, power mac, $ANY mac a successes?

                I'd call it a success as the Rev-A iMacs practically saved the company. Sure it's not "futuristic" or "stylish" by today's standards, but in 1998 it was every bit the smash hit it deserved to be. While other computer makers tried to make the PC appealing to a wider audience, gain adoption for USB, and attract users who had never touched a computer before, Apple succeeded in all three with the iMac, no question.

                Remember that the "i" supposedly s
              • Um, if you had a created a company that did 2.35 billion dollars in revenues in one quarter, would you call that a success?

                I mean, I'm looking in my wallet and I'm seeing $9 and two Subway sandwich stamps.

                Some people set the bar higher, I reckon.
                • I am not comparing Apple's success to how much I make or how much you make. That would be silly. I was just comparing Apple's success to what I percieve they could accomplish if Steve would just stop with the whole "fashion" statement thing. If Apple just lowered their prices, they could _really_ take some Joe User desktop market share from MS. Look at the fortune 500, there are a lot of companies doing 2+ billion per quarter, and there are a lot doing far more then that.

                  I am not coming down on Apple.

    • I haven't heard any stories as to how he is as a manager after returning to Apple, but before he was kicked out, he was a horrible manager who belittled and intimidated employees. Read any number of books on Apple's or Jobs' history for details.
    • Do you really think we could have discussion on Steve Jobs on /.? Anyone that said he is doing a "good" job would be modded "Insightful", while anyone that says he is _not_ doing a good job would be modded a "Troll". Heck, I bet this post is modded a "Troll" because I even _hinted_ that someone would think Jobs is not doing a "great" job.
      • well I have to admit my original post was meant to be funny- Steve Jobs is known for his tyrannical rule of Apple. It is a good thing, but also a bad thing (if you happen to work for him).
      • See! This post was modded troll just because I mentioned that Steve Jobs "may not be doing the best job"!

        You gotta love the /. modderation system where Apple zealots just mod you down because they want to protect their "precious" Stevie, even though what you say may be true!

  • herding cats is easy... (Score:3, Funny)

    by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:13PM (#11254139)
    Try cat juggling instead!

    Like SCO, Infinium Labs, are doing...

  • Impressive. (Score:5, Funny)

    by clinko ( 232501 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:15PM (#11254158) Journal
    A manager of a group that reads slashdot all day and still get things done.

    That is impressive.

  • Manager (Score:3, Insightful)

    by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:16PM (#11254162) Journal
    I guess that's the best title for what he does, but his position doesn't really fit the "manager" role to a T..

    He's not anyones boss, he can't "fire" a kernel hacker, or direct them, he can just decide to accept or not accept patches.

    That lack of "direction" is somewhat of a problem, noone knows where linux is headed. It seems to be veering away from the desktop to the server room, and locked down incarnations like TiVo.

    • Re:Manager (how do you define 'Manager'?) (Score:5, Insightful)

      by thpr ( 786837 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:42PM (#11254409)
      I guess that's the best title for what he does, but his position doesn't really fit the "manager" role to a T..

      He's not anyones boss, he can't "fire" a kernel hacker, or direct them, he can just decide to accept or not accept patches.

      But wait... when people are asked to name the managers we like best, we DON'T name administrators (which is the hire/fire abilities you describe and the financial ones implicit in that), we name our LEADERS. Linus made the list because of his leadership skills in accomplishing a task (herding cats, I guess) and the scope of control he must manage there; not for his budgetary or administrative skills.

    • Re:Manager (Score:4, Insightful)

      by peragrin ( 659227 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:45PM (#11254440)
      That's the beauty of Open Source. No ONE person tells it where to go next. YOU just pick it up and start walking. TiVo, can take it one way, Montavista takes it another, IBM, and Red Hat heads toward the servers, While Xandros, and Suse are aiming for your desktops.

      Linux itself doesn't need a direction, The people decide what they want, and they take Linux there.

      Instead of Controling the people, YOU decide
      Where Do You Want to GO Today?
    • He "manages" in the most obvious sense of the word. What did doesn't do well is "lead".
    • He's not anyones boss, he can't "fire" a kernel hacker, or direct them, he can just decide to accept or not accept patches.

      And how is that power not explicitly hiring or firing? Basically, choosing to accept patches from someone for a while is the same as hiring - just as shutting someone out of the process is exactly like a firing.

      Indeed this is hiring/firing at its most pure, for just as the person derives no financial loss from a "firing", so too does Linus have nothing to GAIN by a firing beyond the
    • John Henry (Boston Red Sox) can't hire or fire anyone either, that's the GM's job.

