“On August 24, 2011 Steve Jobs resigned from his CEO position at Apple. With Jobs moving on to more important matters, the question ‘What would Steve do?’ might be one of the worst that Apple executives and employees could ask during the next decade,” Zoe McKay writes for Forbes. “Just step back in time to see why.”
“On December 15, 1966 Walt Disney, founder and then president of The Walt Disney Company, passed away. It didn’t take but a few years for one of the subsequent CEOs and presidents, Card Walker, to consistently ask the question ‘What would Walt do?’ when trying to make strategic choices,” McKay writes. “This question spread throughout the company with the distribution of a small book of Walt Disney’s sayings, further weaving the ‘What would Walt do?’ logic even deeper into the decision making fabric of the company.”
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McKay writes, “In short order, Disney ended up with a series of tired, formulaic movies that produced little box office entertainment and the complete cancellation of its 29 year old, hour-long weekly program, Walt Disney, on CBS television… A far better question that Disney executives and employees could have asked between 1966 and 1984 is ‘What had Walt Disney personally done over the years to create and sustain such a vibrant, innovative company?'”
Read more in the full article here.
What would Steve say about that?
+1 for nailing it.
+1 for nailing it as the first post.
+1 for nailing irony into sarcasm; or was it the other way around? Fine, add another point.
What Steve did was to assemble a team of immensely talented people who share his values and who are prepared to obsess about the smallest detail in their quest for perfection.
Those people never need to ask what Steve would do because they already think in a similar way to how he does and have done for many years.
The driving vision and philosophy of Apple must be preserved. But it would be a mistake for Tim to attempt to “become” Steve. Tim has to play to his own strengths and weaknesses and adapt to the new working relationships that will be formed within the Apple management team. There is no “mini-Steve.” Everyone in the management structure will have to adapt a bit, and many will have to step up their games to compensate for this first step in the eventual retirement of Steve Jobs (may it be a long retirement process!). For instance, Tim may rely even more strongly upon Jonny in terms of leadership in product design and depend more upon other top managers to help bring perspective to Apple’s forward path. That could be a great thing, in the long run, as long as Tim and the rest of the management team maintains stability and morale within the ranks.
I guess the more important thing to think about is what was Steve’s philosophy.
Forbes is not what it used to be. Not in a good way.
Was one of those quotes the Walt Disney book, “Make tired, formulaic movies”? Didn’t think so. Disney’s problem didn’t come from trying too hard to weave Walt’s magic into fabric of the company — it came from not trying hard enough.
Eisner didn’t help matters either…
There was quite an interval between Walt’s death and Eisner becoming CEO. And while Eisner had his faults, he did turn Disney around.
On the contrary, the writer has it pegged. It’s not that Walt Disney would have told them to make unoriginal movies. It’s that asking “What would X do?” is a mistake for one very essential reason:
You’re not him.
When the employees at Disney asked themselves “What would Walt do”, they answered the question by thinking of their own personal image of Walt Disney, which over time became a caricature of the real person. The formulaic crap movies were made because they resembled things Disney himself made earlier, so obviously that’s what he would have done, right?
The only person who can answer the question “What would Steve Jobs do?” is Steve Jobs. Anyone else can only guess at the answer. And their guess will be based solely on things Jobs did in the past. The answer will be “make it more like the iPod” or “make it more like the iPhone”, when perhaps the real Steve Jobs would have moved beyond those paradigms by that point.
Best not to obsess about what Steve would have done. Better to learn the lessons Steve taught and decide what you will do by following those lessons.
——RM
There are many answers to the title question; the main is that none of these people left are Steven Jobs. While they can predict some approaches Jobs would take, they obviously can not replicate all of his cutting-through, paradoxical, often times perpendicular views on problem with every other take he could make.
However, these people are not dumb at all (to say the least), and they are probably very much capable to maintain the spirit of Jobs as long as possible. Not to say this might necessary long for much more longer than like five to ten years from now, alas.
However, we can hope; for now, we only can wait and see what will happen.
I don’t see anything wrong with the question itself. But plenty can go wrong with an answer. The writer suggests that at Disney they did not answer that question correctly therefore one should not follow their footsteps. That is a logical leap, unless it can be proven that no one is not able to answer that question. That, I suppose, would depend on given individual’s talent so it all boils down to individual abilities. To put it simply, a good new CEO will make a good decision (and it will appear that he “gets” the old CEO’s spirit) and a poor one will fail. The writer may be right in his instinct that good CEO will not obsess on “what the old one would do” but the mediocre one will and he will make a wrong decision trying hard to be different or trying hard to be the same – he will never jump higher than his ass.
“no one is not able”?
What would Steve do? Just ask him…
The old phrase “Analysis Paralysis” comes to mind.
Don’t forget, Steve took over and followed his dream. His dream became Apple and Apple thrived on his dream. If Apple can survive after Steve Jobs it is because they keep his dream alive.
What is his dream? To break the rules, and create very cool stuff that people will use and love. To make things better to the point where you can’t imagine them being any better. That’s what makes Apple different from the rest. That’s evident in every Apple product. That’s why their IP is important to them, it is like their DNA.