iCon Steve Jobs

 

iCon Steve Jobs (born, 24 Feb 1955) is an American entrepreneur, a brand name, a star ruling for decades, cofounded Apple Inc. and now serving on board of The Walt Disney Company. Steve Jobs returned to Apple Inc. in 1997, when it has almost reached bankruptcy. In less than 15 years he made Apple world’s most valuable company overtaking Exxon Mobil this summer. Apple is now synonymous with innovation, customer satisfaction and quality products.

In late 70s he cofounded Apple Inc. and launched first commercially successful PC which revolutionized the life of every individual. He was the first one to realize the potential of mouse, GUI and multiple type-faces fonts. Today these inventions are de facto assumption. In mid 80s he co-founded Pixar Studios which released a very successful series of animated films including Toy Story series. He was the first to introduce multimedia content in emails, completely changing the way people communicate. In 1997, when he returned to Apple Inc. the world saw dawn of great inventions, quality products and some potential unknown markets that Jobs have pulled out of thin air. Starting from iPod and iTunes where he organized and revolutionized music industry and made music people’s life line in less than a few years. Then he launched iPhone, which revolutionized the smart phone industry and increased expectation from a phone. Phone no longer remains a mean of communication but is now giving better computing experience and is the future of electronic industry. iPad, not a new product though, made tablet computers home hold word and start giving PC maker run for their money. iPad is now moving to take a de facto place in education of many students as many schools in US have planned to use iPads in place of notebooks and books helping students to take notes to ease their load. Jobs’ vision can be seen in the way last 15 years were unfolded. Though he had left the company but his product ideas are in pipeline and will be delivered in coming few years like next iPad and iPhone 5, 4G enabled.

He was also admired and criticized for his consummate skill at persuasion and salesmanship, which has been dubbed the "reality distortion field" and is particularly evident during his keynote speeches (colloquially known as "Stevenotes") at Macworld Expos and at Apple's own Worldwide Developers Conferences. This discussion cannot be complete without mentioning Stanford Commencement speech, lasted only for 15 minutes, but inspired millions. He talked about his pancreatic cancer and how facing death have made him all determined to achieve his goal. All his qualities made him a charismatic leader whose soul will remain in Apple for a long time as he always said ‘I love Apple.’

Now that Steve Jobs is leaving, Apple will change. Apple has stood out during the last decade or more as an incredible growth engine for customers, investors, workers and partners. However, it wasn't just Apple. If Apple is the steak, then Steve Jobs is the sizzle. How important is the sizzle? Will Apple still be Apple? Without Steve, has Apple lost its mojo? Will growth slow? Will innovation decrease? The real question is what is at the heart of Apple's success, and can that be duplicated? What makes customers line up the night before a product launch to be the first to buy? In other words, what makes Apple Apple?

Apple’s customer can be divided in two segments, first is loyal customers who are basically attached to company because of charismatic and innovative leadership of Steve Jobs and because of premium segmentation of its computer business. The second segment is new customers who joined Apple later and are not much concerned about brand Steve Jobs but value brand Apple more. After resignation of Steve Jobs the decline in share prices was only 5% which signals that though Steve Jobs is important for the company but now company is in healthy stage. Now, without Jobs it will be interesting to see how company will satisfy both its loyal customers and new ones especially when it lacks a charismatic leader and its size is increasing exponentially.

What is the next big wave of innovation for Apple? Will Apple continue to transform industries going forward? If so, which is next? Or, Apple will lose its luster and become just another company in the mind of the marketplace. However, no doubt it will remain strong and viable and at the top of the list, at least for several more years. It will lose an important, since Steve Jobs will not be there feeding the fire as the master brand.

Most analysts are unreservedly enthusiastic about the talents of Tim Cook, 50, who joined Apple in 1992 during the decent of Apple and remain with Apple during it’s ascent in coming years. He is an operations genius, adept at cutting costs while delivering complex products on time and coping with staggering growth targets. When he joined Apple he closed down almost all the manufacturing units of Apple and outsourced most of its manufacturing to Asia leading to good operations efficiencies. He's also monastic and incredibly devoted to Apple. During Jobs' previous two absences, Cook steadied the corporate ship so capably that in 2010 he was rewarded with $59 million in salary and stock. Still, during those past medical leaves, Jobs has remained involved in all major strategic decisions. In that respect, Tim Cook is untested as a potential CEO. The rest of Jobs' team is studded with star role players but not accomplished generalists. Jonathan Ive, Apple's design chief, joined the company during its churning descent in 1992 and is now easily the most famous industrial designer in the world. But he lacks overall business expertise and credibility with Wall Street. Marketing Chief Philip W. Schiller is a burly, jovial Massachusetts native and a committed hockey fan. He's known as loyal and effective but isn't considered a tech visionary. Scott Forstall, Apple's software chief, carved out a high profile in Silicon Valley by creating a platform for the iPhone that made it easy for developers to create applications. But the longtime Jobs ally has little experience minting new hardware. Ron Johnson, the head of retail operations, has helped turn Apple into one of the world's most profitable chains—and somehow manages to coach youth baseball at the same time—but he is a retailer, not a technologist.

Business history is replete with visionary founders whose companies survived and even thrived after they stepped away. Ford Motor reached its zenith in the 1950s, a decade after the death of Henry Ford. HP continued to grow after its namesake founders retired. Disney foundered after Walt Disney died in 1966 but was revived two decades later under Michael Eisner. Jobs may be the best example of a new breed of business leader who can intuit customer emotions. Another is Howard Schultz, the longtime CEO of Starbucks, who is selling not just high-priced coffee but also the idea of a "third place" between home and work. Such leaders are not easily replaced. When Schultz retired from Starbucks in 2000, the company went into a steep decline, and he was compelled to return in 2008. There are examples like Michael Dell and Charles Schwab who were compelled to come back to company when they failed in their absence. Even without Jobs company can continue to give returns to shareholders, like IBM, however it may not remain as sexy as today but company market position and products will surely help it to remain industry leader for at least a few years. All this is speculative, of course, given the uncertainties about Jobs' health. But there is nothing speculative about the eventual mortality of any leader, as Max Weber noted long ago. He saw much of human accomplishment, from the world's religions to the great railroad companies of the era, as the work of revolutionary individuals whose legacies survived only when their wisdom was preserved in institutions. Those institutions inevitably become less radical over time, as obedient disciples take over and eventually form a less innovative, more risk-averse bureaucracy. It's not an especially auspicious way to look at Apple's future. But it suggests that whatever happens, the spirit of Steve Jobs will live on within Apple, and when it finally has to, Apple will carry on without him. The period after the charismatic leader is gone is always perilous, but in hypercompetitive, fast-moving industries, the loss becomes apparent much more rapidly.