Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Develop Your External Leadership Skills
A collection of essays from CIO Executive Council members on understanding and developing the external-facing leadership competencies of "customer focus," "commercial orientation" and "market knowledge." CIOs from Best Buy, Universal Orlando Resort, Direct Energy and others describe how they have learned to anticipate customer needs, become market savvy and identify and enable commercial opportunities.
The CIO Paradox: Is IT Set Up to Fail? - FREE Webcast Jan. 19th
CIOs run what may well be the toughest function in the business, with end-to-end responsibilities across multiple levels of infrastructure, data management, processes and people. Yet you spend inordinate amounts of time justifying your existence. Join your fellow CIOs in this town-hall-style CIO Executive Council teleconference on rethinking IT governance, re-educating CEOs on IT value and enabling the profession to attack and defeat this "CIO Paradox."
Characteristics of Transformational Leaders - FREE Webcast Jan. 7th
Leaders come in all shapes, sizes and personalities. However, most great leaders share key traits which allow them to transform their organizations. Learn about some of these traits, how they manifest themselves in the workplace and how you can work towards adding them to your repertoire. Our seminar leader is Larry Bonfante, CIO of the U.S. Tennis Association.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »August 10, 2009 — Macworld —
It's been a whole week since Google CEO Eric Schmidt stepped aside from his position on Apple's board of directors, but all that means is that there's been plenty of time for people to dig up interesting information on the two companies.
Google's Schmidt Quits Apple's Board; Jobs Cites Conflicts
Slideshow: 10 Apple Trivia Questions
For one thing, we learned precisely what Schmidt got out of his role as a director, at least in a tangible sense: namely, a heck of a lot of Apple equipment. Despite serving on Apple's board for almost three years, the Google CEO took no pay or stock options from Apple, according to SEC filings unearthed by BusinessWeek. Other directors for the company not only receive an annual fee of $50,000, but are eligible to purchase 30,000 Apple shares initially, as well as 10,000 additional shares per year. While Schmidt never took advantage of those opportunities, he did purchase 10,000 shares of Apple on the open market with more than $700,000 of his own money.
Schmidt did, however, use the board member's perogative of receiving free products, to the tune of $8,712 worth of tech in fiscal year 2008. In addition, he received a "commemorative gift" valued at $7,580, plus tax liability, that was also given to several other Apple executives. Sadly, we can only guess at what this gift entailed: a gold-plated Apple TV? A platinum Apple paperweight? A mythical Mac tablet? Perhaps a piece of Steve Jobs's immortal soul?
Despite not receiving much in the way of tangible compensation, it's apparent that Schmidt's role on Apple's board paid strategic dividends. News also came out this past week that Apple and Google had an informal "no poaching" agreement not to hire away each others' employees. Tech blog TechCrunch reported on the alleged deal, citing unnamed Google sources who also implied that the lynchpin of the deal was Schmidt's position with the two companies. With the Google CEO's departure from Apple, it's uncertain as to whether or not this deal will continue to hold.
Unfortunately, this is also the kind of thing that the FTC is very interested in investigating, as such hiring can help competition. Whatever the case, it seems likely we haven't heard the last fallout of the Google/Apple divorce yet.