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Don't carry on my legacy
Near the end of his life, Jobs talked about Apple as his greatest creation, ahead of the iPhone, the iPad, and the Mac. He put together classes and case studies, hired professors, and worked out how to build the team and who would succeed him.
The successor he picked, Tim Cook, was an absolute home run and wanted to serve the same bigger cause. At one point Cook apparently wondered aloud what Jobs would have done once he was gone, and Jobs told him to do no such thing. Cook had to figure out for himself what to do and do the best he could.
Cook is a very different person and made decisions Jobs would never have made, such as paying out dividends and buying back large amounts of stock. It worked out well for the shareholders, and Buffett is happy about it.
Why did Jobs found a school inside Apple?
Apple University was founded around 2008 to teach employees how Apple makes decisions, using case studies of the company's own history. Joel Podolny, a former dean of the Yale School of Management, ran it. The idea was to pass on how Apple works to the people who would carry it forward. Classes were reported to be taught to employees at the company's campus in Cupertino.
How did Apple change after Jobs?
Steve Jobs died in October 2011, shortly after he named Tim Cook chief executive in August of that year. In March 2012, Apple announced its first dividend since 1995. A large share repurchase program followed, and Apple later became one of the biggest buyers of its own stock. Berkshire Hathaway disclosed its first Apple stake in 2016.
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