The death of Stephen P. Jobs, co-founder and longtime CEO of Apple Inc., in early October evoked an outpouring of tributes in media across the world. The flood of praise was well-deserved. Jobs unequivocally changed the technology landscape. Those wishing to be financially successful would do well to take heed of Jobs' approach to business.
What made Jobs a game-changer wasn't just the cornucopia of technology products Apple introduced during his tenure - it was also his business mentality.
"Steve Jobs also had to be a tough businessman and shrewd salesman to make his ideas real. But like an artist, composer or novelist, he devised dreams and invited people to step inside," said NPR's Scott Simon on "Weekend Edition Saturday" Oct. 8.
American manufacturers, for the most part, echo the idiom, "if it isn't broken, don't fix it." But what really sets Apple apart over the last decade was Jobs' willingness to completely eschew that mentality. Apple seemingly didn't hesitate to push even wildly successful products aside to make way for new creations.
After its introduction in 2001, the iPod fast became the world's premier MP3 player. The iPod's popularity, and the subsequent launch of the iTunes Store in 2003, retooled the music industry. But despite the high profitability of existing models, Apple never shied from gambling by introducing new - sometimes vastly different - editions of the iPod family. And in 2007, the company shifted gears and entered the smartphone market with the iPhone.
The introduction of the iPad in 2010 was a gamble, too. The tablet-computer market wasn't exactly thriving at the time, but the iPad proved more than lucrative. A whole industry catered around developing "apps" has even sprung up, fueled largely by the products Jobs enthusiastically unveiled at press conferences. Just this past July, shortly before Jobs resigned as CEO, Apple made yet another shocking decision. The company discontinued its signature laptop computer - the $999 MacBook so prevalent on college campuses and in coffeehouses across the country - and replaced it with the smaller MacBook Air.
How are these strategies working out for Apple? Forbes' Scott DeCarlo ranked Apple No. 1 in a list of the top 25 most-valuable companies Aug. 11. There's a lesson to be learned from Jobs' strategies. Only time will tell, however, if the new Jobless Apple will be the same without its daring CEO making bold moves. Jobs' successor, Tim Cook, stated back in August of 2011, that "Apple isn't going to change," when he came aboard as CEO. Now that Jobs has passed, and given the re-envisioning of Apple over the years, maybe change is the best thing for Apple as it moves forward.
