"A key Jobs business tool is his mastery of the message. He rehearses over and over every line he and others utter in public about Apple, which authorizes only a small number of executives to speak publicly on a given topic. Key to the Jobs approach is careful consideration of what he and Apple say -- and don't say. "
--Fortune's Adam Lashinsky on Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs. Lashinsky's cover MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Nov 10, 2009 6:45 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Ted Dimon Sr. started a new job yesterday.
Not just any job. Formerly a broker at Merrill Lynch, Dimon joined the brokerage unit of JPMorgan Chase (JPM). His son happens to be CEO of the parent company.
Word is, Jamie Dimon steered clear of the deal to hire his 78-year-old dad, who arrived with five other Merrill brokers in tow. According to people close to father and son, Ted MORE
Patricia Sellers - Nov 10, 2009 12:10 PM ET
"There hasn't been a day in Steve's life that he doesn't get up, think about the company he works for, or what he's going to do next. These are things that drive him."
--Bill Campbell, Intuit (INTU) chairman and former CEO, about Steve Jobs--Apple's (AAPL) CEO and Fortune's "CEO of the Decade," on the cover of the current issue. Once Apple's VP of marketing and now on the board, Campbell claims MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Nov 9, 2009 6:16 PM ET
I was not in Germany for the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago today. But I got a front seat to business history-in-the-making three months later, when I went to East Germany to report a story about Coca-Cola's (KO) aggressive ramp-up in Europe following the Communist collapse.
It seems like yesterday.
Talk about a capitalist invasion. I remember how euphoric--genuinely euphoric--East German consumers and shop-owners were to suddenly have access MORE
Patricia Sellers - Nov 9, 2009 2:22 PM ET
"He's involved in details you wouldn't think a CEO would be involved in."
--Ken Segall, a former Chiat/Day creative director who has worked with Apple (AAPL) on and off for years, talking about Steve Jobs, Fortune's "CEO of the Decade." Jobs commissioned the 1997 "Think different" campaign, says Segall, long before any of Apple's new products were introduced -- or even described to the ad team. "He'd say, 'The third word MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Nov 6, 2009 6:29 PM ET
Gilt Groupe CEO Susan Lyne has joined the board of AOL--soon to be spun off from Time Warner (TWX).
Does Lyne love trouble, or what? Five years ago, after Martha Stewart began her five-month prison stint in West Virginia, Lyne stepped up from the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO) board to be CEO of the company--and worked, eventually hand in hand with Martha, to rebuild the crippled company.
That was a slog MORE
Patricia Sellers - Nov 6, 2009 11:32 AM ET
"The threshold for the release of the first product should be, 'What would Steve Jobs do?'"
-- Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist and Netscape co-founder, who often evokes Apple (AAPL)'s maestro CEO in his advice to entrepreneurs. Andreessen is quoted in the Fortune cover package, "Steve Jobs: CEO of the decade," hitting newsstands Friday. Fortune's retrospective of "all things Steve" includes timelines, online photo galleries, and testimonials from Jobs' friends and colleagues. MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Nov 5, 2009 5:45 PM ET
Carly Fiorina declared her candidacy for the U.S. Senate--in a bid to replace another well-known woman, incumbent California Democrat Barbara Boxer.
Fiorina, who was No. 1 on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list for six years when she was CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), will be pounding the campaign trail simultaneously with another ex-No. 1 on our list: Meg Whitman. The former eBay (EBAY) CEO, who topped Fortune's power list in 2004 and MORE
Patricia Sellers - Nov 5, 2009 12:21 PM ET
"If you buy a railroad, you can't move it to China or to India or anyplace else. You are betting on the United States. I can't think of a surer bet."
- Warren Buffett, explaining Berkshire Hathaway's (BRKB) $44 billion buyout of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI).
Click here to see Buffett talking about his biggest deal ever with CNNMoney anchor Poppy Harlow.
While the size was a surprise, the bet on America MORE
Patricia Sellers - Nov 4, 2009 6:56 PM ET
by Jessica Shambora
We keep hearing how the economy is improving, but with U.S. unemployment at 9.8% and rising, the job market gives us nothing but anxiety. Today Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) added to the pain by announcing layoffs of 6-7% of its workforce. That's about 7,000 employees.
While J&J faces lots of industry-specific challenges--patent expirations, increasingly complex regulation, healthcare reform--the news is stunning. Particularly because J&J is known for its MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Nov 3, 2009 7:46 PM ET
For the latest on the most influential women in business, philanthropy, government, and the arts, like us on Facebook. 
In a funny and candid interview, Google VP Marissa Mayer explains how she got to the top. Watch
Xerox CEO Ursula Burns shares how she once accepted a job with Dell but ended up staying with Xerox. Watch
Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). Since its launch in 1998, Pattie has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women" cover package.
A specialist at dissecting larger-than-life personalities, she has also profiled former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack, and countless CEOs.
Pattie co-chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big brand companies.
In Pattie's blog, Postcards, she provides insight into the lives of super-achievers through commentary, career advice, and Guest Posts by CEOs and other leaders.
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Fortune Most Powerful Women
Sheryl Sandberg:
Gina Bianchini
