Rob Ashby: The best website of 1985

But Jobs is the true master of managing a giant as one would manage a startup. At Apple — No. 1 on Fortune’s Most Admired Company list and now bigger than Microsoft (MSFT) in stock-market value — there are no “committees,” Jobs noted. Teams have distinct lines of responsibility, he added, and he spends the bulk of his time meeting with them. Once a week, the teams, plus Jobs, convene all together for three hours.

Sounds simple. That’s the point. The best CEOs work diligently to keep management as streamlined as possible. And to create an environment where ideas, rather than rank or tenure, dominate. “You have to be run by ideas, not hierarchy,” Jobs insisted. “Otherwise, good people don’t stay.”