George Colony on Forrester Blogs:
When Steve Jobs departed, he took three things with him: 1) singular charismatic leadership that bound the company together and elicited extraordinary performance from its people; 2) the ability to take big risks, and 3) an unparalleled ability to envision and design products. Apple’s momentum will carry it for 24-48 months. But without the arrival of a new charismatic leader it will move from being a great company to being a good company, with a commensurate step down in revenue growth and product innovation. Like Sony (post Morita), Polaroid (post Land), Apple circa 1985 (post Jobs), and Disney (in the 20 years post Walt Disney), Apple will coast, and then decelerate.
Didn’t we hear this same crap when Jobs retired last year, and again after he died?
Does anyone really think that Cook et al are just riding Jobs’ coattails still, as they’re setting records for growth and profitability?
I look forward to 2014-2016, when Forrester CEO George Colony will be lauded as a visionary – the only one who really understood that beleaguered Apple was doomed from the start!
No, wait a minute, no he won’t. He’ll be ignored. Unlike people with a plan and the ability to execute it. Like, say, Tim Cook.
There’s no winning, Peter. Any perceived fumble will continue to be Apple’s failure to succeed without Jobs at the helm. Any perceived success will continue to be dismissed with “Jobs already had it planned before he died.”
Tim Cook could singlehandedly bring about world peace, drive Apple to 90% market share across all products, and pay shareholder dividends in magical flying unicorns that crap stacks of cash and pee premium gasoline, and it would still all be Jobs’s doing.
Woah, is this article from the past? Time travel is real I tell you… real!!
“The stupid… it burns!!!!”
Oh yeah, and “Apple is doomed I say! Doomed!”
I think they were ragging on the crappiness of apple when jobs was in charge as well.
I agree with Jim here, but allow me to be the Devil’s Advocate for a moment:
In 1996/7, could Tim Cook (or anyone) have done what Steve did? Maybe, but probably no. Faced with hard times, could this team “turn it all around”? Probably not, and especially if they let hard times creep up on them, but I don’t think they’d let that happen.
Steve was a visionary. He had a plan, and he executed that plan. Granted it wasn’t Steve alone. He selected and directed the people who helped make his vision a reality. I don’t doubt this team for a moment, but they do lack the charisma, confidence, and certainly RDF that Steve exuded.
I just don’t believe they could do what Steve did. I think they can run the number 1 company that they helped build, but I don’t think they could bring it to where it is now if Steve would have passed 6 years ago.
Worst case say this George guy is right…it took Apple 11 years to fall as far as it had without Steve the first time, and it was run by a bunch of “corrupt businessmen”. Steve left Apple in the hands of people he himself believed in, and considered “family”. IF they mishandle their business, it’s going to take them far longer than 11 years to do so. I’d say it’d be 10 years before they’d even start to slip. I think it’d take a start up with a far more amazing idea/product that Apple may miss the boat on to deal the first blow. I certainly don’t see any of todays big players doing anything other than rebranding Apple’s ideas.
Apologies for any sloppy grammar or half baked comments…in a hurry…