Apple CEO Tim Cook . Apple for year rallied around its charismatic cobalt - founder , Steve Jobs , so it ’s only rude now to question whether the company can keep its market dominance and magic with a new leader .
Jobs , who stepped down as the company ’s chief executive officer on Wednesday , has stamped his personality on Apple ’s operations and products . Under job ’ leaders , Apple not only sparked the personal computing revolution in the 1970s and 1980s , but more recently established new directions in technology with iconic merchandise such as the iPod , iPhone and iPad .
Jobs has been replace as chief operating officer by Tim Cook , formerly the company ’s master operating ship’s officer , who was Apple ’s public human face during Jobs ’ medical leaves . Cook is conceive an operations somebody , but has shown his ability to incline Apple ’s day - to - day operations during job ’ leaves of absence .
Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Cook has the crusade and has also silently been at the center of Apple ’s recent achiever , tell Edward Marczak , an author and executive editor ofMacTechmagazine .
“ While the market may worry , those who have stuck by Apple through it all make love there ’s only more excellence ahead , ” Marczak said .
Spirit of innovation
But there are interrogative sentence about his power to continue the spirit of innovation embody by Jobs , whose headstrong direction style inspired workers and helped the companionship think ahead of market trends . Cook previously was responsible for Apple ’s sales and procedure , and has revamped the retail side of the company ’s business with the establishment of Apple memory .
“ Cook is very talented . But he does n’t have Jobs ’ innovative spirit — it ’s just not in the DNA , ” said James Post , professor at the Boston University School of Management , in an interview .
Jobs will stay at Apple as chairman and will be involved in designing and product decisions , so his influence could be felt on Apple ’s ware for years . But Cook was clearly job ’ first choice for CEO , and in a letter he “ powerfully recommended ” to the control board that it constitute Cook to the perspective .
Some company perceiver believe that Jobs has plant a blueprint for Apple to follow and churn out hit products , pose the groundwork for Cook to follow . Nevertheless , Jobs ’ absence from casual operations will leave a creative and direction void . Without Jobs , whose magnetic management style inspired workers to think outside the corner , there are questions about how long Apple will be able to sustain its ability to lead market trends .
“ illusionist are wanton to find , but great visionary who can go from concept to realness to execution to mass merchandising are uncommon indeed , ” Post said .
troupe of all stripes can well go wide , at least for a while , when their founders leave , Post aver . troupe like Walt Disney , Ford and Dell are examples of companies lose direction after their founders left , deliver to stability only after a period of time passed .
Apple will lack Jobs ’ “ my way of life is the only way ” approaching to business concern decision making , Post enounce . Cook will have to formulate a new way of make in effect conclusion that ride the companionship to continue developing successful Cartesian product .
Successful turnaround
task founded Apple in the mid-1970s with Steve Wozniak but was ousted in a boardroom battle in 1985 . He returned in 1996 to save up the caller from near ruin , and returned it to gainfulness a few year later .
Jobs turned Apple into a successful consumer electronics company by crystallizing concepts into a serial of popular products . Apple revolutionise the euphony diligence with the iPod music player and iTunes store , and make new product categories with the touch - controlled iPhone smartphone and iPad pill .
In 2011 , Apple for a forgetful period became the highest valued society in the world in terminal figure of market capitalisation , passing Exxon Mobil .
As CEO , Jobs was an inspirational drawing card and had a knack for reading substance abuser persuasion and future engineering trends , tell Owen Linzmayer , author ofApple Confidential 2.0 , which describes Apple ’s chronicle .
Jobs had “ the vision and business leader to force Apple ’s engineers to use applied science to make products that serve user ’ needs , minus the frills , without bogging them down , ” Linzmayer say .
Apple has the products , merchandising capabilities , and manager to continue to reign markets , Linzmayer say . But the technology manufacture moves fast , and Apple will call for to figure out ways to remain a step onwards of its competition .
“ prospicient term , who knows ? Things hap so rapidly in this industriousness , and young competitors and technologies can seem out of the blue , that it ’s severe to foretell what will bechance to any house , much less a company that ’s been as modern as Apple , ” Linzmayer say .
Over the year , Apple has compete with the the likes of of Google , Microsoft , Hewlett - Packard , Dell , Samsung and Research In Motion in the areas of calculation , smartphones , operating system and amusement . Today , Apple has a near - unassailable position in tablets and a firm position in smartphones .
Jobs rule Apple with an iron fist as CEO , and his obsession with secrecy drew critic . Hisrejection of Adobe ’s Flash technologyfrom the iPhone polarized the IT industriousness , and pixilated policing of the App Store led to criticism that Apple was too insulated .
The silence was part of Jobs ’ paranoia , which is warranted in a business that depends on innovation and market pizzazz , Post say .
“ The cloak of secrecy was an extension of Jobs ’ personality and obsessions . After his departure , the company could … become more open and transparent , ” Post said .
job also personified an wrath that plume user to the percept of Apple being an underdog , said Roger Kay , principal analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates .
job gave Apple fans the notion that Apple was being treated below the belt , and user were draw to the feeling of a companionship fighting its way through a hobo camp of hostile competitors such as Microsoft , which preyed regularly on Apple ’s ideas , Kay said .
The new management would do well to maintain the passion of the companionship ’s fans , Kay tell . Jobs inspire loyalty , the the like of which a future CEO may not be able-bodied to match , which could take away some of the society ’s edge .
Replicating product success
Another big challenge for Cook and Apple ’s direction squad will be to replicate the success Jobs had with creating a serial of product that blend under a individual umbrella and offered tight interoperability , a major cause the troupe has been so successful . product such as the iPad , iPhone and Apple TV are sell as stand - alone machine , but can also put to work together . For example , user can stream movies from the iPad or iPhone to TV bent connected to the Apple TV gimmick .
In the ending , the onus will lie on Cook to hold up Apple ’s growth . Cook inherits qualified faculty , product that are market leaders , and a word of mouth of future oblation that have Jobs ’ revenue stamp of favorable reception . enquiry of young merchandise at Apple part well in advance — speculation around the iPhone begin in 1999 when Apple registered the iPhone.org arena name . The New York Timesin 2002 wrote abouta product possibly immix phone and PDA - like feature being under ontogenesis . The iPhone was at last bring out in 2007 .
Cook will be assisted by Jonathan I ve , the elderly vice president of industrial design , who is one of the originative force behind the iPhone , iPad and iPod . I ve has been discussed by Apple enthusiast as someone who could succeed Jobs as Apple ’s CEO , but he is not count a leader . Other executivesinclude Philip Schiller , fourth-year vice president of worldwide merchandise merchandising ; Scott Forstall , fourth-year frailty president of iOS software ; Bob Mansfield , senior vice prexy of Mac hardware applied science ; and Peter Oppenheimer , CFO .
Cook may not bring Book of Job ’ style and cacoethes to the Book of Job , but Apple ’s management team and product pipeline will probably control that the companionship wo n’t stumble , at least in the shortsighted terminus .
“ Keynotes certainly wo n’t be as interesting without Jobs , but I doubt anyone is pass away to take over and do anything fabulously stupid or turn the company into a deadening place to work , ” Linzmayer said .
