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What would happen to the arguably most iconic and hip consumer products company if the charismatic and intricate design aficionado Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of Apple Computer? With longtime nemesis Bill Gates announcing last week that he'll be stepping down from day-to-day operations at Microsoft in 2008, that leaves the door open for Jobs to do the same -- if he's ready. Our friends over at TUAW have noodled on this question, so let's examine from a business standpoint and weave in the philosophy of Jobs.Both in their 50s, Jobs and Gates have one of the most unique and fiercely competitive rivalries in business history. While Gates chose to license his company's flagship computer operating system over 20 years ago, Jobs has been incredibly determined to keep control over the Apple universe for as long as he's been leading the company which he co-founded. Both approaches, by any measure, have been successful, although Microsoft gets more attention. Or is that Apple?
Over the last five years or so, both companies have been in the spotlight many times, with Apple creeping past Microsoft with the company-making iPod line of digital everything players. Sure, we could talk about the computer lines, but what's in the mind of most consumers right now is the iPod, which defines Apple to the market at large. The MacIntosh operating system is a superior product, but that plays second fiddle to the iPod's success at the moment.
Jobs appears to also define Apple to a large degree -- ok, in every degree. The CEO is one of the most publicly-visible leaders of any public company in existence today, on any continent. Jobs wears many titles: Leader, CEO, Marketing Genius, Design Genius, Customer Experience Advocate to the extreme, and so on. His flair for understanding the fine grain of how customers use Apple's products, and that means control over every aspect of Apple products, has made Apple the design and product icon it is worldwide.
But, what if Jobs steps out of the day-to-day operations at Apple? Bill Gates -- for the longest time -- personified Microsoft, but that went by the wayside a while back in my opinion -- call it the natural order of things. Jobs has that exact same position now -- to many, he is Apple. If he were to leave the company or take a role that would take him out of this limelight, would Apple the company see negative impacts? Would the market devalue AAPL shares based on its CEO leaving (which happens more often than not)? It's hard to predict here, but one thing is certain -- Steve's days with Apple will probably come to an end. Like Seinfeld, he'd be going out on top of the world -- what more can you ask for?
But, to the world that appears to worship Apple products like the Porsche of the consumer electronics world (notice I didn't classify Apple as a computer company), his leaving would be a strange day for consumers -- and investors. Jobs' fascination and greedy control on ensuring Apple completely dominates the end-to-end consumer solution -- which is not a bad thing in many cases for simplicity alone -- could come to and end once he leaves Apple. But then again, he's probably loading the Apple management team with folks that share his zany -- but ultimately and incredibly successful -- management and product philosophy. For that is the philosophy of Jobs Apple has at this time.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-19-2006 @ 3:07PM
Michael Rogers said...
Let me add one very important element to this thoughtful analysis. Bill Gates had two different jobs--technology and philanthropy--and he chose one. Steve Jobs has two different jobs, technology and entertainment, and he's getting into the latter more and more deeply. At a party in 1995, just when Toy Story was coming out, I asked Jobs which job he liked more, and while he hemmed and hawed, he did say something that sticks in my mind: "People will be watching Toy Story fifty years from now, but you might not even be able to boot up a Macintosh by then."
6-19-2006 @ 3:50PM
L.H. said...
Michael,
I've read a similar anecdote about Jobs, but since he wasn't at Apple in 1995, you might want to clarify your 'story'. In 1995, he was at Next, pushing WebObjects, and disparaging Apple and the Mac in the press. He didn't rejoin Apple until December 1996.
6-19-2006 @ 5:31PM
Michael Rogers said...
Ouch, of course you're right, L.H. All I can plead is that it's Monday. The conversation was actually at a party for Katherine Graham's autobiography, which (I'm pretty sure) came out in 1998. So that actually moves his sentiment forward to rather more recently. Thanks.
6-20-2006 @ 2:19AM
jbelkin said...
Bill Gate had his time in the Sun, he was brilliant at creating a corporation to serve the needs of corporation, gov't agencies and enterprise. But as era of centralized buying leading the marketplace eclipsed, so did Bill Gates & MS. Now that they cannot buy up distribution and lock up exclusive contracts in the era of the internet and commodity manufacturing and the era of conusmers driving the marketplace, MS is hopelessly lost ... EVERY attempt in following their old playbook has failed - MSN, MSN Search, WMA online stores, home networking, the watch OS, PocketPc, tabletPC, Home media, and yes even the Xbox (though not many companies can afford to spend $8 BILLION to get 25 million customers).
Bill Gates leaves MS with DMV like bureaucrats who after 114,000 infections and 100 patches later - comes up with a onthly fee to keep your Pc mostly working. That's not innovation. That's the business plan of Terminex.
BG has to leave because he is clueless about the consumer era - that's why he has to lock himself in his house 2 weeks a year to read the future direction of the company - and yet, they didn't recognize the growth of Yahoo, Google, Flickr, YouTube and even Apple. Any other CEO who only spends two weeks a year locked away reading reports figuring out where there company should go next would be mocked and yet because of his portfolio, people perceive him to be a genius - at least he's taking his ill gotten gains for good (yes, ill gotten as the courts have ruled and reports of options backdating). Bill Gates was a great salesman to fellow bureaucrats, enterprise and gov't agencies ... beyond that, he's not much more - so he should walk away with at least 30% of his reputation intact but MS is the new GM. There's plenty of cash flow but they are no longer the icon of American business.
6-20-2006 @ 10:51AM
Jon said...
Steve Jobs will continue to lead as CEO BECAUSE of the fact that Bill Gates has stepped down. It is the golden oppotunity for him to take control of the industry.