Qualcomm Executive Chairman Paul E. Jacobs Recognized with the 2014 John Wooden Global Leadership Award

By Carolyn Gray Anderson

One of Coach John Wooden’s aphorisms was: “A player who makes the team great is better than a great player.” Meaning, there is greatness in putting the group’s interests before personal prowess — greatness in sharing success.

On Monday, UCLA Anderson will honor Qualcomm’s Dr. Paul E. Jacobs with the annual John Wooden Global Leadership Award, which Jacobs earns because it recognizes excellence in leadership and affirms Coach Wooden’s values. A leader in the field of mobile communications for more than 25 years and a key architect of Qualcomm’s strategic vision, Jacobs spearheaded the company’s efforts to develop and commercialize mobile technology breakthroughs that have significantly contributed to the growth of both the company and the industry.

In July 2005, Paul Jacobs took the reins of Qualcomm from his father, industry pioneer Irwin Jacobs, amid some murmurings in the media and industry about whether he could handle the job. Under his leadership, the company generated four times the revenue and three times the profit from when he took over. Global employees increased from 9,300 to 31,000.

It’s fair to say that Jacobs the younger succeeded admirably.

Yet he stepped down as CEO earlier this year to make way for the talents of Steve Mollenkopf, a 20-year veteran of Qualcomm, most recently its president and COO. Jacobs made this move in order to retain Mollenkopf’s talents for the good of the company they’ve both so strategically developed for so long.

“The transition was a little faster than we anticipated,” Jacobs said in an interview. “But I wanted and the board of directors wanted to ensure the continuity of the management team. The company is doing really well. Steve has been a huge part of that. We just wanted to make sure he stayed around to execute on the opportunity we have.”

Stepping aside to entitle new leadership to make strides — this reflects both the self-esteem and humility Coach Wooden embodied and inspired.

Jacobs will remain an employee of the company, and will continue to serve as Qualcomm’s chairman of the board of directors, as executive chairman. He will focus on strategy and new technologies. The Qualcomm® Toq™ smartwatch, unveiled at the 2014 annual Uplinq developers’ conference, was a pet project conceived and shepherded through development by Jacobs.

Today, Qualcomm ranks as the largest U.S. semiconductor company, eclipsing technology icon Intel with its $130 billion market value. Qualcomm’s success notwithstanding, Jacobs never rests on his laurels. If Paul Jacobs has an aphorism of his own, it might be “Lead through vision, not division.”