      And yeah, John Henry led the Red Sox to the series, but honestly Grady Little had a chance - instead of asking Pedro Martinez "How do you feel?" he should have said "Give me the ball.". Also - yes, the Sox came back from a 3-0 deficit in the ALCS, but - I'd credit a lot of that to Curt Schilling stapling his achilles tendon and showing a lot of other millionaire babies on the field what a man does when he wants to win. I can

    • Congratulations, you were marked +4, insightful.

      but his position doesn't really fit the "manager" role to a T... He's not anyone's boss...

      But they specifically said "manager", not "boss".

      he can't "fire" a kernel hacker

      No, but I don't think that is necessarily a duty of a manager. In spite of that I think you are still wrong: he can (and does) stop accepting people's code if they aren't doing a job to his satisfaction.

      or direct them

      uh, that's just wrong. There are many examples of Linux saying
    • Insightful? Come on mods, how about "overrated"? This guy doesn't have a clue about where "Linux is headed". Have you read _any_ interviews of Linus? He is all about making progress on the desktop. What do you think kernel 2.6 delivered? 2.6 delivered great task switching performance. A 2.6 desktop is much more responsive then a 2.4 desktop. You don't even need to change any software, just upgrade your 2.4 kernel to 2.6 and you _will_ notice much better response times.

      In most of Linus' reviews, he

  • It gets even better (Score:3, Informative)

    by Gzip Christ ( 683175 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:17PM (#11254181) Homepage
    Linus' picture actually made the cover of the magazine (along with 4 others)! Click on the "photo essays" graphic at the top of the article and then look at the magazine cover on the right hand side. The second person from the right looks like Linus to me. Awesome. I wonder who the other people are on the cover - I can't quite make them out.

  • from my vantage point, (Score:3, Interesting)

    by bogaboga ( 793279 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:19PM (#11254199)
    ...I know that Linus has never actively enrolled in any management school, but he's a good manager. The first president of USA also never had any formal education as such but did wonderful things.

    Many people that have not gone to school have done good things...but if one sought a job sighting management skills, they are quickly turned down for lack of the so called degrees!

    This is despite the clear evidence that the so called educated managers have done more havoc than good. Just look at the companies that have folded up!

    I think that this issue of "Must have an MBA, LLB etc, etc.." was created purely for financial purposes by educational institutions. All people doing crap at their jobs here are very educauted. One wonders what their education helps anyway.

    Disclaimer: I run a fairly successful finacial business on the internet, but have zero training in this. I use my common sense.

    Note that Richard Branson (of the Virgin Group), does not have the educational papers that one would think he has. But he is very successful to the extent that he keeps British Airways managers on their toes.

    • Re:from my vantage point, (Score:5, Insightful)

      by whm ( 67844 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:56PM (#11254559)
      Many people that have not gone to school have done good things...but if one sought a job sighting management skills, they are quickly turned down for lack of the so called degrees! This is despite the clear evidence that the so called educated managers have done more havoc than good.

      Remarkable people can do remarkable things, often regardless of training or upbrining or what-not. But don't forget about the countless people without management training that have botched things as well. It is naive to imply that management training is going to make people less likely to do well at it.
    • I agree with you to a point. Although someone demonstrating the ability to apply themselves through 4 years of college shows an ability to manage time, learn new things...etc.

      Common sense is invaluable, but it is hard to demonstrate on a resume. If I see someone with a BS degree in engineering from a Big 10 school I can relate to what it took to obtain that degree. The difference I have noted between the formally educated and the informally educated (in general) is in breadth of background. For example,

  • Balmer? (Score:1, Funny)

    by n3m3sis ( 756566 )
    Where is Steve Balmer?

  • Out of context (Score:4, Informative)

    by l3pYr ( 754852 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:26PM (#11254258)
    From the abstract
    Linus is quoted, calling all you kernel coders a herd of cats.

    From the article
    Torvalds has quipped that his job is a lot like "herding cats."

    "Herding cats" is meant to be an oxymoron. Cats operate in small, tight-knit prides and not large herds; they are strong-willed and typically follow their own program. Linus was just trying to convey the difficulty of managing a large group of programmers who all have their own, unique reasons for doing what they do. As is demonstrated time and time again here at /., most nerds have trouble seeing the other side of an argument (read: we always think we're right). This brings about the cat metaphor.

    For those who don't RTFA, this might be taken out of context as an insult to kernel contributors. Just wanted to clear that up.

  • Obligatory reference to "cats" (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Linus is quoted, calling all you kernel coders a herd of cats.

