![]() Even though no one could call his reputation spotless - stock options issues swirled around him, he could be hot-tempered, and he’s been blamed for not disclosing material information about his health - he is seen as an industry visionary and the clearly-defined voice and soul of Apple. Unfortunately for Apple’s shareholders today, the same sense of can’t-do-without-it also attached to Jobs himself. Even when Apple was sort of a footnote to the computer industry, he was able to get enormous media and industry press. Even those who accuse him of having a “reality distortion field” manage to find themselves talking about his devices. Jobs’ ability to create a sense of inevitability about Apple’s products is legendary. They only want to develop applications for hot products. But no one is going to write software for a product they perceive as going nowhere. For devices such as computers or cell phones to be of great value to users, developers have to be interested in writing application software. The next lesson to be learned is that power can come through the projection of an image of strength that may not yet be the reality. Forget all that and just look at how he has kept going through his health crises this is a man who is hard to slow down. Then, with the sale of it to Apple, he returned to unseat Gil Amelio, the National Semiconductor veteran who had taken the helm at Apple. But he didn’t retire to the beach or even to the world of nonprofits. Note that when he left Apple he was a rich man - he’d been wealthy by most people’s definition of wealth for decades. For that matter, how did the Lisa, another nonstarter, get resurrected as the Macintosh? Jobs persisted, sticking with his same focus on the user interface, his fundamental vision of ease of use and cool design, but also learned from the setbacks. Does anyone remember the first mobile device, the Newton? It was a big failure. The first is the most inspiring: it’s that power can result from sheer drive, persistence, resilience, and the ability to tolerate conflict. The fact that Jobs came back and took Apple to new heights makes him a fascinating study in power. It’s easy to forget that Apple was once written off as being an irrelevant footnote in the computer industry, and that Jobs himself once lost his job there. Jobs’ enormous visibility, and the tight connection between him and the company, make him unique as a CEO in American business. Its products dominate, if not always in sales then at least in the discussion of categories ranging from mobile phones to tablet computers. Apple has been tremendously successful and now ranks as one of the most valuable companies in technology - and for that matter, in the stock market overall. In August 2011, as Jobs steps down from running Apple, it remains quite relevant.Īs Apple’s stock fell on the news of Steve Jobs’ medical leave, media commentary focused on Jobs’ importance to Apple, and rightly so. The HBR Blog Network published this post by Jeffrey Pfeffer in January 2011, when Apple CEO Steve Jobs began his third medical leave from the company.
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