George Colony over at Forrester writes about the imminent decay of Apple post-Steve Jobs:
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.
Apple currently is the world’s largest company by valuation and has posted two consecutive monster quarters, selling a total of 365 million iOS devices to date–all without Jobs. It’s easy to be pessimistic when it comes to Apple, currently the top dog taking up all the headlines.
Adam Lashinsky’s book, Inside Apple claims Scott Forstall is the next CEO-in-waiting at Apple. Even without Jobs, Apple definitely has plans in place for life in the post-Jobs era.
Is Apple doomed without Steve Jobs?
[via Forrester]
