Jobs for the boys (sorry…)

In the PR world, you can’t really hide from the news if you want to do your job. As a result, Steve Jobs’ decision to step down as the CEO of Apple was pretty much everywhere.  I’m not going to commentate directly on what Jobs apparently moving to a slightly different role within the company might mean for Apple: first, I don’t really possess the necessary qualifications and second there has already been more than enough of that, from breezy confidence that things will stay the same, if not better, to predictions of doom for the business. From my point of view on whether the departure of a highly influential, charismatic founder might mean the end of a successful company, I’ll just say that my mum bought a Ford Fiesta last year and it’s a great car.

I’ve been more interested in the tone of many of the pieces about Jobs. Whether praising or condemning, whether saying it’s the end of Apple or the start of a bright new era, a huge number have taken an extremely final approach to him. Rather than reading about a man who has moved to another, albeit less obviously senior, position at the company, I instead find myself reading what seem suspiciously like hastily edited obituaries. It’s not just me who’s commented on this: certainly, a number of stories about how Jobs worked as a CEO have a tone of eulogy about them, as if he’s decided to leave for good and wonder the world like Caine from Kung Fu.  This all appears ridiculously premature: while he’s demonstrated an apparently relaxed attitude to it in some of his own quotes, Jobs isn’t dead. He still has the potential to do much more, in whatever position he takes: whether continuing his work with Apple or striking out in another direction. To an extent, this shows how his decision caught many off guard. I presume that Jobs himself doesn’t think his life is over just yet: it would be nice if some others could afford him the same respect.