How does one follow Jobs’ lessons, without succumbing to his legacy?
As the high-tech industry mourns the death of Steven P Jobs, Apple’s executives will face the challenge of how to keep its streak of hit products going, while avoiding the problems that have befallen other companies that lost their beloved founders.
The risk is this: How does one follow the lessons Jobs imparted to his fellow Apple executives over the last 14 years, without being trapped by his legacy and unable to adapt to future changes?
Timothy D Cook, Jobs’ longtime lieutenant at Apple, captured the difficult balancing act in an e-mail he sent to all Apple employees in late August, after taking over from Jobs as chief executive. “I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change,” Cook wrote.
An one level, the message was an effort to reassure nervous Apple staff members that the commitment to innovation that Jobs established would not change, even if Jobs was no longer involved in Apple’s day-to-day operations. But management experts say change is often exactly what companies need, as market conditions shift in the years after their founders are gone.
The Walt Disney Company is one cautionary tale. In the years after the death in 1966 of the entertainment company’s founder, the executives strove to stay true to Walt Disney’s spirit. For years, Disney’s old office was preserved like an untouched museum.
Its executives often praised corporate decision-making by saying, “Walt would have liked it.” But by the late 1970s, Disney was struggling after a string of box-office flops and was the subject of a hostile takeover attempt.
“Apple can’t fall into that,” said David Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. “It’s not, ‘What would Steve have done?’ That’s a recipe for problems.”
Yoffie said Cook had to “walk a fine line” in how he managed the transition into the post-Jobs era. “For most of the people at Apple, they have to have a sense that the creativity and enthusiasm of Steve would continue,” he said. “He’s got to send a signal to troops that the heart of Apple won’t change. Otherwise, he risks losing talent.
For the moment, Jobs has left Apple with so much momentum in the market, with surging sales of products like the iPad and iPhone, that it is unlikely to face any huge immediate challenges. The day before Jobs died, Cook made his debut at the first public event since taking over the top post: The introduction of a new model of iPhone.
Rick Devine, an executive recruiter, said the “market winds are at their back,” and Cook is the best-qualified person to continue that success. “He knows that organisation,” he said. “If there’s anyone who can keep that course, it’s him.”
Devine is familiar with Cook because he was the recruiter who introduced him to Jobs in 1998, when Jobs was looking for a seasoned executive to help him clean up Apple’s disorganised manufacturing operations. Jobs and Cook quickly hit it off when they met, as Jobs told Devine after their meeting. “He said, ‘This is the guy,’ “ Devine said.
Jobs’s death left technology executives and legions of Apple fans struggling to imagine an industry without one of its founding fathers. Bill Gates, the Microsoft chairman and co-founder, said he would “miss Steve immensely.”
“The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come,” Gates said in a statement. “For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honour.”
Consumers of Apple products expressed somewhat similar emotions on Wednesday.
©2011 The New York
Times News Service
