|
|
ONLINE FEATURES
Book Reviews
BW Video
Columnists
Interactive Gallery
Newsletters
Past Covers
Philanthropy
Podcasts
Special Reports
BLOGS
Auto Beat
Bangalore Tigers
Blogspotting
Brand New Day
Byte of the Apple
Economics Unbound
Eye on Asia
Fine On Media
Green Biz
Hot Property
Investing Insights
Management IQ
NEXT: Innovation
NussbaumOnDesign
Tech Beat
Working Parents
TECHNOLOGY
J.D. Power Ratings
Product Reviews
Tech Stats
Wildstrom: Tech Maven
AUTOS
Home Page
Auto Reviews
Classic Cars
Car Care & Safety
Hybrids
INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | |
JANUARY 14, 2003 COMMENTARY By Catherine Yang Steve Case: The Quiet Revolutionary He didn't have the zest of Ted Leonsis or the charm of Bob Pittman, but he changed the world by bringing the Internet to the masses
And then there was AOL co-founder Jim Kimsey, a West Point grad and Vietnam vet. After regaling me with gossip at Washington's Palm restaurant, he sent me back to the office in his chauffeur-driven limo in one of those extravagantly casual gestures of the high and mighty. SALAD DAYS. But Steve Case? I'm drawing a blank. Not that I didn't communicate with him from time to time. It's just that, amid the characters that have colored AOL's past and present, the khaki-clad boy CEO was famously shy -- if not without ego -- preferring to communicate by e-mail rather than face-to-face, even with colleagues in the next office. Yet, I would rather think he made no first impression on me because he had truly become larger than the company he founded. Make no mistake: For all of Cases's unobtrusiveness, he was the real power at AOL. Many may see him as a symbol of the salad days -- a brief time in retrospect -- of AOL's explosive growth in the mid '90s. But despite his resignation as chairman of AOL Time Warner on Jan. 12, I'll bet Case's legacy will endure, earning him a permanent spot in the pantheon of cybervisionaries alongside Microsoft's Bill Gates and Apple Computer's Steve Jobs. Perhaps not in his first interview with me (if I could remember when it was) but certainly in many subsequent ones, Case would express his long-held wish -- now part of AOL's mission statement -- that the company become one of the most valuable and respected in the world. He wanted AOL to be as essential to people's daily lives as the telephone or TV. STEADFAST VISION. Those sentiments may sound almost naive now that AOL is under federal investigations for possible accounting irregularities and its stock has plummeted about 75% since the AOL Time Warner merger launched two years ago. But it was Case's same steadfast vision about connecting ordinary people in a new way that built AOL from a handful of hobbyists to a mainstream service of 35 million members over the past decade. Today, whatever other troubles it has, AOL is still the world's largest online service provider, and it has indeed changed people's habits and daily routines -- maybe incrementally, and even imperceptibly at first. But Case's vision will be as valid in five years as it was five years ago -- perhaps even more so: The online medium will continue to revolutionize regular folks' lives in quiet but fundamental ways. While he certainly didn't make all the right moves with AOL, in retrospect, the quickie marriage he arranged with Time Warner had the trademark Case timing written all over it. (Remember when he hit the airwaves apologizing to AOL subscribers for getting busy signals on dial-up? His contrition soothed users and may have averted an implosion.) AOL's dot-com era growth was bound to slow down as the dial-up market matured, and excitement over the union with a big and steady media empire helped disguise more sobering realities. But the new company's team mismanaged expectations, and the merger served only to expose all of AOL's problems. Shareholders have been fuming ever since. TIME TO REGROUP. Now, AOL is staring at its greatest challenge yet. It has to make the next great leap -- to the broadband era. In that arena, AOL won't dominate as it did in the dial-up business. Like Microsoft, which missed the first Internet wave but found a way to come back, AOL can still regroup and become a significant player in broadband. Of course, it could also fail in its new mission. But that doesn't really matter. By bringing Internet connections beyond the rarified world of computer geniuses to just plain folks, Case made a significant contribution. He laid the foundation for a new mass medium that's still at its beginnings. And by priming the masses for the next generation of the Web, Case has secured his place in Internet history. Maybe you didn't make a strong first impression, Steve, but you sure made a lasting one.  Yang has covered AOL from Washington, D.C., since 1997 Edited by Douglas Harbrecht Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | JANUARY |
 Copyright 2003, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.Terms of Use | Privacy Policy |
Printer-Friendly Version
