“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.