Quickthink

So the buzz is heating up. Steve Jobs will step down from Apple for at least six months, and we all are scared silly about what might happen without him. TechCrunch reports on the extraordinary loyalty Jobs built for the brand and the ”fear” that it will now get diminished.

Tim Cook will step in as acting Apple CEO. What to expect? Apple blog, linked from Giga gives a nice intro. Obviously, Apple is now trying to fix the PR mess that Jobs created by saying he was really ok. We can expect a flurry of fluff pieces showing that Cook is as good as, or better than Jobs.

But really — what would you do if you were Cook? I have a few suggestions. First, get over the Jobs mystique. His era is over. he cannot help now. The king is dead, long live the king. Cook should look like Jobs (to reassure idiots who mourn the loss of Jobs) but think like Cook — focusing on why Apple has been so successful (rather than why Jobs was so successful). Second, reassess whether the core group below is up to the tasks ahead. Consider that an Apple refugee just created the first real competitor to the IPhone at Palm (the Pre). Apple works because the core group has a clear mission, and is better than any other core group around. Is it still true? Third, do something great soon. Don’t get boring just to avoid making mistakes. Seth Godin is right when he says

(getting) remarkable costs a willingness to be wrong.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 16th, 2009 at 11:37 am and is filed under Business models, People. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.