Sometimes (nay more often than not), you’re treated to such deep and profound stupidity that it can only be located from the collective machinations of the board of directors. Apple board worried about ‘pace of innovation’. No kidding.
Gasparino, citing unnamed sources, said there is pressure on Chief Executive Tim Cook “to innovate, do something fast.”
“What have they had lately? They had the iPad. They had a few other things,” he said on a Fox Business broadcast on Friday. “But they don’t have anything innovating from what came from Steve Jobs.”
Set aside the fact that Steve Jobs had a knack for feeling the pulse of the intangible, to make visible what was only hinted at by the people at large – there’s simply no way to reproduce or latch on to what is ineffable. However that will never dissuade a bunch of board bound fools from demanding that it be done.
All around me and you,
Are those in chains.
Trapped from the last revolution
Set them free, sets them free…
So it is with the work of man – we use chains to break chains. And this is also how one differentiates the Vertical from the Horizontal.
Steve Jobs has passed on. Now the vagaries of time lay siege to those he pulled together. Now cometh the Apple test. To me, he has been an immense source of inspiration (and his pithy quotes only fuel the fire). My response to such inspiration is to be an entrepreneur and it is coming…
Apple’s succession story has been in the news lately – or rather a story made necessary by Steve Job’s health situation. In this article on CNET : Apply supply chain sees smooth sailing ahead, the new head of Apple – Tim Cook, is reputedly a supply chain pro. In one sense, that’s a great thing but then I take a step back and ask myself : Is that what Apple really is?
I don’t think of Apple as a supply chain company with great products but a company with great products that has honed its supply chain quite well.
There is one quote from a Jeffries Analyst that speaks to the supply chain management voodoo at Apple:
"Even with the unfortunate events in Japan around the time of the iPad 2 release, Tim Cook was able to double or sometimes triple source component suppliers. To date, no competitor has been able to gain meaningful share in the tablet market; and, in our view, Cook’s leadership during the introduction was critical to this."
Perhaps, we will see Tim Cook elevate the next avatar of Steve Jobs from within Apple’s ranks that puts the key competitive advantage of Apple front and center. That would be “Giving people what they didn’t even know that they needed”.
Not easy but necessary.
