“Steve Jobs is still CEO of Apple, and he’s still alive, and unofficially Dictator for Life. But I am definitely not alone and hardly an original thinker among many who are pondering about how long he might be able to remain in an active role at the company,” Jason Perlow writes for ZDNet.
“I think some consideration should be taken as to whether or not Apple has formed an effective transition strategy, and has adequately prepared for the worst case scenario,” Perlow writes. “What does Apple look like without Jobs?”
Perlow writes, “Companies that are centered around iconic founders and which cannot form effective long-term transition and mission strategies after they depart are doomed to suffer serious consequences. Case in point — from 1985 to 1987, Jobs lived out his exile at NeXT and Pixar, only to return as the company’s savior after over a decade of being completely rudderless and on the brink of oblivion… If Jobs were to abdicate, would Apple indeed become rudderless again? Or has he installed a church of his own followers that would continue on in the same tradition and ideology?”
Perlow writes, “Tim Cook, a former career IBMer, briefly filled the role of CEO when Jobs had his cancer treatment in 2004, but whether he has the institutional vision to run the company long term should Jobs have to leave Apple is a question only Jobs can answer.”
Full article here.
Since M$ picked a large oaf-ish pink skinned guy…I gues Apple has no choice but to go with Count Chocula.
what? steve isn’t immortal!… arrr I think Apple will be okay for a period post steve, but will never be as vibrant
Dictators for life don’t spend too much time making people strong enough to replace them. They usually spend their time figuring out how to drive them off or over them killed. They generally don’t give much thought to how things will be when they are dead and gone. They truly don’t care.
In fact Steve’s psychological makeup would probably see the second plunge of Apple as vindication of his genius, that he was truly the sole reason for it’s success or failure.
Steve Jobs will be at Apple for a long time. And as long as he is CEO of Apple, it will appear that Apple will not be able to survive without Steve Jobs, because that’s what Steve Jobs wants. He wants to be irreplaceable in the public eye. So even if there is a clear transition plan in place, such a plan will not be made public until it is needed.
Steve Jobs will keep such planning a mystery and he will be Apple CEO for as long as he want to be.
Apple when Jobs left and Apple now are like Apples and Oranges. The basic building blocks at the Company are a lot better now than when Steve left. When Job’s left they were just beginning to ponder the changes necessary to move to a modern OS.
I’m not sure you get OS X if Steve had stayed. The foundation that is OS X I’m sure can run at least another decade. The roadmap at Apple is pretty well defined and goes out a very long time into the future.
ZzzNet.
More Stock Manipulation… for the rest of us…
Yea Yea Yea – All that is very interesting
But, have to wonder if ANYone is giving:
“… some consideration … as to whether or not MICROSOFT has formed an effective transition strategy, and has adequately prepared for the worst case scenario …”
BC
So much is down to perception. If Steve continues to allow other key people to take parts of Keynotes for example, bringing them forward and backing himself off, it shouldn’t be too much of a shock if he leaves in the future.
But I personally hope he continues for a long time to come
“If Steve continues to allow other key people to take parts of Keynotes for example, bringing them forward and backing himself off, it shouldn’t be too much of a shock if he leaves in the future.”
If you say so, lets see what happens to the stock price at the first keynote where Steve, with no prior notice as is the Apple way, doesn’t appear.
Wow, the armchair psychoanalysis is pretty thick in here.
The fact is, Steve Jobs has done a hell of a job of recruiting executive talent at Apple. I’ve met quite a few of Apple’s Senior VPs at one time or another, and if steve got hit by a bus, they’d do a fine job of running the company. They wouldn’t have his panache, but they’d keep on making world-class products.
-jcr
</b>”Would Jonathan Ive draw a complete blank on how to develop new designs?”</b>
Perhaps. He may actually design something that fails utterly and completely like previous apple flops including Cube, hockey puck Mouse, 20th Anniversary Macintosh, Newton, and, my favorite, Lisa.
“Would Tim Cook forget how to manage inventory?”
Maybe not, but he may forget to publish monthly MBA, iMac, and Mac Pro sales statistics for 2008. He could be getting senile.
“Would Phil Schiller start advertising like Microsoft?”
I don’t know – maybe. He may even do worse.
“Would Apple’s engineers and software developers be at a complete loss as to what to do next?”
Quite possible. These technological grease monkeys and widget wielders may be lost without Steve Jobs’ gawd-like insight and direction.
“Apple desperately needs Jobs like a blazing forest fire needs a match.”
Watch the stock go into free fall should Jobs fail to give the keynote address, much less show his face, at WWDC or Macworld Expo.
<b>Daniel Eran Dilger (aka Professional Fanboi)
Has anyone else noticed the mannerisms and body language of the dude who gives the iPhone details(don’t even know his name). This guy has studied Jobs to a tee and has the composure and is the next generation agewise. He needs to work on his personality and expressions, yet fits the CEO image down the road. Cook, Schiller, and Ives are super important at making the vision happen and should stay where they are and let this guy be the next spokesman/CEO in the future. That dudes personality does need work, though. iCal this and bring it back later when they hand him the ball. You heard it here first.
Funny how no one is worried about Steve Ballmer’s health.
“They wouldn’t have his panache, but they’d keep on making world-class products.”
And that’s the problem. Apple is 90% Steve’s BS and 10% substance. All the great executives in the world won’t be able to sell a sow’s ear as a silk purse the way Steve can.
“Funny how no one is worried about Steve Ballmer’s health.”
For exactly the reason put forward. Microsoft is not a one man show.