Apple shares lost value after CEO Steve Jobs announced his third medical leave this past weekend. It left many wondering what will happen when the creative and innovative CEO actually leaves the company for good.
There are many interesting entrepreneurs but Steve Jobs certainly has been an inspiration and marvel in his field, leading Apple to become an immensely successful company. As Philip Elmer-DeWitt posts on January 17, 2011 in his article "Thinking the unthinkable: Apple without Steve Jobs“, "Jobs brings something to Apple that's harder to measure […]. The electronic devices most companies release are compromises. Everybody gets to weigh in – marketing, production, sales, software, etc. – before anything hits the market. In that respect, Apple is nearly unique. Nothing gets out the door unless it meets Jobs' exacting standards.”
A Different Seed of CEO
The 56-year old Steven Paul Jobs is what one would consider an American tycoon and inventor. As the co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc, Jobs previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios. Following its acquisition by Disney he became a member of the board of The Walt Disney Company in 2006.
Jobs is a native San Franciscan and was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, California. Wikipedia reports that Jobs' biological parents – Abdulfattah Jandali, a Syrian Muslim graduate student who later became a political science professor, and Joanne Simpson, an American graduate student who went on to become a speech therapist– later married, giving birth to and raising Jobs' biological sister, the novelist Mona Simpson.
After attending Cupertino Junior High School and Homestead High School in Cupertino, California, Jobs visited after-school lectures at the Hewlett-Packard where he was hired to work with Steve Wozniak as a summer employee.
After graduating high school, he dropped out of Reed College after only one semester but continued auditing classes. Hard to imagine that the successful CEO in those days slept on the floor in friends' rooms, making a few pennies by returning Coke bottles, and receiving free meals at the local Hare Krishna temple.
Success Breeds More Success
Jobs' successful business career is characteristic of the individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur image. Success breeds more success when done right in Silicon Valley. He has placed much emphasis on design as he understands the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. His drive and leadership has made Apple the successful company it is today.
Jobs is listed as either primary inventor in countless awarded patents including for touch-based products. Success comes at a price for those working with Jobs as he has a reputation as an aggressive and demanding personality. Commentaries on his temperamental style can be found in various publications including Mike Moritz 's The Little Kingdom , one of the few authorized biographies of Jobs.
As Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes: “We don't hear much about the rest of Apple's leadership team, in part because Jobs casts such a large shadow. But the fact is, he runs a meritocracy and has surrounded himself with some exceedingly able people. […] And no matter who the new CEO may be, that person will never have the authority that comes from having founded the company, been ousted, and returned to rescue it from bankruptcy.”
Britta Stromeyer Esmail - Britta is a bilingual business management professional and executive coach with extensive domestic and international experience in the ...
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