Last week, 2 days before my graduation, Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of Apple. It was in what I have come to understand – his preferred way – with a simple email stating the facts without any pompous speeches or big statements. His letter to the Apple Board can be found all over the internet and I will not repost it here.
I want to address 2 things in this post. First what does this mean for the industry and Apple. Second, what does it mean for me.
The internet is full of praise about Jobs. I do not need to reiterate all those statements but it is clear Apple without Jobs was dying and when he came back in 1997 he turned it around and made it the biggest company by market cap in the world, not to mention the most influential one in terms of consumer electronics. But he did not do it alone. In light of all the things Apple achieved over the years – Steve’s biggest one may be the company itself. It is impossible that a single man could achieve all those things by himself. No, he built a fantastic team of people and embedded what makes him special in the company DNA. It is up to them now to continue executing on the vision and strategy.
For me Steve represents something I strive for. In one of his famous “stevenotes” he mentioned that Apple is at a crossroad of Liberal Arts and Technology. I find that to be a sweet spot. I think humanity got too fascinated by numbers – speed of your processor, size of your bonus check, speed of your porsche – and we forgot how to enjoy life and surround ourselves with beautiful things and experiences. He always argued that even the most mundane task can be made easy if you have fun doing it.
I even wrote my Leadership paper about Level 5 leadership and Steve Jobs. There my thesis was as follows:
Few would define Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc. as anything but a rock star CEO. However, I would ask you to bare with me as I will try to make my case why Steve Jobs is actually a Level 5 leader who has unintentionally garnered a lot of attention and his presentations have become a media event earning him the unwanted rock-star CEO status.
I still think this to be true. Apple has learned how to make use of these presentations but Jobs was never a rockstar CEO, well not in his second term anyway. And he has my respect for that. To get a feel for his modesty, the ability to set standards, make tough decisions I recommend watching the following 2 videos. The first one is his famous Stanford Graduation speech from 2005
Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech
and second is his interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at D8 2010:
In the end he is one of the early Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and I think all feel a bit saddened by the end of his tenure as CEO. But as he said himself – moving on, clearing out the old and replacing with the new is one of the most important things in life. I look forward to what Apple does without him and I wish him all the best.
