With Jobs out, What Else will Change at Apple?

Article by Emily Scott

Even if the company has been unwilling to discuss it and outsiders have a stiff time imagined it, its clear Apple has been preparing for a day when Steve Jobs would no longer be chief executive.

Since rejoin the company as part of Apple’s gaining of NeXT in 1996, Jobs has played a essential role in its turn from a company with an army of clone computers on the edge of bankruptcy to the second-most precious in the world with gadgets people wait outside stores days to get. He’s also been the company’s chief spokesperson at the opening of products, something that is likely to change as Jobs transition to a diminished role as the company’s chairman of the board.

Possibly the most significant role of all though, has been as choice and taste maker for the company, something Jobs is well-known for and is likely to continue to have a muscular part in going forward. Job’s replacement, Tim Cook has surely proven he can run the company’s operations in his absence on three separate occasions, but can the company carry on to out-step competitor without Jobs at the helm?

One of the first places to glance will be who replace Cook as Apple’s chief operating officer. Apple noted in its statement that Cook’s move up into the CEO Mark is part of the completion of the company’s succession plan.

That very plan became the strong interest of a group of Apple shareholders earlier this year, who ask the company to disclose its strategy for replacing Jobs. It was a demand Apple rally against, saying such a exposure would give competitors an “unfair advantage” by publicizing the company’s secret objectives and tactics. The movement ended up being discarded at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in late February.

Apple has not announced who will take over the COO spot, but one thought is Jeff Williams, who was promote to senior vice president of operations for the company last July. A 2008 feature story profile Cook in Fortune noted that Williams, who has been with Apple since 1998, is part of a “tight-knit team” that Cook’s work with since joining the company.

Ethnically, one of the other large what-ifs is whether Jobs’ stepping down sets off the departure of other key executives.

The latest high level departure was Apple’s retail chief Ron Johnson, who announces tactics to leave the company to become J.C. Penney’s CEO in June. Apple’s allegedly been making use of the services of search firm Egon Zehnder International to find Johnson’s substitute.

Months before Johnson’s statement, there was the departure of Bertrand Serlet, who had been Apple’s senior vice president of Mac software engineering. Serlet connected Apple in 1997, following the company’s acquisition of NeXT, where he had been with Jobs.

Rumors swirled earlier this year that Apple’s design chief Jonathan Ive was contemplate a exit from Apple to move to the U.K. following the conclusion of a three-year stock deal. Under Ive’s direction, Apple’s put out a list of iconic products counting the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad.

The story goes that Ive’s big smash came during a Jobs-led re-evaluation of the company following his anointment as CEO in 1997. Jobs took one look at a number of prototypes Ives had come up with an eminent his status as a result. The rest is history, with Apple shrinking, slimming and re-thinking its gadgets at a non-stop pace.

One of the remaining questions is who will take the wheel for Apple at its iconic product announcement and events. For years Jobs has been the front man at the company’s product introductions, acting as an emcee to pull out key managers and executives to step out onto the stage and pitch Apple’s newest wares, be it products or new ideas. Jobs have also made a much-expected habit of saving the big announcement until the very end of those presentations, leading the audience on by saying there’s just “one more thing.”

With Jobs on go away in latest years, that blame has fallen on longtime Apple veteran Phil Schiller, the company’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. But other personality has emerged, counting Scott Forstall, Apple’s senior vice president of iOS software. Forstall’s role has become more and more important as the iOS software makes its way into more products, and makes up for more of the company’s revenues. The man has abundance of charisma and showmanship, though his role has been partial to that product line.

The first place we’re likely to see the change is with the company’s presentation of the next iPhone. Now probable to be released in October alongside latest iterations of the iPod, it’s a good deduction it will be the company’s first event with Cook at the helm. What comes after that only Apple knows?

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