“For Tim Cook, the small-town football fanatic turned steward of the world’s largest technology company, it always comes back to the vision question,” Gabriel Madway reports for Reuters
“The search for an answer will frame succession planning discussions in Building 4 of 1 Infinite Loop — the heart of Apple’s California headquarters — when Cook is expected to step in for his boss to lead the annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday,” Madway reports. “But little did Cook know that a gut decision he made in 1998 during his first meeting with Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs would forever change his life — and alter the course of technology history.”
Madway reports, “With Jobs out on his third medical leave of absence and deemed by many unlikely to return, Cook may finally get his shot to be number one at Apple. But what most investors want to know is whether Cook possesses any of Jobs’ instincts for anticipating what consumers want before they know it.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Even if SJ doesn’t return to the helm of Apple, what’s to stop him from taking up an advisory position? SJ doesn’t have to be a visionary on payroll, does he?
Apparently they’re already working on downloading SJ’s conscience into a device they’ve named “iRobot” so that he can live forever and command Apple for centuries to come.
It’s true, someone in Korea sent me a grainy photograph of something in the distance that looked a bit like a metal robot..
LOL!
Imagine the money would save if SJ wasn’t on the payroll…
$1 every year.
Steve Jobs is an amazing leader at Apple. Because of this, it tends to overshadow Steve’s amazing ability to find talented people to work at Apple. When Steve is gone (which I never want to fathom), Apple isn’t going to be an empty carcass. I’m sure Apple’s employees will prove to any naysayers that Steve wasn’t the only one talented in Infinite Loop. If they weren’t Apple material, Steve would have fired them long ago.
Apple is like Pixar — once Steve puts the house in order, the talented people will continue to crank out top quality products.
Neither TIm Cook nor anybody else on the scene can answer ‘the vision question’ like Steve Jobs. That’s what sets him apart, what makes him unique.
If Steve’s health continues to deteriorate, he won’t be able to continue providing guidance and input … so the fear is that Apple will flounder under its future leader — much as it did prior to Steve’s return to Apple in 1997.
However, Steve has long been aware of his health issues — far longer than anyone in the media — and I’m confident that he and other top Apple execs have mapped out a longer-term strategy for the company that will keep it on track over the decade ahead. By ‘strategy’ I don’t mean the next iteration of the iPhone or the next great iProduct, but a longer-term objective and plan for achieving it. The iPhone is obviously not a phone, but a carry-along computer that just happens to make calls.
So the company’s longer-term plan very likely lays out milestones for further integrating the iPhone into the user’s daily life: think more user-friendly interface, think personal payments using near field technology, think cloud computing to store virtually everything of significance to the user that can be digitized.
MDN periodically posts details about new patents obtained by Apple, but those are several years behind the curve: ideas from Apple submitted in the past that are only now coming to light. One can only imagine what Apple has been coming up with in recent months … We’ll have to wait until 2013 or later to see those ideas appear in public.
In short, Tim Cook isn’t alone addressing the vision question, and won’t be for many years to come. He’s been working side-by-side with Jobs for many years now, as have several other talented Apple execs. If Steve were to retire today, the company would have its plate full for years to come with projects already underway.
You nailed it. Apple has long term plans and products in the R&D pipeline, so it will be quite some time before any impacts from SJ’s absence would become evident. That being said (and no slight intended to Cook or anyone else at Apple), I’m still fervently hoping for SJ to lead the way for many years to come.
Bring back Woz!
Cook is no Jobs, not even close. The day Jobs is no longer around, is the day Apple will be sold to the highest bidder. Only the name will survive.
I call bullshit on that prediction. You can iCal me if you want to.
wow what a statement!
2nd biggest market cap in the world. Other than ExxonMobil, who could afford it?
No one can argue with the fact that Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs. But to imagine that the company that Steve Jobs built will sink like a stone the day he retires is ridiculous.
Apple will be Apple as long as Jobs remains in its DNA and there’s no brain drain with Steve, Cook, Ive and others leaving. I shudder to think of Ive designing hardware for Dell, for example. Also, what people seem to forget is that Macs were better than PC’s even before Steve returned and OS X was created. But it’s a new world, much faster-paced. Still, it’ll be a long time before change is so radical that Apple no longer exists.
Yes, there are many talented people working at Apple. But talented people need a talented leader. When they come together you witness what we’ve witnessed with Apple..
I’m sure Apple will be fine for several years without Jobs, but there have been very few visionary leaders like Jobs throughout history..
Let’s face it, Apple is what Apple is because of Steve Jobs. Without him, the “i” revolution would not have happened.
It’s true. People like Steve Jobs are very rare. The company that Steve Jobs built may prosper for many years to come; but without Steve, the magic will be gone. So for Apple, and for their loyal followers, these are the glory days. To know this even while living them is also very rare and very lucky.
“But what most investors want to know is whether Cook possesses any of Jobs’ instincts for anticipating what consumers want before they know it.”
This is a dumb statement. Jobs Innovations, besides coming up with the best user interface. Has Innovated on products that were already there.
This is also a dumb statement. Visionaries don’t operate in a vacuum. They look at what is and see what it could become while everybody else is busy counting widgets. Without Steve Jobs, Apple—if it had survived at all—would still be cranking out beige boxes, as would the whole computer industry. Like the “crazy ones” in Apple’s iconic “Think Different” ads, Steve Jobs is changing the world because he’s crazy enough to think he can.
Cook doesn’t have to be Jobs, he only has to be better than the CEOs at other companies. These tards are making the wrong comparisons.
Well done. That’s a very astute observation. Additionally, he will have been guided by Jobs and supported by a whole bunch of people who have also been nurtured and guided by Jobs.
You called it. Shouldn’t be hard to do either.
SJ has run Apple very strategically, execution has been nearly flawless. There is no doubt he has taken care of a succession strategy.
However, in the end all things die and it’s just a matter of when Apple succumbs. I am sure it will be a decade or more from now.
Go Apple!
Let’s face it, what puts Apple products head and shoulders above the competition is the excellent user interface. The hardware’s minimalist design is another factor. The ease that all Apple products interface with each other is a third.
It shouldn’t be too hard for Apple to keep up the good work for decades if they keep these precepts in mind.
If they use the guidelines already in place there is no reason why they couldn’t fix any product in use today. TVs, automobiles bicycles, watercraft, aircraft, the internet, you name it.
As long as the Board doesn’t put a sales guy or a finance guy at the helm if and when Jobs leaves