Steve Jobs has reportedly taken medical leave, and Tim Cook, the COO, would be taking over the control of day-to-day operations. Jobs, being a pancreatic cancer survivor, had a liver transplant last year. It is so surprising that media is filled with news of "Apple without Jobs", more than Job’s health.
The news reports speculate about the successor for Jobs, and indicate that the formation of a succession plan is in the top of mind agenda for the Apple’s stakeholders (primarily BOD). I have been a huge fan of Steve Jobs, from almost the time I have known about his dramatic come-back to Apple and its subsequent transformation process into a 300 billion $ worth majestic empire.
Here comes the bigger question. What’s the role to a leader? Is it to generate more leaders? If one generates more leaders, how can one substantiate his own existence, after sometime?
I would consider Jobs, as a leader par excellence, because of the following -
- Apple didn’t stop when Jobs wasn’t around. In-fact, most of 2009, Jobs wasn’t on work. But Apple still did come out with upgrades, version revisions of its products.
- Last time, Cook and his colleagues did a commendable job of managing the company. This has put Cook in the good books of Apple and specifically Jobs.
The culture of creating blockbusters is imbibed into the nerves of Apple. With the few readings that I have done on Jobs, and as some of the anecdotes about Jobs indicate - the most salient feature of Jobs is his negotiation skills. Steve Jobs is said to have formidable negotiation skills. This can also been seen in the way he changed the whole music industry and the print media. When Apple came out with iPhones, AT&T had to pay for every iPhone sold, unlike previously, where the equations were reversed.
Talking of shares of Apple, time is evidence that it fell 4% as soon as the news of Jobs taking leave was announced, but bounced back 2% after the quarterly results were announced. The next year seems more glorious than the past, starting with the Verizon subscribed iPhone sales.
Though Jobs absence would be felt, it should not shake Apple fundamentally. So lets stop speculating about Apple, and rather pray for Jobs.
