The Day Has Come - Jobs Done

So the day that all Apple employees and all the company fans dreaded has come. Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave since mid-January, has resigned as CEO. It is clear that the news for him personally is not good.

Steve Jobs epitomised the kind of CEO that Jim Collins extolls in his book, 'Good to Great'. Having been sidelined by Apple, he came back to rescue them within days of being bankrupt. And he not just rescued the company in the face of a changing market but he took the company to the top of the world in terms of net worth. Apple has more cash at hand than the US Treasury - it is the highest worth technical company in the world.

What Jobs did in rescuing Apple was to plot a path where the usability of products would merge the world leisure and business. By not just making his products desirable but presenting an innovative way to access content that would make the products more useful and affordable, Jobs hatched a plan to tackle the world he could nevere quite conquer before - the world of the serious business executive. Today, the software market and how we buy new products has never been more vibrant, innovative, fun and affordable.

Many have challenged the dominance of Microsoft and the PC and failed. But Jobs has cracked it. Smartphones and tablets have been born from leisure products and they are transforming the way in which we all interface and use computers. Technology has become fun again and we can instantly turn from business to leisure and vice versa in seconds everyday thanks to Apple's innovations.

Steve Jobs and Apple have made computing fun again. The wind of change and innovation is back in corporate world and it's here to stay. And the standard has been set incredibly high as HP has found out and others will. This is not a price driven, make them cheap market. Apple make expensive, highly profitable products and consumers and business are happy to pay for the innovation.

Apple found the Blue Ocean right in front our faces.

Apple is far stronger as a company today and there is no doubt that it will continue on its remarkable progress without Jobs. However, the technology industry has lost its most inspirational and capable leader and it's a very sad day.

For those who doubt what Steve Jobs and Apple have done, in the last quarter to June, 20 million iPhones were sold and 9.25 million iPads helping make the company $28.6bn in revenue and staggering $7.3bn in profit. From a company that was almost dead and gone less than 10 years ago, that is some transformation.

Steve Jobs can kick back knowing his job is done. Very well done.


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