Apple Grooming Next Gen of Executives 120
capt turnpike writes "The modern Apple as we know it -- the good one with open-source Darwin, with Unix-based OS X, and so on -- was mainly the creation of NeXT: Steve Jobs, Avie Tevanian and Jon Rubenstein. What's going to happen to Apple once this troika leaves? eWEEK.com looks at the orderly transition out of Jon and Avie and asks whether things could go as smoothly should Jobs need to retire." From the article: "At some companies, such a loss of leadership could leave the company with a power vacuum or a lack of direction. However, Apple seems to be conscious that no single person--except, perhaps, CEO Steve Jobs himself--is irreplaceable, and that new talent can always be groomed for the future."
Re:They should just.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Thing is... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:They should just.... (Score:5, Interesting)
People will point out that Macintosh wasn't really first with any of these things, and rightly so. Apple's genius has laid not so much in inventing (although it does a fair amount of that, a lot more than Microsoft) but in using a combination of engineering, fashion design and marketing to bring these things mainstream.
Honestly I don't know that Apple can survive without Jobs, at least not the Apple that has thrived on being at the cutting edge. He was the vision behind it initially, they putted along and then foundered without him, and they've made a huge comeback with him. His combination of vision, drive, cult-like fanatacism, and titanic ego kept it going. Likewise I kind of wonder if Gates handing the reins over on Microsoft was what turned it from unstoppable devourer of worlds into the dumb, lumbering behemoth its been lately. It just seems like the qualities that certain CEOs and businessmen use to keep their companies on the cutting edge are not just difficult to incorporate into a corporate culture, they are almost the polar opposite of being part of a corporate culture- a willingness to break ranks, take risks, and think in a completely different way.
Re:They should just.... (Score:5, Interesting)
As Apple's marketshare has dwindled everyone translated that into Apple failing... but here's the thing, Apple isn't trying to sell cash registers, or help desk terminals, or word processors, or shipping stations. Those markets have grown explosively over the past 15 years, that's where the majority of PC growth is. The margins are so low Dell and Gateway have to sell 10 machines to equal the profit margin on a single Mac. Meanwhile any of those companies can be blown out of the water by the next bargain basement Chinese manufacturer.
Back in the OS 9 days, I think your argument would make more sense. OS 9 and Windows were so similar that commoditization was a real possibility. These days though, Macs are an a uniquely strong niche market: Professional Apps + UNIX. The value of OS X and it's developer base is not something that can easily be recreated by any other company. It's a lot more conceivable that Apple loses its appeal to the fickle iPod market where the only barrier to entry is creating a device. No one's been able to do it so far, but with the right marketing and a sense among hipsters that the ipod is 'so 2005' anything could happen.
I don't see OS X grabbing a lot of marketshare, or Apple's PC business growing fast, but I see them as having the strongest userbase of perhaps any electronics manufacturer. It may not satisfy Wall Street, but it will keep the profits coming in...
transition plans (Score:3, Interesting)
The company I work for recently had the COO step down. The exec team had a transition plan in place, though, so day to day operations weren't impacted in the least. The new COO was already familiar w/ operations, the staff, procedures, goals, directions, initiatives of the company, and was able to step in with only a few weeks of transition. Had we not had this plan in place, who knows what the impacts would have been.
Given Jobs' age (50+), this is the appropriate time to begin thinking about succession. It also gives Apple the opportunity to bring a new face to its customers & shareholders to ascertain what the impact on the company's image is; this is a huge concern to Apple, which is one of the few IT companies whose founder/CEO ranks as a 'superstar'.
Apple is a bit like Cuba in this manner; should Jobs/Castro bow out suddenly, the resulting chaos would be catastrophic.
The Press loves Jobs, not Apple so much. (Score:3, Interesting)
When Jobs ran Pixar, the press loved Pixar. They could do no wrong.
When Jobs ran NeXT, making the most overpriced workstation ever, even though noone could afford the machine, the press stayed interested because there had to be something awesome happening there.
When Jobs ran Apple.... well I think that just looking at the positive press he receives is more than enough, I can't do it justice.
I don't know if the term is popular outside of NY where I grew up, but we used a term called "Rain Maker" for the type of executive that could walk into a stubbling company such as Xerox and gain attraction throughout the world. Jobs is quite possibly the greatest "Rain Maker" ever in the corporate history of the world. His presence alone gains so much positive press for any company that he steps foot into that the rest of the people there start feeling more confident and doing better jobs.
I think another factor to point out is that Jobs, although he'll ride a horse until it's dead and then cut the sucker up and serve it for dinner, he has a skill in listening to his subordinates and knowing where to go next. When it comes to managing, along the road I learned a little from one guy and little from another, but the most important thing I ever learned was from Jobs himself. I'll misquote it badly, and I don't remember where I heard it, but here it goes. It was in an interview sometime back when he was starting back at Apple again.
Interviewer : Steve, your success has been phenominal, but how can you be CEO of Pixar and Apple without spreading yourself too thin.
Steve Jobs : It's a challenge of course, but I have a team of people at both Apple and Pixar made up of really bright guys that I trust completely. In reality, these teams run most of each company, but I listen to them and manage them and the rest takes care of itself.
It was something along those lines, but from a business perspective, I've learned a lot from that statement alone. It's really a matter of having a team you trust and being a person that the team trusts as well. You have to all believe that you're there to take care of each other and that everyone is there to take care of you too. If you build a team like that, you'll suceed.
As for what will happen to Apple when Job's is gone, it's hard to speculate, but I'd say there's a very very good chance that whoever comes next would not be able to attract as much positive attention for Apple as Jobs does. In my experience, Mac is just another computer and in most cases the hardware is excellent but the software is a bit clunky. But Steve Jobs can stand on a stage and pitch a product no matter how silly, for example, a new web cam and it'll make headline news on NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and pretty much every web site people read the next day. For example, if I recall correctly, Slashdot had the iSight as an article within hours of it happening.
I doubt anyone else could hold the interest in the industry that Jobs does. After all, with the exception of the blue screen presentations by Bill, how many times has he had a web video on the front page of news.com.com.com.com.com