{"id":6785,"date":"2026-10-15T09:54:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T09:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=6785"},"modified":"2026-10-15T09:54:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T09:54:29","slug":"why-workdays-ceo-studied-the-steve-jobs-playbook-for-returning-founders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=6785","title":{"rendered":"Why Workday\u2019s CEO studied the Steve Jobs playbook for returning founders"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Good morning.<\/strong> Fortune<\/em> editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell writing this morning. In 2005, at age 39, Aneel Bhusri cofounded Workday. The enterprise solutions company now ranks No. 430 on the Fortune 500 and generated about $9.6 billion in revenue last fiscal year. So when Bhusri handed the CEO role to his co-CEO, Carl Eschenbach, in early 2024 and stayed on as executive chair, he felt his role in securing Workday\u2019s future was complete.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

But these are not ordinary times. In the age of AI, Bhusri told me \u201call bets are off.\u201d The top skill CEOs need today, he said, is the ability to innovate. Few leaders can do that better than founders. In February, at the nudging of his cofounder Dave Duffield, Bhusri reclaimed the CEO seat at Workday and began the company\u2019s \u201crefounding\u201d chapter.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat companies are not built on one generation of technology. They pass the test of time,\u201d Bhusri told me on the latest episode of the Fortune 500 Titans<\/em> podcast. \u201cI really wanted Workday to be one of those companies that was not just great in cloud but also in this next generation. I felt I had a role to play in getting us to be a leader in this new world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

There are not many examples of founders returning to bring their companies to glory twice. But there is one legendary success story: Steve Jobs. Pushed out of Apple in 1985, Jobs returned in 1997 to a company in a death spiral. Apple was so close to bankruptcy that it took a $150 million investment from its archrival, Microsoft. During Jobs\u2019s second act, Apple became one of the most innovative and successful product-led companies in the world and, of course, introduced the iPhone.<\/p>\n

Bhusri studied the Steve Jobs return playbook extensively before his February restart. He says he drove his management team crazy by sending them Instagram clips of the Apple cofounder. His biggest takeaway came from an interview in which Jobs described his ambition to make Apple the biggest startup in the world. For Jobs, that meant restoring a culture of ownership, accountability, speed, and focus. He slashed Apple\u2019s sprawling product line to the few that mattered most. Similarly, one of Bhusri\u2019s first moves was to cut the number of AI agents Workday offered from 50 to 20, while also eliminating projects that were not core to his vision of the company\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cJobs wasn\u2019t just a product genius. He was a management genius, too, in the way he organized Apple for success,\u201d Bhusri said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to bring that same mentality of recreating a startup mindset with clear accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bhusri has his work cut out for him. He doesn\u2019t mince words about the massive impact he believes AI will have on jobs in the next five years; he\u2019s already seeing AI capable of human-level work in HR, finance, and legal departments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t come back to run Workday better,\u201d Bhusri said. \u201cI came back to make sure that we are super innovative with the AI products, and that we do it responsibly. It\u2019s an incredibly powerful technology, and we have to do it the right way. It\u2019s a daunting but exciting task.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more on how Bhusri is tackling his return at Workday and navigating the AI agent era, check out the <\/em>Fortune 500 Titans <\/em>episode here, and a new profile of Bhusri written by Fortune<\/em>\u2019s Andrew Nusca here.<\/p>\n

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Top leadership news<\/h3>\n

Nvidia CEO: Zero tolerance for AI cyber incidents<\/b><\/p>\n

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang <\/span>told <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/i> that society shouldn\u2019t tolerate any cybersecurity incidents from AI. He called for stronger safeguards and said people who believe AI could end civilization should stop developing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Netflix cuts about 1,000 jobs as growth slows<\/b><\/p>\n

Netflix is <\/span>cutting<\/span> roughly 1,000 jobs, mostly in product, technology, legal, and HR. The layoffs will test the company\u2019s belief that smaller, highly skilled teams can outperform larger ones, though executives haven\u2019t described these cuts that way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Razer CEO says AI could make gaming a trillion-dollar industry<\/b><\/p>\n

Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan <\/span>told <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/i> that AI could grow gaming into a trillion-dollar industry. He says AI will let anyone create games and predicts it will make Razer one of the largest AI hardware companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

The markets<\/h3>\n

S&P 500 futures <\/b>are down 0.2%. The last session closed down 1.1%. Japan\u2019s <\/span>Nikkei 225 <\/b>dropped 4.9%, while South Korea\u2019s <\/span>KOSPI<\/b> plunged 7.6%. Hong Kong\u2019s <\/span>Hang Seng Index <\/b>sank 1.0%, while Taiwan\u2019s <\/span>TAIEX <\/b>index dropped 3.4%. India\u2019s <\/span>NIFTY 50 <\/b>is up 1.7%, while the <\/span>STOXX Europe 600 <\/b>is down by 0.3% in early trading. <\/span>Bitcoin <\/b>plunges to just above $81,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

Around the watercooler<\/h3>\n

\u2018I may be crazy enough to try one more time\u2019: Lindsey Vonn isn\u2019t ruling out a comeback after eight surgeries and two months in a wheelchair<\/span> by Joshua Hong<\/span><\/p>\n

An Ohio police lieutenant allegedly used Flock cameras 29 times to track someone he knew. Now he\u2019s facing a felony<\/span> by Catherina Gioino<\/span><\/p>\n

Who is Abdulrahman Alfozan? The OpenAI employee the FBI arrested is also a Saudi investor<\/span> by Emily Forlini<\/span><\/p>\n

Kraken parent company Payward to become first crypto firm to buy a European Bank<\/span> by Camila Grigera Na\u00f3n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Workdays #CEO #studied #Steve #Jobs #playbook #returning #founders<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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