Today marks the fifth anniversary since Tim Cook took over as Apple’s CEO asSteve Jobs stepped down and recommended Cook as his replacement. As you might expect, on that date (Aug. 24, 2011) there were lots of predictions that the sky was falling.
There’s no denying the importance of Jobs to Apple. He was a true visionary. However, Apple is now in the capable hands of (mostly) Jobs’ hand-picked team, which shares his vision. But let’s look back at some of the articles that appeared four years ago regarding Jobs’ resignation and Cook’s appointment.
“One of the most important things that Steve Jobs did in Apple 2.0 is rebuilding the culture,” Mike McGuire, analyst at Gartner, told CNN. “But it’s not quite the ‘cult of Steve’ like many believe. He built incredible teams that didn’t quite have free reign, but had plenty of room to innovate. It’s going to be hard work, but Apple will be fine without him.”
“I spent some time with Tim Cook last week in New York, and walked away from my discussion with him thinking that he was much more in charge at Apple then people think,” Tim Bajarin, president of research firm Creative Strategies, told MSNBC. “He has emerged as a most competent person who could carry Steve Jobs’ vision into the future.”
Robert Pritchett, who was editor and publisher of the late macCompanion magazine had this to say:
“Apple is not ‘Steve Jobs.’ The team he helped put together is Apple. The team that skunk-worked the Mac is Apple (Steve Jobs tried to nix it). WE are Apple. We bought the boxes and evangelized them. We lost careers because we sacrificed for the company to use the best tool for the job wherever we worked and with whomever we worked.
“We got along without Steve Jobs and one of his successors laid the groundwork for the company’s success after he was summarily dismissed. He was nearly tarred and feathered before becoming the Comeback Kid.
“All Steve Jobs did was bring in technology from his blackbox company and killed a lot of promising projects that were hemorrhaging the company.
“A good manager prepares his/her company for the inevitable — loss of him or herself – so it may continue without him or her.
“Apple is in that position. Steve Jobs does not need to be deified.”
