All Good Things
On a holiday Monday when Wall Street was closed, Apple announced that their visionary CEO, Steve Jobs, was taking a medical leave for unspecified reasons and an unspecified time period. There is simply no way to spin this as good news. No other company’s fortunes are so closely identified with a single individual.
I don’t think it was an accident. In late 1996, Steve Jobs returned in triumph to the company he helped found. The company had been hemorrhaging money and the technical press had appended the word “troubled” to the company’s name. It did not take long for Jobs to launch a palace coup. Apple’s board of directors ousted CEO Gil Amelio and asked Jobs to serve as Interim CEO. Rival company chief Michael Dell publicly advised that the best thing the new interim CEO could do for Apple shareholders was to liquidate the company and distribute its assets, but Steve had other ideas.
Instead Jobs slashed non-core projects like the Newton and refocused the company around a very tight group of products. He launched a new ad campaign with the help of advertising agency Chiat/Day, who John Scully had fired at the same Steve was shuffled out the door. The new campaign dedicated Apple to “the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers. The round pegs in square holed. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them. Disagree with them. Glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them, because they change things. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” “Think Different,” read the posters featuring black and white pictures of visionaries and creative notables from Ghandi to Jim Henson.
Jobs gave Chiat/Day just seventeen days to complete the campaign. It would have taken longer than that just to get executive level buy-in at any other company, but Jobs is nothing if not single-minded. He used his rockstar status to get the rights to images for the campaign. Joan Baez? She used to be his girlfriend. Yoko Ono and John Lennon? Yoko was a one-time neighbor. People who asked “Who is Michael Dell?” answered the phone when Steve Jobs called.
Steve Jobs was never in any of the Think Different ads. He didn’t have to be. It was part of the Zen of cool. Apple was once again in the hands of rebels, of people who thought different(ly).
While I’m concerned for Jobs and hope he returns from this medical leave feeling better and re-energized, I’m not worried about Apple. I’m not concerned that Apple isn’t announcing a line of succession - they don’t pre-announce anything. I’m absolutely certain, however, that there is a detailed and careful plan for who and how the work will continue. Steve is not the kind of guy who leaves things to chance. The Stamp of Steve that he so firmly fixed with the Think Different campaign has been indelibly engraved into the corporate culture of Apple. The Cult of Steve will go on. Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.
I don’t think it was an accident. In late 1996, Steve Jobs returned in triumph to the company he helped found. The company had been hemorrhaging money and the technical press had appended the word “troubled” to the company’s name. It did not take long for Jobs to launch a palace coup. Apple’s board of directors ousted CEO Gil Amelio and asked Jobs to serve as Interim CEO. Rival company chief Michael Dell publicly advised that the best thing the new interim CEO could do for Apple shareholders was to liquidate the company and distribute its assets, but Steve had other ideas.
Instead Jobs slashed non-core projects like the Newton and refocused the company around a very tight group of products. He launched a new ad campaign with the help of advertising agency Chiat/Day, who John Scully had fired at the same Steve was shuffled out the door. The new campaign dedicated Apple to “the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers. The round pegs in square holed. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them. Disagree with them. Glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them, because they change things. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” “Think Different,” read the posters featuring black and white pictures of visionaries and creative notables from Ghandi to Jim Henson.
Jobs gave Chiat/Day just seventeen days to complete the campaign. It would have taken longer than that just to get executive level buy-in at any other company, but Jobs is nothing if not single-minded. He used his rockstar status to get the rights to images for the campaign. Joan Baez? She used to be his girlfriend. Yoko Ono and John Lennon? Yoko was a one-time neighbor. People who asked “Who is Michael Dell?” answered the phone when Steve Jobs called.
Steve Jobs was never in any of the Think Different ads. He didn’t have to be. It was part of the Zen of cool. Apple was once again in the hands of rebels, of people who thought different(ly).
While I’m concerned for Jobs and hope he returns from this medical leave feeling better and re-energized, I’m not worried about Apple. I’m not concerned that Apple isn’t announcing a line of succession - they don’t pre-announce anything. I’m absolutely certain, however, that there is a detailed and careful plan for who and how the work will continue. Steve is not the kind of guy who leaves things to chance. The Stamp of Steve that he so firmly fixed with the Think Different campaign has been indelibly engraved into the corporate culture of Apple. The Cult of Steve will go on. Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.