Apple Grooming Next Gen of Executives

capt turnpike writes "The modern Apple as we know it -- the good one with open-source Darwin, with Unix-based OS X, and so on -- was mainly the creation of NeXT: Steve Jobs, Avie Tevanian and Jon Rubenstein. What's going to happen to Apple once this troika leaves? eWEEK.com looks at the orderly transition out of Jon and Avie and asks whether things could go as smoothly should Jobs need to retire." From the article: "At some companies, such a loss of leadership could leave the company with a power vacuum or a lack of direction. However, Apple seems to be conscious that no single person--except, perhaps, CEO Steve Jobs himself--is irreplaceable, and that new talent can always be groomed for the future."

Comments

solution:

[Anonymous Coward]

cloning and black turtlenecks

They should just....

[gEvil (beta)]

They should just hire someone from something like, oh, say a soda company. Selling computers can't be that different from selling soda...

Re:They should just....

[flyingsquid]

I'm sure the parent is well aware of that. Of course, as another poster points out with Jobs "do you want to sell flavored sugar water or do you want to change the world?", quote, it takes a different kind of CEO to run Apple. Apple always has been about marketing revolutionary machines and software, first with the Apple II, bringing computers to the masses, then the with Mac, redefining operating systems, and then with the iPod and iTunes music store, redefining how people listen to and purchase music.

People will point out that Macintosh wasn't really first with any of these things, and rightly so. Apple's genius has laid not so much in inventing (although it does a fair amount of that, a lot more than Microsoft) but in using a combination of engineering, fashion design and marketing to bring these things mainstream.

Honestly I don't know that Apple can survive without Jobs, at least not the Apple that has thrived on being at the cutting edge. He was the vision behind it initially, they putted along and then foundered without him, and they've made a huge comeback with him. His combination of vision, drive, cult-like fanatacism, and titanic ego kept it going. Likewise I kind of wonder if Gates handing the reins over on Microsoft was what turned it from unstoppable devourer of worlds into the dumb, lumbering behemoth its been lately. It just seems like the qualities that certain CEOs and businessmen use to keep their companies on the cutting edge are not just difficult to incorporate into a corporate culture, they are almost the polar opposite of being part of a corporate culture- a willingness to break ranks, take risks, and think in a completely different way.

Re:Promote from within??

[mikeisme77]

But it's a mail in rebate :P Who wants to deal with the hassle of all that? And sometimes you mysteriously don't receive the rebate check, and even when you do you have to wait like 10 weeks (about 2-3 credit card payments in between...) Is it really worth the hassle just to save $330k?

John? ...

[Gary W. Longsine]

John C. Dvorak? I thought that was you! How have you been, old buddy, old pal?