An Apple Board of Directors for the 2010s

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Cook is the operational whiz who deserves nearly as much credit as CEO Steve Jobs for bringing Apple back from its near-death experience in the '90s. Without Cook whipping Apple's supply chain into shape, Jobs' design and marketing genius might have been wasted. Cook has been described by people close to the company as one of the few executives who can say "no" to Jobs. As Jobs' de facto successor, Cook should be a member of the board in any event.

What about less orthodox picks? The next order of business for the board should be recruiting a director who knows how to run a consumer products powerhouse such as Apple has become. Consider that in 2001, Apple's revenue was $5.4 billion. You know what happened next: The iPod, a resurgent Mac business, and the iPhone propelled sales to a more-than-sixfold increase, to $32.5 billion, in fiscal 2008.

Consumer Brands? P&G's Panayotopoulos

Yet Apple's hyper-growth can't go on forever. Markets become saturated, consumer tastes change in unexpected ways. Was it clear in 2001 that the music industry was about to change fundamentally and that CD sales would wither, in part because of a tiny white slab called the iPod?

As a consumer-focused company with global growth ambitions, Apple will want on its board an executive with a lot of experience nurturing consumer brands around the world. Stephen Mader, managing director of board services at Korn/Ferry International (KFY), suggests someone like Dimitri Panayotopoulos, head of P&G's global household products division. In a three-decade career with P&G, Panayotopoulos has run operations in places as varied as Switzerland, Egypt, and China. Earlier this year he was considered a possible successor to retiring CEO AG Lafley.

Vivek Wadhwa, a Duke University professor and senior research associate at Harvard Law School's Labor & Worklife Program, says the iconoclastic Gerstner would fit well on Apple's board. When Gerstner became IBM's CEO in 1993, the company lost $8 billion on sales of $62 billion and investors were clamoring for a breakup. By 2003—a year after Gerstner left the post—IBM earned $7.6 billion on $89 billion in sales.

Gerstner showed a flair for reversing the tide of stagnation and focusing on technology services and software instead of computer hardware, which qualifies as the kind of "different thinking" that would be quite at home at Apple.

Another important mission for Apple in the next decade is international growth. Its geographic strength lies in North America and Western Europe, but emerging markets such as China and India should probably figure more prominently in the company's thinking at some point.

Getting the iPhone into China, which could happen very soon, is a great first step. India could also prove astonishingly important. Yes, it's a price-sensitive market. But many urban Indian consumers love new technology and have latched onto premium Western brands as status symbols.

For Social Media Guru? Marc Andreessen

An executive who understands the Indian market could be a guiding hand in Apple's board room. How about former Infosys CEO Nilekani (now serving as a government minister)? Or Mukesh Ambani, head of Reliance Industries, whose retail subsidiary sells Apple gear in India?

Apple at some point may also need to tap more deeply into the world of social media as it expands its ambitions in music and movie distribution. I asked readers of the Byte of the Apple blog for suggestions, and Andreessen was a common refrain. He founded Netscape and sold it to AOL for $4.2 billion in 1998, then founded Loudcloud (later renamed Opsware), and sold it to Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) for $1.7 billion in 2007.

Today, Andreessen is a co-founder of social networking company Ning and a newly minted VC. You'd have to look pretty hard to find someone with a better track record of innately understanding where technology is going—and beating others to the punch.

Apple's board could also stand to get younger. By the middle of the next decade, Gen Y will be in its 30s. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg could be Apple's voice for that generation if he proves his managerial acumen by then.

Apple will turn 40 years old in 2016. Come to think of it, there's another guy who may be looking for a new gig around then. He's one of the few people alive who can boast the same oratorical flair as Jobs. He'll be in demand for corporate engagements and is guaranteed to have an outstanding Rolodex. He even gave the Queen of England an iPod. His name? Barack Obama.

Now, about that BlackBerry…

Hesseldahl is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.

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