Steve Jobs was a genius — no doubt about that. Apple was six months from bankruptcy when he took over as CEO in 1997. Under his leadership, Apple became one of the world’s most powerful companies, the most trusted brand, and disrupted entire industries. He didn’t have an easy career. He spent many years in the wilderness, and even when Apple was bouncing back, he didn’t get the credit he deserved. It was only late in his career, after the iPhone became a smash hit, that he started to be lionized as a business genius. And after his death, he was deified.
But was it all Steve Jobs? Is the company doomed without him? What happens when one man gets all the credit? The truth is more complex. Apple wouldn’t be Apple without Steve Jobs, but it wasn’t just him. Jobs didn’t design anything, and he didn’t write any code. The creative work was done by others, though he had a hand in guiding it.
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After his death it slowly became clear that his anointed successor in the creative department was his long-time colleague, Sir Jonathan Ive, Apple’s head of industrial design. Tim Cook might be CEO, but Jony Ive is the company’s creative guru. His ultra-secretive design lab is the innovation factory at the heart of Apple. That’s why I wrote a book about him. There were too many myths. Too many rumors. Who is Jonathan Ive exactly? How did a quiet, polite Englishman become the creative lead for the world’s most innovative company? Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products goes on sale November 14th. You can pre-order it here.
The awesome trailer was made by Jason Moore at Simplifilm, an app marketing company.
