“In my view, Jony is currently the most powerful person at Apple,” Neil Cybart writes for Above Avalon. “We are currently seeing Jony’s Apple uncurl its wings, and while there are clearly risks involved with Jony holding so much power, in some ways, Jony is filling some of Steve Job’s old role as master collaborator and thinker.”
Cybart writes, “Here’s Steve Jobs on Jony [via Walter Issacson’s biography, Steve Jobs]: ‘The difference that Jony has made, not only at Apple but in the world, is huge. He is a wickedly intelligent person in all ways. He understands business concepts, marketing concepts. He picks stuff up just like that, click. He understands what we do at our core better than anyone. If I had a spiritual partner at Apple, it’s Jony. Jony and I think up most of the products together and then pull others in and say, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’ He gets the big picture as well as the most infinitesimal details about each product. And he understands that Apple is a product company. He’s not just a designer. That’s why he works directly for me. He has more operational power than anyone else at Apple except me. There’s no one who can tell him what to do, or to butt out. That’s the way I set it up.'”
“On an organizational chart, Tim Cook may indeed be at the top (I have some doubts that is the case, but for simplicity’s sake, I will take what is written on Apple’s leadership page as correct), it is far from given that a company’s CEO is the de facto most powerful employee at that company,” Cybart writes. “Fortunately for Apple, there isn’t much evidence to suggest ‘power’ is an issue between Jony and Tim Cook. Both men are well aware of their involvement in the Apple machine and what would happen if that machine stops working, as seen with the 2012 reorganization.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, Steve Jobs put the right guys in the right places.
Related articles:
Jony Ive hasn’t been given too much power at Apple – because he’s always had it – February 5, 2013
Steve Jobs left design chief Jonathan Ive ‘more operational power’ than anyone else at Apple – October 21, 2011
