There’s been a lot of discussion as of late about who may be the next CEO of Apple. As a lifelong observer, dare I say fan, I care deeply about who is going to steward the company into a future that no one quite anticipated. Instead of opining on what I think of each individual rumored candidate, I thought it would be more productive to offer a checklist of what qualities I think that the 8th Apple CEO ideally should have.

  1. They need to be a big thinker, someone who can wax poetic as much as they can talk business. They shoot from the hip, build on instinct, and don’t treat charts and graphs as gospel. Steve was able to balance discipline with these attributes and the next CEO needs to be able to do the same.

  2. They have no singular discipline. They’re not just an engineer or a designer or a finance person. They’re multi-disciplined, not a jack of all trades master of none, but a master of all. At least as it relates to their ability to connect and relate to those who work in each of those fields.

  3. They’ve taken a break or been willing to explore beyond Apple. Being at Apple for several decades shouldn’t be what qualifies someone for the job. That sort of thinking could inadvertently breed a culture of uniformity. Steve himself wasn’t even at Apple that long before becoming CEO.

  4. They tell it straight with no bullshit and don’t pretend to know what they don’t. They’re not overtrained by a pr team, they are familiar with every product they make, and they don’t hesitate to say what they are actually thinking even if it may be perceived as unpopular in the immediate.

  5. They are willing to apologize. Whoever takes the helm needs to be able to admit when they’re wrong, when a product doesn’t meet standards, when an employee falls short, when they miss a technology, and is able to make changes on the fly to correct mistakes.

  6. They think like a founder, build like a startup. They move fast, they take risks, they experiment, and they set trends before others catch on.

  7. They have exquisite taste, not just good taste. It’s one thing to have good taste, it’s another to have exquisite taste. They need to be a tastemaker not a casual follower. They need to set the tone and the style. Their job will be to shape entire industries.

  8. They’ve explored more domains than just computers. Not only should they not be focused on a singular domain of work, they should ideally have worked on products outside of personal computers. They need to be an artist in every sense of the word.

  9. They’re not all business because they shouldn’t have to be. They can have their own Tim Cook. If they’re smart and have common sense, that’s enough as long as they have their own operations guru behind the scenes.

  10. They’re just plain cool, whether on stage, in a crowd, or in an interview. They can be looked up to not just talked about.

We know what happens when the wrong CEO is chosen to helm Apple. We’ve seen it happen before. Only one ever truly embodied the brand, not just because he was a co-founder, but because he possessed these essential traits. Tim Cook has charted his own path, one that led to immense growth if sometimes at the expense of a more exciting Apple. Now we need someone ready to lead Apple down a more adventurous road and bring back the magic.