It’s no surprise that Steve Jobs will one day retire from Apple. But how much longer can we expect Steve at the helm? And when it’s time for Jobs to move on, how much warning will customers, shareholders, and investors get?
The industry has come to know Steve Jobs as the face of Apple, bottom line. The mere thought of Jobs stepping down as CEO is enough to send shivers through the spines of most Apple fans, shareholders and investors alike. Although Jobs has assembled an elite team of executives who are more than capable of running the company after his departure, many still believe Apple simply cannot thrive as it does now, without Steve Jobs in place as CEO.
Corporations such as Apple are required to have a succession plan in place, right as the current CEO first steps through the door. Apple is no different. While we can speculate about the qualified candidates, only a handful of people know for certain who’s in line to take over the role as America’s most important corporate employee.
An article over at Fortune lays out the possibility that Apple’s chief operating officer, Tim Cook, could take over the role. However, Cook seems to think Jobs could be in place well into the next ten years. “Come on, replace Steve? No. He’s irreplaceable,” Cook said recently, according to a person who knows him well. (via Fortune) “That’s something people have to get over. I see Steve there with gray hair in his 70s, long after I’m retired.”
That statement alone may be enough to settle most uneasy investors or shareholders. After all, Jobs greatly looks up to and respects Warren Buffet, who at the age of 78 still seems to be in his prime. Perhaps Jobs has no intention of leaving Apple anytime soon. Currently, he’s only 53 years old, which could essentially lead many to believe (and hope) that he’ll be Apple’s CEO for many years to come. As Fortune points out, only the company’s seven other board members know who is in place as Steve Jobs’ successor.
Scott Forstall is another executive that comes to mind, however most analysts will tell you he’s far too young to run the company. Forstall’s title is Senior Vice President of iPhone Software, which essentially puts him in charge of the biggest, and most rapidly growing and expanding sector of Apple’s business… the iPhone. While age may have something to do with it, Forstall isn’t nearly as involved in the company’s day to day workings as Apple COO Tim Cook. Besides, the board wouldn’t be too thrilled with any lack of experience, no matter how minuscule, at this stage of the game. Jonny Ive seems to be well groomed for the high level Apple executive position. He’s young yet wise, and many believe he has the “charm” and “passion” needed to drive Apple after Jobs is gone. Ive has won several awards and is the backbone behind Apple’s wildly successful industrial design.
Over the past year we’ve seen Scott Forstall deliver a flawless keynote while introducing the iPhone SDK, we’ve seen Senior VP, Phil Schiller, confidently speak at some events, and Tim Cook and Jonny Ive basically ran the show at Apple’s notebook event this past October. As previously noted, Apple is showing the industry (primarily its loyal customers, shareholders and investors), that top-line management is more than capable of keeping the company prosperous, healthy, innovative, and profitable.
But does this mean that Jobs is thinking about leaving any time soon? Perhaps he was planning on 2008 being one of his final years, only to realize that the company hasn’t sufficiently stabilized. Surely the current economic conditions would factor into how Jobs approached his role at Apple. And a CEO as head-strong as Steve Jobs wouldn’t step down while his health is being questioned in droves by “journalists” across the internet and beyond. Instead, we’d expect him to stay on board and at the very least, deliver a few more iterations of the iPhone. But what’s to say he’ll stop there? What else could Jobs possibly want to accomplish before retiring? Perhaps he has no intention of leaving any time soon, or maybe he’ll be gone by the end of 2009. It’s safe to say only Steve, his family, and the closest members of his team know.
Part of me wishes that Steve would remain on board for many years to come. But the unselfish part of me wants him to retire while his company is on top, not suffering with the rest of the country in the depths of a financial disaster. For an inventor and innovator such as Jobs, retiring while Apple is on top of the world, is more than fitting, it is deserved.
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10 Comments to “How Much Longer Will Steve Jobs Be Apple’s CEO?”
I’m gonna have to go with Jonny Ive on this one. While I’m Sure Tim Cook will still hold down the fort, Ive just has that special something…oh…what’s it called…”charisma”.
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So, is it selfish to hope for ten more years?
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No, I think it’s entirely within your right. He’d be 63 by then, and might be perfectly healthy while still running the company. As long as he’s not doing it because his management team can’t do it without him. Retiring gracefully is not a common practice in Silicon Valley, and I’d hate to see Steve follow the trend. He deserves to gracefully step down, when he chooses the time is right.
in my opinion
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I definitely think we’ll see him ride out the recession this country is in. At least two more years.
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I think Jobs isn’t going anywhere for the timebeing, and I think that, as investors and fanboys (and girls), we will be given ample warning from Apple and the board.
As for a replacement….The quality Steve has that will be hardest to replace is his unconventional leadership skills and ability to inspire people working for and with him, to push themselves to be their very best.
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mark my words…. He’s gone by end of 2010.
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i think you are wrong alonzo 2009 will be the recovery year after a very tuff aconomy slow down 2010 will be a great year for him he will not step down then he is to smart to do so it will hurt the company …. he is to good of a leader he will stay 5 more years so i say 2015
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I just need Apple to hang in there for 25 years — until I retire, so that I can be supplied with Apple computers for the rest of my working life. Then, after that, they can go and do what they want.
However, as I get older, and my eyesight declines, I want back those matte screens on the iMac and MacBook Pro. This darn glare is a real pain in the. I have a low tolerance level for glare. Some of you evidently can tolerate it, but I can’t. So I’m forced to make my current white imac and MacBook Pro last as long as possible.
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Steve Jobs is the face of Apple. Yup. Can the entire executive team continue to effectively run Apple? Yup. Could only on them fill Jobs’ shows? NO WAY. It would take all of them.
Other than that, I think the analysis about jobs being around for 5+ years makes most sense.
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The most important part of Steve Jobs is not his extraordinary executive abilities for operations because that’s not really what he’s good at. What Jobs excels at more than anyone else in the public eye is the constant and relentless re-invention of the standards of excellence. He can no more conceive of delivering a “me-too” product than he can breath water. You may not agree with all the decisions contained therein, but if a product does not materially advance the notion of what it means to be that product, it doesn’t get done. He doesn’t drive people to work hard, he drives people to innovate from a depth they did not know they could reach. He has “the vision thing” better than anyone else running a large company today and he has the unrelenting drive to push his company forward. That is why Apple is what it is, and that is the challenge of replacing Steve Jobs.
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