The corking fallacy in the story of Steve Jobs maltreat down as Apple CEO , the one you ’ll find in endless culture medium reports , is this : In 1985 after Steve Jobs left Apple , the troupe went on a declivitous coast that led it to the verge of bankruptcy . Therefore , the Apple of 2011 is at risk of doing the same .
The factual instruction are true , so far as they go . Steve Jobs did leave Apple in the mid-80s , and a succession of Apple CEOs named Sculley and Spindler and Amelio did deal to virtually run Apple into the ground over the next 12 twelvemonth .
But the flaw in the History Repeats Itself plot line being raise in some corner as Jobs step down as chief operating officer is that the Apple of today is nothing like the Apple of 1985 .
When Steve Jobs left Apple the first clock time , I was finishing my freshman yr of high school . As a resolution , I have no insider cognition of that era . Eight long time afterward , I was cover Apple … and Apple speedily went through three CEOs who made numerous risky decisions that led Apple to the brink of disaster . Steve Jobs , meanwhile , was building a company ( Next ) that had create an interesting computer operating organisation that was being used by approximately nobody .
The thaumaturgy materialise when Jobs come back to Apple , so when I say that Gil Amelio helped melt down Apple into the ground , I have to allow in that he also made the decision that saved Apple ’s life : He bought Next and did n’t just get the foundation of Mac OS X ( and eventually iOS)—he also got Steve Jobs .
By 1997 , Jobs ran Apple with absolute great power , the variety of power he had never had during his first go - round at Apple . Jobs was a co - founder , yes , and his time work with the original Macintosh team is the stuff of legend . But the Apple of 1985 was n’t Steve Jobs ’s company — not hardly .
When he took the interim CEO job more than a 10 later , Jobs did n’t make that fault again . honest-to-god and wiser , and with the complete support of Apple ’s board of theater director , Jobs remade the company to his specifications . The iMac was a first quick sign of the turnround . The original iPod and the decision to open retail stores began the existent momentum . The release of the iPhone and the iPad marked Apple ’s control to what it is today : The most important technology ship’s company in the man .
The Apple of today is hugely profitable , with tens of gazillion of hard cash , a 90 percent share of the tablet securities industry , a quickly growing smartphone business around the world , and the only in truth profitable personal - computer dealership left . This is where Steve Jobs leave Apple as CEO : on top , with momentum to carry it further up .
But the most important thing about what Steve Jobs has done in the past 14 year at Apple is this : It ’s not all about Steve Jobs . job has work up this troupe in his own image . The executives are people who he trusts , mass who have worked with him tight and understand his product school of thought . The creative activity ofApple Universityis an attempt to codify what we might as well call the Apple Way , which is fundamentally the Steve Jobs - driven product and business philosophical system that has shaped today ’s Apple .
So can someone at this modern , Jobs - constructed Apple take Steve ’s position ? Of course not . He is irreplaceable , at least by a single soul . There ’s a reason why Steve Jobs is probably blend in to go down in history as one of the Titan of American business : he ’s a rare talent . People like Jobs do n’t show up that often .
Tim Cook , Apple ’s Modern CEO , is not going to be Steve Jobs . He ’s move to apply the business insightfulness he ’s always apply . There are other members of Apple ’s executive team that , too , will fill in composition of the puzzle . Steve Jobs essentially wrote the rulebook for how Apple runs , but it ’s not like all of Apple ’s employees posture around wait for Steve Jobs to assure them what to do .
Is there a peril that Apple after Jobs will slue ? First off , there ’s no guaranty Apple would go on on the roll that it ’s been on , even with Jobs at the helm : It ’s rare to see a company succeed so spectacularly for so long , and all good runs amount to an last . And of course , there are plenty of exercise of companies that have lost their style after the departure of a magnetic , originative executive director — Disney comes to mind .
Nothing is certain in life . Just necessitate Steve Jobs , who has watched Apple ’s incredible success for years while deal with his own brutal , personal wellness issue . But Apple ’s not doomed to reprize its first post - Jobs fall . Today ’s Apple is vastly more successful than the Apple of the 1980s never was . It ’s got a team and a corporate refinement that are the envy of the job world . And it ’s had several years to do to grips with the idea that its chief operating officer might not be able to persist in thrill incessantly .
No caller is guaranteed natural selection . The engineering science industriousness is ruthless and the stride of alteration keeps quicken . But if there ’s a troupe that ’s in a position to live and expand even without Steve Jobs as the CEO , it ’s Apple . Now it ’ll be up to Tim Cook and his team to verify the company stick to the playbook .
After all , the new chairwoman of the board will be watching .
