Remember the light saber battle on the Death Star between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan? No matter how often I see Star Wars and I’ve seen it way too often to be normal, it absolutely breaks my heart to see that neon red beam piercing that Jedi flock. I kind of have that same feeling when hearing the news that Steve Jobs is stepping down as CEO of Apple.
Part Obi-Wan, part P.T. Barnum, part David Copperfield, no modern day businessman has influenced the world quite like Steve Jobs. He’s done a masterful job of leading bringing a company back from near bankruptcy to positioning it as one of the most valuable organizations in the World. And like Obi-Wan having the support of Luke and his team, Jobs also leaves Apple in excellent hands.
Tim Cook, who will step in as the company’s CEO, has actually been running Apple’s day-to-day business for years. Jobs himself has groomed Cook to be his successor and under Cook’s leadership in Jobs’ recent medical leave, the company has become the most valuable enterprise in America surpassing Exxon Mobile.
As a CEO Jobs has set a fantastic course for Apple as over the last 18 months, they moved more than 30 million I-Pads and over 21 Million I-Phones. Furthermore, the company has a new product release schedule through 2015. Notwithstanding his importance, Apple will continue to innovate and we expect to also thrive.
For the thousands of industry leading companies like ours that have been able to carve out nice places in the business world on account of Apple’s products, we thank you Steve!!!
