Mark Zuckerberg surely made a vital point when he said any real tech company needs a leader who knows their tech. I can get behind that one. After all, Zuckerberg didn't just talk about the creation of Facebook, he actually coded it as a teenager in his dorm room. When somebody with a background like that speaks of technical skills as the foundation for effective leadership viability, it makes it hard not to listen.
At Meta, Zuckerberg has surrounded himself with tech-savvy company officials. Take Andrew "Boz" Bosworth and Chris Cox for instance who are key players in Meta’s pivot toward the metaverse. These guys are all killed in tech, they are steering the company in ways that won’t be reachable with a non-engineer. The form of thinking is "We build, not just manage".
Don’t get me wrong, Zuckerberg isn’t dismissing the importance of other skills. He believes that while the existence of a much wider expertise is welcome, technical talent at the top radically transforms the affairs in the executive suite. It influences decision making and problem solving processes, partly in an innovation-driven company.
What caught my attention, however, was his brief mention of Apple, a huge statement, he believes they will be Meta's largest competitor in the coming years. Taking a look at it, if he is looking toward Apple and thinks, "Yeah, here they come" well, then we may be seeing exciting tech competition on the horizon.
I can't help but wonder how many companies are out there being run by people who understand the tech they are working with?
