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Credentialed executives nearly bankrupted Apple
The outsider
Jobs was a college dropout who walked around barefoot and refused to shower. He was an artist who preferred closed systems and thought about great products above all else. He could act charismatic or crazy, perhaps according to his mood or perhaps according to his calculations, and in 1985 that eccentricity backfired on him.
The comeback
After his return he introduced the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and the iPad in 2010, then resigned in 2011 because of poor health. By the following year, Apple was the most valuable company in the world.
Founder-led companies
Companies that create new technology often resemble feudal monarchies. A unique founder can make authoritative decisions, inspire strong personal loyalty, and plan ahead for decades. Impersonal bureaucracies staffed by trained professionals can last longer than any lifetime, but they usually act with short time horizons.
Why did Apple's board side against Jobs?
Jobs had recruited John Sculley from Pepsi in 1983 to run Apple. When Macintosh sales fell short of projections in 1985, the two clashed over the direction of the company. Apple's board backed Sculley and stripped Jobs of operating control of the Macintosh division. Jobs resigned that September and founded NeXT.
How did Jobs's return turn Apple around?
Apple bought NeXT in December 1996 for about 400 million dollars, which brought Jobs back to the company. In August 1997 Microsoft invested 150 million dollars in Apple's non-voting shares, announced at the Macworld conference in Boston. Jobs cut the product line down to four main computers, a pair for consumers and a pair for professionals, each in a desktop and a portable. The iMac followed in 1998.
How did Apple become the world's most valuable company?
In August 2012 Apple's market value topped 600 billion dollars. That passed the nominal record Microsoft set at the peak of the dot-com boom in 1999. Most of the revenue behind it came from the iPhone, which launched in 2007. Apple's sales passed 150 billion dollars in its 2012 fiscal year.
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