Tag Archives: Apple

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Steve Jobs: The Passing of an Icon

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The passing of Steve Jobs is a watershed event for the today’s digital world. He may not have invented the computer or the MP3 player or mobile phone or the tablet, but his innovations revolutionized the way we interact both with our technology and with each other. His impact cannot be understated. As President Obama said in response to Jobs’ death, “There may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success that the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.” Similarly, I’m typing this on a Mac and I’m sure many of you are reading it on your own Macs, iPhones and iPads. As one writer put it, he now joins the pantheon of American innovators like Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller. For many, he was and will remain a hero.

Back in 2005, Jobs delivered the commencement address at Stanford University. As was his style, it was a direct and inspiring address. The YouTube video is below and the transcript can be found here. Many quotes stand out but I wanted to highlight a couple that resonated for me. The first came after he told the story of how he was fired form Apple in 1985:

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

The next came after he spoke of his fight with pancreatic cancer:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Coincidentally, I also wrote a bit about Steve Jobs and his departure from Apple in the Preface of the October issue of Risk Management. In it I talked about Apple’s next steps in light of their founder’s departure. The article is not available online, so I share it here:

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced his retirement in August, the internet exploded as countless Apple fanboys wondered about the future of their beloved company. The unenviable task of replacing Jobs now falls to Tim Cook, who formerly served as Apple’s COO. He certainly has his work cut out for him. During Jobs’ 14-year tenure as CEO, Apple’s stock has risen more than 9,000%, taking it from a tech start-up on the verge of bankruptcy to a firm that now vies with Exxon Mobil for the title of “most valuable company in the world.” Perhaps more importantly, Jobs was the visionary behind such innovations as iTunes, iPods, iPhones and iPads that have not only changed markets but helped transform the way people interact. Talk about a tough act to follow.

Despite the size of the shoes he has to fill, it is unlikely that Apple will suffer with Cook at the helm. After all, he has been with the company for 13 years and even served as acting CEO during Jobs’ medical leaves. It is, however, a different world than it was when Jobs took over Apple in 1997. Hacking is no longer simply a hobby for basement-dwelling computer geeks. Now it is big business. And what better target than the products of the world’s most valuable company? Malware and viruses that were once virtually nonexistent on the Mac platform are already starting to proliferate as motivated hackers have become more creative. Case in point: hackers recently discovered a vulnerability in MacBook batteries—a place no one ever thought to look—that would allow them to take over the computer or even set it on fire. Based on this, perhaps Apple’s new CEO will need to focus less on growing the company and more on protecting it.

As I read through various message boards about Jobs, I came across a quote shared by many people in one variation or another that shows the impact he had on so many people. “Three apples changed the world forever. The first once seduced Eve, the second fell on Newton and the third was offered to the world by Steve Jobs.”

Modern society is typically given to hyperbole that is, in many cases, unearned. Steve Jobs is not one of those cases. It is the rare CEO that can inspire devotion and admiration beyond the products or services their company sells. But as the many tributes you are likely to see in the coming days will attest, Jobs was no ordinary businessman. He was a visionary and an icon and he will be missed.

Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs.

Apple’s Succession Plan

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Many are already aware of the passing of Apple’s former CEO, Steve Jobs. Though he is gone, his products, vision and motivation will be around forever.

As the business world mourns the loss of one of the greatest innovators of all time, they should also learn from Apple’s succession plan. In the October issue of Risk Management, we covered succession planning in a section of the feature, “Immovable Objects.” In it, author Lori Widmer writes about Jobs’ battle with cancer, his three medical leaves of absence within a six-year period and the board’s decision to develop a CEO succession plan. She writes:

In August, when Jobs eventually relinquished command of the company he built, the business world went nuts. Many feared the stock would plummet overnight. One month later, however, the tech giant’s share price was higher than it had been during Jobs’ final weeks at the helm and was threatening to eclipse $400 per share for the second time this year. Investors have responded favorably to the company’s new CEO, 13-year company veteran Tim Cook, who Apple’s board was confident could successfully lead the company. After all, he had already done so on three other occasions when Jobs was forced into medical leaves of absence.

Unfortunately, stories of seamless transition are uncommon. Few boards build a succession plan. In fact, while 84% of directors find succession plans to be essential, only half of boards of Fortune 1,000 companies have them, according to Korn/Ferry International’s “34th Annual Board of Directors Study.” It seems that boards are long on talk but short on action.

