It's a terrible article, but at least someone's talking about design as a CEO-level issue. But this article is still written as if design was a purely conceptual or artistic problem, when there's a critical organizational dimension. Especially for software or software-based products like the iPhone, UI design is linked to technical architecture is linked to your business relationships. Someone needs to view it all as an integrated whole, make the right decisions (does "design" cover hardball negotiations with record companies to ensure flat pricing for digital downloads?) and get the organization to fall in line. That's why a dictatorship like Apple finds it easier to make great products than Microsoft with its warring fiefdoms.

Oh and then he goes completely off the rails: Indeed, your brand is increasingly shaped and defined by network communities, not your ad agency. Brand manager? Forget about it. Brand curator maybe.

Having used Apple as his jumping-off point, he then forgets that Apple succeeded by leading, not following. Apple is even willing to fuck over its users if it thinks the product should change.