Source:MATT RIC: New York Times News Service:October 7, 2011
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 to 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.
Mr Timothy D. Cook, Jobs' long-time lieutenant at Apple, captured the difficult balancing act in an email 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,” Mr Cook wrote.
On 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 Co. is one cautionary tale. In the years after the death in 1966 of the entertainment company's founder, the executives strived 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.
It took the hiring of Mr Michael Eisner and other top executives in the 1980s to revitalise Disney through more aggressive investments in animated filmmaking, theme parks and stores.
The post-jobs dilemma
“Apple can't fall into that,” said Mr David Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. “It's not, ‘What would Steve have done?' That's a recipe for problems.”
Mr Yoffie said Mr 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 will 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. “At the same time, Tim can't be another Steve Jobs,” Mr Yoffie continued. “At some level, the company will have to evolve. The way it evolves and the types of changes are yet to be understood, probably by Tim himself.”
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, Mr Cook made his debut at the first public event since taking over the top post: the introduction of a new model of iPhone.
Mr Rick Devine, an executive recruiter, said that the “market winds are at their back,” and that Mr 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.”
Mr 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 Mr Cook quickly hit it off when they met, as Jobs told Mr Devine after their meeting.
‘…and he let go'
“He said, ‘This is the guy,”' Mr Devine said. Jobs' death left technology executives and legions of Apple fans struggling to imagine an industry without one of its founding fathers.
Mr 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,” Mr 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. Mr Vansi Gadey, 30, a designer who works at a large technology company, was visiting the Apple store near Union Square in San Francisco, to charge his phone. He said: “I'm from India. In my childhood, Gandhi was an inspiration. After that, it's been Steve Jobs.”
Mr Burt Miller, 56, was on his way to a San Francisco Apple store to pick up some replacement parts when his wife called to tell him that Jobs had died. He said he was crushed. Mr Miller, who works in construction, said he had followed the presentation of the new iPhone the day before and was convinced that Jobs had too. “I think he saw it and knew Apple was going to make it and he let go.”
To think only in terms of ‘what Steve would have done' is a recipe for problems.
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