Apple Chief Design Officer departs; Apple was Jony Ive before Apple grew past him. The excellence in great companies where no matter your talent, missions can move on with or without you, demands celebrations. Few expected that Apple would live – after Steve Jobs. Most Wall Street investors said they invested because of Jony Ive.
But in reality, it is all press illusion: to make a system in a top engineering company, dozens are involved. Practically, the capabilities are distributed, in any decent team; you would expect Apple to be top of the class on capabilities.
Yes, when you read those articles where one man was credited for designing a car, you will pause. Jony Ive was a legend. Today, he is going for a former staff of Apple. Apple will be fine because in continuity and succession managements, no one does them better than in the semiconductor sector. How? Intel can fire 5,000 people today with their badges revoked, and tomorrow, work will continue with limited hitches. Why: SOPs which make most staff to become numbers, mitigating continuity risks.
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Sometimes a surprise departure isn’t much of a surprise. But the aftermath sure could be. Aaron in for Adam at week’s end, contemplating the “surprise” departure of Apple design chief Jony Ive.
Although Ive joined Apple in 1992 while Steve Jobs was occupied elsewhere, the amiable Brit became one of the genius CEO’s most trusted and important lieutenants upon his return. Ive gets credit for the iconic designs of the iMac, the iPod, and the iPhone. But he’s been increasingly checked out of Apple’s product design process since the Apple Watch hit the scene in 2015. His last–and perhaps most lasting–legacy at Apple was the design of its spaceship-like new headquarters. After more than a decade of planning, design, and construction, the effort finally came to a complete and official end last month in a spectacular dedication ceremony featuring a concert by Lady Gaga. So it was time for Ive to go. “This just seems like a natural and gentle time to make this change,” he told The Financial Times in an exclusive interview. (Fortune newsletter)
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Soldier go, soldier come, and barracks remains the same. When an organisation becomes an institution, the whole is always greater than sum of its parts. Apple is an institution, so it’s ridiculous to opine or believe that one man could hold so much importance; institutions are not structured in that way. Your relevance is noticeable and valuable when you are there, once you leave, the corporation moves on as though nothing happened.
Sir Jony had his moments, plenty of it; but the name – Apple dwarfs any number of brilliant guys that make things happen there; it is built to outlive its founders.
Yes indeed – it is all about APPLE – and nothing but Apple. That is a lesson for African entities.