profile FOLLOWING THE RESIGNATION OF sTEvE JOBs
the Minister of Magic Steps down Can Silicon Valley’s most disruptive company prosper without its talisman?
The econoMISt
down almost all of Apple’s manufacturing operations after he n a commencement speech to students at Stanford arrived at the firm in the late University in 2005, Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, 1990s and outsourced much of advised his audience to avoid being trapped by dogma and these to Asia. Announcing his to have the courage to follow their hearts and their intuition. promotion, Apple’s board said “Stay hungry. Stay foolish,” he said as he signed off. By folthat he had shown “remarkable talent and sound judgment lowing his own advice, Mr. Jobs, who resigned as Apple’s boss in everything he does.” on August 24th, has turned the company from a basket case Talent is something that Apple also has an abundance of on the brink of bankruptcy when he returned to its helm in elsewhere in its ranks. Executives such as Phil Schiller, who 1997 into a world-beater that is reshaping a big chunk of the oversees the company’s marketing, and Jonathan Ive, a Briton technology industry. Earlier this month, Apple even briefly surwhose domain is design, are part of a team that has worked passed Exxon Mobil, an oil giant, to become the world’s most closely together for many years. If Mr. Cook can keep this valuable company. group intact, then Apple’s future should be bright. No other boss in recent history has embodied and deThe firm also benefits from an intensely loyal and motifined a firm as completely as Mr. Jobs. So his decision to revated workforce. Glassdoor, an online jobs and careers comsign as chief executive has inevitably raised the question of munity, carries reviews of the company from almost No other boss in recent history has embodied 1,000 Apple employees. Most are glowing about the and defined a firm as completely as Mr. Jobs firm and in particular about Mr. Jobs’s impact on it. One post even calls Apple’s former boss “the Thomas Edison of this century”. Paul Saffo of Discern Analytics, a finanwhether Apple will remain as hungry and as wildly successcial-analytics company, reckons that this depth of loyalty will ful without its entrepreneurial maestro at the helm. Other mean that even though Mr. Jobs is stepping down, the firm’s giants in the tech industry have seen their fortunes fade afemployees will continue to ask themselves “what would Steve ter iconic leaders have departed. Microsoft has struggled to do?” when making decisions. (Of course, asking the question is regain its mojo since Bill Gates stood down as its chief exeasier than guessing the right answer.) ■ ecutive in January 2000. Could Apple suffer a similar fate? That seems unlikely for several reasons. One is that the company has had plenty of Steven Paul Jobs time to plan for this moment. Mr. Jobs has stepped aside from day-to-day management orn on February 24th 1955, Jobs is co-founder, chairman of the board, at Apple on a couple of occasions before, after and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc. In the late 1970s, Jobs having surgery for a rare form of pancreatic designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successcancer in 2004. Each time, Tim Cook, Apple’s ful lines of personal computers. After losing a power struggle in 1984, Jobs chief operating officer, temporarily assumed resigned from Apple and founded NeXT. Apple’s subsequent 1996 buyout his boss’s responsibilities. of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company and he served as its CEO from 1997 until 2011. He remained CEO and majority shareholder until its acThat allowed Mr. Cook, who is taking quisition by The Walt Disney Company in 2006. Consequently Jobs became over from Mr. Jobs as CEO, to get a taste for Disney’s largest individual shareholder at 7%. the top spot—and it gave Apple’s board a On August 24th, 2011, Jobs announced his resignation from his role as chance to see him in action. On each occaApple’s CEO. In his letter of resignation, Jobs strongly recommended that sion, Mr. Cook kept Apple’s money-making Tim Cook be named as his successor. Per his request, Jobs was appointed machine ticking over smoothly. An expert chairman of Apple’s board of directors. in manufacturing and logistics, he closed
I
B
82 |
85 September 2011
|
www.cordmagazine.com