How does one follow in the footsteps of a genius? That’s the question Apple CEO Tim Cook has faced in the two years since his predecessor, revered Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, died after a long battle with cancer. Cook, a 52-year-old operational wizard from Robertsdale, Ala., took over as Apple CEO a few months before Jobs died on October 5th, 2011. His challenge has been to maintain the momentum at the world’s largest and most famous technology company, following a decade-long period of turn-around and innovation with few parallels in corporate history. Over the last year, Apple’s once-high flying stock price has shed a quarter of its value, as Wall Street analysts and investors alike have begun to question whether the firm’s greatest days are in the past. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine any executive, no matter how talented, matching Jobs’ track record. Over his career, Jobs radically disrupted at least eight industries: personal computing, computer operating systems, music, mobile phones, publishing, tablet computers, and Hollywood animation. The iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad transformed or created their respective markets, and a first generation iPod is on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Jobs was named the CEO of the decade in 2009 and, for many, he was the CEO of the century. Jobs, with Cook by his side as chief operating officer, turned Apple into a $440 billion juggernaut partly by developing a sophisticated supply chain—cornering the market for flash memory in the mid-2000s, for example, well before it became clear that technology would become a staple of devices ranging from phones to laptops—as well as by aggressively releasing glitzy new devices, even if they risked cannibalizing sales of best-selling products. As recent books like Inside Apple and Walter Isaacson’s biography, Steve Jobs, have shown, that’s how Jobs and company essentially created the world’s largest, most successful startup. The 1998-2011 period in Apple’s history is likely to become an object lesson in avoiding the so-called “innovator’s dilemma.” At the heart of the discussion about Apple’s future … Continue reading Two Years After Steve Jobs’ Death, Is Apple a Different Company?