Those figures are sobering. Without a complete succession plan in place, no matter if the current CEO is in good health or not, a company is often left in limbo, usually scrambling to chose who should fill the shoes. The transition, without a proper plan, can be anything but smooth and have ill effects felt throughout the entire company.

A recent report from Cutting Edge Info on succession planning states that “forward-looking companies ses succession planning as an opportunity to reinforce corporate identity, elevate operation performance and ensure continuity. They recognize the link between organizational objectives and individual goals, and they understand how succession planning impacts the bottom line.”

Without a comprehensive succession plan, companies risk more than losing a CEO.

 

iBreach

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No one is safe from the slimy tricks of today’s most conniving hackers. Not Rahm Emmanuel. Not Diane Sawyer. Not even New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

These public figures make up only a fraction of the victims in Apple’s worst security breach. This week, FBI agents arrested the two men responsible for stealing the personal information of 120,000 iPad users last summer. Federal officials charged Andrew Auernheimer and Daniel Spitler with fraud and conspiracy to access a computer without authorization, and both face up to ten years behind bars if convicted.

In June of 2010, Auernheimer and Spitler used a script called the “iPad 3G Account Slurper” to attack AT&T customer information and “slurp” up thousands of email addresses, which they attempted to leak to internet spammers. The fiasco has caused AT&T quite a few headaches. The company has already paid $73,000 to clean up the mess, not to mention the blow this incident must have inflicted on AT&T’s exclusive relationship with Apple. (Could this be a contributing factor to the budding alliance between Verizon and the iPhone?)

Stories like these sound familiar, and they gradually change with the times. First there was credit card identity theft. Now we worry about Facebook security. The cyber world is quickly evolving to become more interconnected, and unfortunately, it is increasingly difficult to enjoy the luxury of privacy. With the surging popularity of advanced technology and social media sites, we seem to be trading in our anonymity for easy access. Although avoiding new media doesn’t appear to be an option anymore, small steps like checking privacy settings and watching what material you post on public websites can provide some protection.

Be safe out there.

Child Labor: A Reputation Armageddon

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For the most part, a company never anticipates its suppliers will be using child labor to provide a product, but for many large corporations with production facilities or suppliers in poorer countries, that is exactly what is, and has been, happening. And the reputation damage inflicted by accusations that a company uses child labor to make a profit, even if unaware, is devastating.

You may remember back in 2007 when Gap came under fire for, apparently unknowingly, using child labor in the production of a line of children’s clothing in India. An investigative reporter videotaped the scene at the factory.

It shows children who appeared to be between the ages of 10 and 13, stitching embroidered shirts in a crowded, dimly lit work-room. The video clearly shows a Gap label on the back of each garment. The reporter, Dan McDougall, said the children were working without pay as virtual slaves in filthy conditions, with a single, backed-up latrine and bowls of rice covered with flies. They slept on the roof, he said.

Though Gap immediately ordered a full evaluation and had a clean record of ethical out-sourcing up until that point, the reputation damage was severe and lingers to this day.

But Gap is not the only company accused of using child labor. In 1998 Nike agreed to root out underage workers and require overseas suppliers to meet strict Unites States health and safety standards after it received heavy pressure from critics.

Nike said it would raise the minimum age for hiring new workers at shoe factories to 18 and the minimum for new workers at other plants to 16, in countries where it is common for 14-year-olds to hold such jobs. It will not require the dismissal of underage workers already in place.

Though the shoe and apparel giant took some steps to ease the concerns of critics, the company suffered boycotts by consumers who refused to support such “sweatshops.” Examples include this boycott petition and this website encouraging the end of support for anything Nike.

More recently, Apple “said it found more than a dozen serious violations of labor laws at its suppliers.” One investigation found that three overseas facilities had hired 11 workers who were 15 years old (the minimum employment age is 16 in those countries). Apple’s reputation damage continued to worsen this year with news of an alarming rate of suicides at its biggest supplier, China’s Foxconn (check out an in-depth article on the topic).

China, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Pakistan are among the countries with the most widespread abuses of child workers, according to a report released today by Maplecroft. Below is a map illustrating the ares most prone to use of child labor.

Screen shot 2010-12-01 at 11.24.01 AMAs the report states, there are more than 200 million children working throughout the world, many full-time. Of these, 126 million are exposed to hazardous forms of child labor. As we have seen, many big-name companies have been accused of using child labor, and though they’ve taken many steps to correct their ethical violations, the reputation damage still lingers — and may do so forever.