Leading Apple With Steve Jobs: Management Lessons From a Controversial Genius

Staying the Course

On top of all Steve achieved in his lifetime, I believe the visionary Steve Jobs left a roadmap for at least the next three years from the time of his death in late 2011. Setting the pattern for any other company or team that loses its visionary leader, Apple needs to stay fiercely loyal to the strategic ideas that Steve infused into the lifeblood of the company.

Almost as if it had been planned by a benevolent God, the Apple product introduction on the day before Steve died offered a feature new to Apple, with far-reaching impact. Siri, the speak-to-your-phone voice technology incorporated into the iPhone 4S, wasn’t first-of-a-kind. Android and other phones had offered their own version of the technology a couple of years earlier. Steve never aimed at being the first; he aimed at getting it right.

Siri is only the starting gate. I believe voice technology is going to be another major game-changer. It will be invoked in every sort of interaction between a human and a machine, from eliminating that pesky remote control in our living rooms, to controlling factories, and even to operating our cars.

When the iPhone 4S was introduced, it received all the attention. Introduced at the same time was iCloud, for remote storage of files and applications, which went virtually unnoticed. Yet iCloud and one element of the iPhone represented the next three to four years of amazing user interface. Today we’re still in the keyboard world, while these products were a step toward ...