Steve Jobs Leaves Apple - Why I think this hurts Apple

So Steve Jobs has stepped down as CEO of Apple and set everyone abuzz about his legacy and the future of Apple. The consensus seems to be that his departure won't have significant impact given the transition has been in the making for some time.

The stock market seems to reflect that sentiment with Apple stock hardly reacting to the news (down less than one per cent on a  day where the NASDAQ is down over one-and-a-half per cent).

While the immediate impact of Jobs departure won't effect operations, I think this is actually a pretty big deal with serious ramifications to Apple's future.

You should read a commencement speech Job's gave in 2005, with his closing words being "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

In today's business world, strong leaders are rare. Mostly because their ability to make tough calls, some might say 'foolish' calls, are severly restricted by the board and market sentiment. Only an iconic leader has the ability to keep those two forces in check and to guide stock holders and board members to buy-in to what appear to be risky strategies (which often are merely visionary) and stay the course during the execution of those strategies.

No matter how great Cook is, the new CEO, it's simply unimaginable that he possesses the fortitude that Job's had.

Without a strong leader, companies often times find themselves dealing with internal squabbles as various factions fight over the future direction of the company. People stop thinking "What would Job's think is an amazing idea?' and start thinking "What do I think is an amazing idea?'

It's human nature.

While I don't watch sports much, Jobs leaving Apple is the equivalent to Michael Jordon leaving the Bulls, or Joe Montana leaving the 49'ers. You still have the best players around on the team, and you will keep winning for some time, but as time marches on other star players head off to play on other teams and inch-by-inch you revert back to just being another team in the league. Playing with Jordon or Montana was a big part of why the star players stayed on those teams, often turning down more lucrative offers to be a part of something 'special'.

Confidence is everything. With Job's at the helm, every Apple employee knew, in the back of their mind, that no matter what obstacles they hit, Job's would know, or find, a way forward. 

He was Apple's safety net if you will. And while Apple has the ability to remain king of the hill product-wise, there's no quesiton that they are now walking the wire without a safety net. The stress that will put on the company will be great.

I think back to when Apple had the issue of the iPhone dropping calls. Job's took that crisis on himself. He didn't handle it the best, getting angry at reporters and saying they were blowing things out of proportion, but regardless, he handled it. He went out there and reaffirmed Apple's mission, basically telling the doubters to take a hike - and this kind of response, I'm sure, allowed Apple employees to focus on their work and not all the noise in the market.

If such a crisis were to happen again, one has to wonder if Apple would come out of as damage-free as they did under Jobs.

Apple isn't going anywhere, but with Jobs now officially out of the picture (other than joining the Board), the future of Apple has to be at best unknown.


Short term nothing will change.

Long term? It's hard to imagine what Apple will become without a Ceasar-like leader at the helm. 

I would argue that Apple essentially has a PR crisis on their hands. Although it's a very unique one, because it doesn't feel like a crisis. It simply feels like the occurence of an event everyone knew was coming. 

If they are smart though, they won't take the market's tepid response as an indication that the future will be smooth sailing. Apple's brand will come under fire in the years to come and they should have a serious, well thought out plan for how they will protect the Apple brand without Jobs in the picture.

While I'm generally not a huge fan of advertising in terms of brand building, I think one of the things they should do is take some of that $80B+ dollars of cash they are sitting on and go on a global advertising campaign. The worst thing they can do is start to go a little quiet, as that will only start to create worry that perhaps Jobs was the essential driving force behind the company.

To offset Jobs depature they have to get LOUDER than ever before.

An advertising blitz would do a couple of important things:

1) It would tell the world Apple is just as aggressive as it ever was

2) It would show that the Apple brand still 'feels' the same even with Jobs gone

3) It would reinforce in employees that Apple is still out to change the world and they are still part of something special

Essentially, Apple has to transform its brand into a Nike-esque brand. No one cares who the CEO of Nike is, they just know that Nike stands for "Just do it!".

That's where Apple has to get - and it's not there yet.