    Finally! Something I'm in total agreement with Linus about... Linux kernel coders are a bunch of pussies (for the non-English speakers in the group, that's a derogatory reference).

  • Fallen Managers (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ghost509 ( 457002 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:34PM (#11254322)
    Fallen Managers include:

    Frank Dunn Nortel
    Graig Conway Peoplesoft
    Sanjay Kumar Computer Associates International

    I'm not sure why the CEO of SCO is not in that list, since SCO's earnings on most products are diminishing.

    #include "a_life.h"
    • SCO's falling has little to do with the management really, the writing has been on the wall for years. They haven't had a single even moderatly interesting product since the x86 BSD's and Linux became viable.
    • I'm not sure why the CEO of SCO is not in that list

      Snarl McSnide hasn't been crushed by the (ongoing? [rcn.com]) SEC investigation. yet.
    • None of the three you mention are still with their respective companies (hence the term 'fallen').

      'Deposition Daryl' gets a pass for this year. At the rate things are going, however, he'll be a shoo-in for next year's list.

    • SCO is far too small to get much notice. Sure losing $30 Million is bad, but compared to the $30 Billion that Frank Dunn managed to lose, its a rounding error, and few of the "big boys" take much notice.
    • To be "fallen", you had to at one point be at a height. Darl wasn't.
    • One well deserved addition to the list
      of "Fallen Managers" : HP's Fiorna.

      As a manager of numerous high tech companies,
      she could not have done a better job of killing
      the companies off if she were an enemy saboteur,
      or the agent of a hostile foreign power.

      (1) Bell Labs / Lucent Technologies

      (2) Digital Equipment Corp.

      (3) Compaq Computer Corp.

      (4) Hewlett Packard / Agilent Technologies

      While I didn't RTFA, if she didn't make the
      "10 Worst Managers List", the list is incomplete.
  • The first P for me is Principles.
    The second is Perspective.
    The third one is Passion.
    The fourth one is Perseverance.
    The fifth -- and these are not necessarily grammatically correct, it's just how I remember them -- is Performance.
    The last and probably most important one is People.

    And here I thought the six P's of success were Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

  • Geeks are now for managment! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Garabito ( 720521 ) on Tuesday January 04, 2005 @12:41PM (#11254395)
    Linus: 2004 Business Week list of best managers.

    RMS: "involuntarily self-promoted into management"(!!!)

    Alan Cox: Left Linux kernel development to get a MBA

  • There is supposedly a list of Worst Managers in this article, but I don't see my boss anywhere on the list.

  • ridiculous (Score:2, Insightful)

    by buzzini ( 177741 )
    looks to me like an arbitrarily-assembled list of newsmakers and "hot" personalities designed to sell issues. it seems nearly impossible to have much real insight on a manager without working in their organization.
    • Actually, it's realively easy to figure out who the best managers are: Their companies do well, and their peers want to be like them.

      Also, they don't operate in a vacuum. True leaders bring other people up with them, and they're identified easily enough.
      • I don't think it's as easy as you say. What does it mean to "do well"? Increase in stock price? Revenues? When Al "Chainsaw" Dunlap became CEO of Sunbeam, he laid off 3000 workers, closed factories, stopped charity giving etc; the stock price rose over 300%. I suppose he would have been considered a "great" manager that year.

        Two years later he was ignominously fired after essentially destroying the company with his excessive cuts.

        People write whole books [amazon.com] attempting to rigorously analyze "great" management
        • No, but I'm going to buy one anyway. It's got Linus on the cover. This needs to be encouraged.

          Besides, I'll know that at least one of their choices was correct. That's more than I usually know about a news article.
  • Rather dubious company to keep, based on previous Business Week top 25 members from 2001:
    Martha Stewart [businessweek.com]
    Dennis Kozlowski (Tyco) [businessweek.com] (also placed in 2002 [businessweek.com], now facing a possible prison term

    I'm certain that a more careful review would find many other less-than-illustrious candidates in previous versions of the top 25.

    • Re:Previous winners (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by Xshare ( 762241 )
      I gotta say that her decision to just accept fate and her punishment was a great managerial decision, as compared to taking a long drawn out court case that we all know she'd lose.
  • As usual in business culture, all credit for the company's work is given to executives. See for example this blurb about AMD CEO Héctor Ruiz: "Nevertheless, the soft-spoken executive has put AMD in the black for the first time since 2000. He's giving larger competitor Intel Corp. (INTC ) fits with AMD's hot-selling Opteron server and Athlon 64 desktop chips, and he has set the agenda for next-generation PC designs." It almost seems that he's the only employee in the company doing any work. No mentio

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