Apple's Cult Of Personality

I hear tell that when Steve Jobs stepped on stage at the WWDC, there were gasps. Steve wasn't looking is usually lithe and domineering self, and the natives got restless.

But this gossip-fueled phenomenon is not going to be fixed by the well-timed article in Fortune.

Apple has a problem. Their company, their idolatry, their insanity all generate from the Steve Jobs icon, and that's not going to change.

I have no doubt that this guy Cook is an excellent manager, an impressively competent business man, and an inspired thinker. But he's no Steve Jobs.

This doesn't mean, of course, that Apple's future is bleak. There are equally brilliant brains in that company that can steer the ship. But the organizational culture is a kingdom, and like any long-lived dictatorship, the Steve-pleasing cogs of the business are going to be squeaky after a bit. Without the intensity of demand, the high profile megalomania, the Jobsian persona, they may just not be able to do what they've done before.

The communications industry especially is rife with stories of tyrant-lead successes and successor lead disasters (Marconi, Bell, Queen Isabella of Spain...).
I still love my Mac.

(Thanks Business Week for that sweet Steve pic)