All eyes have been on Apple since the passing of Steve Jobs.
What will the future hold? What changes will come? Will Apple remain iconic?
A company such as Apple with a leader like Steve Jobs, is something of a ocean liner trying to make a u-turn.
It’s going to take some time!
We can, however, begin to see some subtle changes in management style, and I wonder how that may play-out in the end. Some notable differences include:
- Steve Jobs despised investor events.
- Tim Cook doesn’t despise participating in investor events.
- Steve Jobs typically dined with design chief Jonathan Ive.
- Tim Cook randomly sits with employees in Apple’s corporate cafeteria during lunch.
- Steve Jobs was not easy to talk to.
- Tim Cook is casual, grounded and easy to talk to.
- “In general, Apple has become slightly more open and considerably more corporate.”
How do you think this will effect Apple in the long run? Or will it at all?
[via Apple Insider]
Raoul Snyman says
Not to upset anybody’s boat, but Steve Jobs was a real jerk. He was credited with ideas and innovations that were not his, he rode the tide of idol-worship, and (as hinted in the post) he generally was a horrible person to work for.
To me, Tim Cook sounds like the sort of CEO a company really needs. I doubt Apple is going to be any less “innovative” than they’ve been so far – they will likely remain as iconic as they always have been – but I hope that they become a better company and a nicer player in the world of competition.
Eric Dye says
Time will tell. 🙂
Kory Gorsky says
Creating amazing work goes faster when you don’t care about people’s feelings. I’m not saying the way Mr. Jobs treated people was right, but it gets results. If completely detach yourself from peoples feelings, it’s a lot easier to tell someone that the design they just spent three weeks on is crap.
Cook has too much compassion for people to do the same thing. He is obviously too emotionally attached to his employees and investors to put everything into how great the product is or could be.
Also, being straight-up about the quality of a design is only half the battle. Even if Cook could be straight up, he’d also have to have Jobs impeccable taste and attention to detail.
Apple’s in trouble in the long term.
Eric Dye says
Good points. Time will tell.
Jonathan says
Word from (Sir) Jony Ive is that he’s working on his favorite project yet… but can’t talk about it.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57439851-37/jonathan-ive-apples-current-work-is-most-important-yet/
Eric Dye says
Very interesting …