What Apple Inc. Will Be Without Steve Jobs

I use Apple Inc. and one of its founders, Steve Jobs, in this blog to refer to a company and its head but the discussions I have here can apply to any business enterprise and its recognized leader. It just so happen that the current buzz in the technology world is what will happen to Apple without Steve Jobs so I have their names on this blog’s title.

This topic reminds me of the various management training seminars I took in the early 1980’s when I was still an employee. I was then a middle-level manager in a medium-sized company belonging to a conglomerate that was focused to achieve growth and stability so its key employees were made to undergo such management trainings in order to prepare us for bigger tasks ahead. We would even have those live-in seminars in some out-of-town resorts and hotels.

One of the training seminars we had was the Louis Allen Management System that has a nice explanation on how the management system of a business enterprise transforms and become successful. The Louis Allen Management System says the management of business enterprise passes through three (3) stages  of development as follows:

A) Natural Leadership Stage

B) Corridor of Crisis and

C) Professional Management Stage

All business organizations must have a natural leader at the start for it to be successful and for Apple Inc., Steve Jobs is definitely the one. For a business empire to become stable and continue to be successful it must aim to cross the Corridor of Crisis and reach the Professional Management Stage. I know that Apple, as a business enterprise, has a management training program for its people so that it could have a pool of professional managers who can take over any vacancy that could arise in its organization.

At this stage, from all the information available, it seems that Apple is still in the Natural Leadership Stage. There were attempts to cross the Corridor of Crisis especially when its natural leader (Steve Jobs) was not around to lead the company. Sad to say, in my personal analysis, Apple is not ready yet to be in the Professional Management Stage because they have to revert to Natural Leadership Stage and rely on Steve Jobs when he’s back.

What will then happen if, heaven forbids, Steve Jobs goes? I say, that will be the time Apple will be forced to cross the Corridor of Crisis and be hopefully be in Professional Management Stage. Will the company succeed to be there? It will depend on how well its senior managers are prepared for the tasks that will fall into their hands.