Apple’s Symbolic Problem with Steve Jobs

2 Jun, 2010  culture, leadership

Memorial Day is a time for us to remember our country’s fallen soldiers. And for the last 20 years, this holiday has also symbolized a long weekend at  Schlitterbahn water park with my extended family.

Schlitterbahn isn’t about water rides. It’s not a destination on the map; it’s a time and place for relationships – for watching the young grow up or helping the old stay young.  

When I worked at bTrieve (now Pervasive Software) we shared a keg of Shiner every Friday. But the ritual had very little to do with beer, or Fridays. For us, it was a keg of teamwork and camaraderie. Shiner symbolized our workplace culture. We worked in jeans while our competitors still wore power ties. We weren’t IBM, damn it. We were cool. We drank Shiner, not Merlot. We were a new breed, with radically different values.

Symbols are a rallying cry for a culture, and for change. Symbols are metaphors that define who we are, what we are about, and how and why we spend our time. But they lose their power when they replace their meaning: when presents become Christmas/Hanukkah/Chinese New Year. When meaningful words become clichés. When the anthem for the generation becomes a soundtrack for a TV commercial.

Or when the personality of the leader becomes the soul of the organization.

Photo by tsevis

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  • http://www.myflexiblepencil.com David M. Kasprzak

    Very interesting, John.

    Not only does this observation speak to elements of organizational culture, it also highlights the need for leadership development and succession planning, even at the highest levels. If an organization is wholly dependent upon 1 person, what will happen when that person is no longer there?

  • http://www.amajorc.com/blog Toby Elwin

    The cult of personality is in play at Apple, and their own history is a cautionary tale when Steve Jobs was fired, then as this source quotes, “[in the 90s] Power struggles and poor leadership at Apple Computer have combined to reduce the value of the company by $2 billion this decade.” rehired.

    I don’t know many places that willingly fire and rehire senior talent – except the New York Yankees and Mr. Steinbrenner and manager Billy Martin; that example ought to give a long pause when thinking about a leadership pipeline strategy.

    Leadership impacts the bottom line.

    Steve Jobs is Apple; long live the king and the stock holder.

  • http://www.talentculture.com/founder/ Meghan M. Biro

    Enjoying your blog John! Thank you very much for linking to my article “Social Community: A metaphor for the workplace. Find your intent” http://bit.ly/cYDugD

    It’s time to rally for change. A focus on culture/workplace + true social community is here. Collaboration 2.0 is opening up more possibilities to infuse new ways of working together.

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