“There’s a poem on a wall at Apple Computer’s headquarters that starts like this: ‘Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.’ The poem, once part of an Apple commercial, is an ode to people who, to use Apple’s term, ‘think different.’ But it could be just as much about Apple and its founders, who started the company on April Fool’s Day, 1976 – kicking off the personal computer revolution. Three decades later, founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are billionaires. Apple’s sprawling campus here is a far cry from the local Homebrew Computer Club where the two hippies showed their first PC to their friends,” Bob Keefe writes for Cox News Service. “Apple’s award-winning designs for its iPods and curvy computers, of course, don’t even resemble the wooden-box prototype Apple I that got it all started. Apple nonetheless remains the round peg in the square hole of the computing industry, and – to the surprise of many who once predicted its demise – is in better shape than ever.”
“Apple’s biggest problem in the future may be Jobs himself. The chief executive’s control and influence over the company is legendary. Jobs is part of every major product design, and his vision and touch are on everything Apple does publicly,” Keefe writes. “‘Steve is the one thing no other company can duplicate,’ says Gartner analyst Van Baker. Yet despite Jobs’s importance to the company, Apple has said little publicly about plans for a successor when he quits or dies. Increasingly, such a plan may be needed. Jobs turned 51 in February. Two years ago he survived what was first thought to be a fatal form of pancreatic cancer. And after selling his Pixar Animation Studios to Walt Disney, Jobs is Disney’s biggest shareholder and a director – positions expected to take some of his attention away from Apple. ‘There’s definitely kind of a tragedy in the brewing here,’ says Roger Kay, analyst and president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, a consulting firm. Other tech companies have clear succession pictures. But who can even name another top executive at Apple besides Jobs?”
“Apple spokesman Steve Dowling says the company has a succession plan but it is confidential. About the only clue Apple has given publicly about who might replace its co-founder came when Jobs chose chief operations officer Tim Cook to run things for the month or so he was recovering from cancer surgery. Cook is a long-term Apple employee,” Keefe writes. “Regardless of who might succeed Jobs, Apple won’t be the same without him, says Rakesh Khurana, a Harvard professor who has studied CEO succession.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We don’t know about the CEO position per se, but the public face of Apple should be someone with a love of design, who strives for perfection, who can express ideas clearly and passionately, and who has charisma on-camera and in public. The public face of Apple after Steve Jobs should be Jonathan Ive. (See related article below.)
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Related article:
What happens when Steve Jobs dies? – August 20, 2003
One thing for sure is that M$ won’t be the same with out the Ballmer man.
Start the Steve Jobs is dying story countlist!
Lets see I remember this as #3 now.
Ive’s as CEO is a ridiculous thought that only MDN could conjure up from the fairy tale Apple world that they live in…
Being a great designer/engineer has absolutely nothing to do with being a great CEO/leader.
Jobs is not the only smart ass at apple.
Mike et al,
Where in their “MacDailyNews Take” did MDN say that J. Ive should be Apple CEO?
MDN said Ives should be the public face of Apple. They do have a point, but there is a problem. I saw Jonathan in London and though we were expecting a talk, in fact he just threw it open to questions. He isn’t a man that it happy in the glare of the lights for sure. So I question if he is a future public face.
He’s agret guy and great designer and I hope his relationship with Apple lasts many more happy years.
This is a real concern. It isn’t just a health issue. What if he has an accident or something. This does worry since Apple has never been able to function without him.
Ive is no CEO material. Apple needs to be run by a visionary biz man not a designer.
I’m willing to bet that MS can function better without Balmer than Apple without Jobs.
Only time will tell I guess.
Ive’s has been groomed for the past few years as the next CEO. Apple won’t accept a CFO… it’ll be an “artist” like Jobs that gets the position. Cook though may be a very close second in command to handle the numbers, kind of like the old Eisner/Wells duo that saved Disney in the 80s/early 90’s.
Does working at Apple mean executing what Jobs wants? How much autonomy or decision making is by upper management?
Just thinking: if someone is younger and has as much vision and passion for computing like Jobs, why would they work at Apple? Maybe they’d open their own startup ’cause working at Apple would be just doing what Jobs wants?
Anyway, long live Jobs! =) (and hope they’ve a kick ass successor/successors)
Steve Jobs is just too hot for me to handle. Though, I can’t wait to get my hands around the neck of Bill Gates.
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Do you think M$ worries about Steve Ballmer (aka Monkey Boy) being killed in a horrible chair thowing accident? I think that wild Bill Gates has probably considered hiring a Soprano to take him out.
Long live Ballmer at MS! My theory is that the longer he stays in his position, the crappier Windows will stay and maybe, just maybe, everyone will start recognizing the Mac as an alternative, write tons of awesome software for it and Macs will sell in increasing numbers. Don’t need 50% marketshare, i’d be happy if Apple had 25%.
In the great Jobsian tradition, I believe Dowling, that the successor plan is just one more Apple secret. Steve Jobs will micromanage as much as he can from beyond the grave with with pre-recorded video and technologies yet to come. Then, when the time is right, the whole successor plan will be announced at a big hoop-la Apple Event.
And we will all be surprised and say that it was an insanely great decision!
The other alternative would be The End of the World™ coming first, at which time, a successor plan for Apple won’t matter a smidge.
Hmmm. Steve’s head floating in a giant, clear cube. That would be one fascinating paperweight.
But let’s be serious now. What does Ive know about computers? He’s a design guy.
I know Steve was always more of the sales guy, but at least he understood computers. Is Ive even sufficiently conversant in anything other than industrial design?
I’ve neutralized this worry by planning ahead – that is, I’m going before Stevie.
“Steve Jobs will micromanage as much as he can from beyond the grave. . .”
Oooooo. I’ll bet he’s pre-recorded tons of DVDs with future keynotes, a few temper tantrums, and some barbs for Michael and Bill.
You think they’ll put his head with the frozen one of Walt Disney?
Phil Schiller is hardly the cool CEO Jobs is. Actually, he’s a pretty big dork. Jonathan Ive shares Jobs’ vision but when he talks about his products he sounds like he’s about to start masturbating which is probably not what you want during a keynote speech. Or maybe you do.
i vote for Stewie from the Family Guy to replace Jobs.
It’s a triumverate.
1: Jonathan Ivy
2: Tim Cook
3: Avie Tevanian.
These three together have what makes me the best CEO Apple could possibly have.
So it takes three people to replace me. The biggest problem isn’t sucession, but going from $1 salary to these three’s salaries! (No Triumverate of airplanes, that’s for sure!)
All will be revealed…
“Apple spokesman Steve Dowling says the company has a succession plan but it is confidential.”
Deep in the Apple labs is a product they have yet to release to the public: iClone!
There’s just as much evidence that Al Gore is being groomed as the next CEO as there is that Ive has been.
Ampar “
You think they’ll put his head with the frozen one of Walt Disney?”
Walt can’t still be frozen surely. All that spinning in his grave during the Eisner years would have generated a lot of heat.
“Statement Of Changes In Beneficial Ownership” [Steve Jobs files SEC Form 4, sells 4.57 million shares of Apple Common Stock on 3/19] Securities and Exchange Commission
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I want a cube real bad. I might just buy one as a backup. I guess I have to make some money first, cus I definitely don’t have any right now. Off to the office.