Apple Will Live and Grow Without Steve Jobs

The sudden passing of Apple founder Steve Jobs has left many wondering where the company will go from here. But if history is any guide this Apple will likely grow, and probably far from the tree.

Many companies founded by visionaries actually do quite well when there is a change at the top. Many younger TV viewers might only know the name “Disney” because of the Disney Channel and the theme parks. Before there was the Disney Empire, there was Walt Disney, who created that empire before he died of lung cancer at age 65 in 1966.

Instead of that being the end for Disney, it was actually in many ways a new beginning.

Accordingly to Daily Finance Disney stock appreciated 1,140 percent from December 1966 to December 1972. To put that in perspective the Dow only gained 30 percent during the same period. It hasn’t always been a fairytale for Disney, which saw a decline in the 1970s and early 1980s. A change in leadership and direction in the 1980s and 1990s put things back on track, however, and Disney has since emerged as a media powerhouse with movie studios and ownership of ABC, and its properties.

If Apple is part burgeoning media player, it is also part retailer, too. After all, beyond its major brands in computers, personal media players, and just about everything with an “i” in front of it, Apple has its own retail outlets. This brings us to another company that managed well after losing its founders.

Consider that today the name Sears is known for that place to get affordable clothing, appliances, and even car tires. Most of us know the store’s name, but few of us know the story of Richard Warren Sears, a former railroad station agent who began a mail order catalog and was joined in business by Alvah C. Roebuck (who is the other half of Sears, Roebuck and Company).

The partnership did business for years as a catalog, and it wasn’t until 1925 that the first actual store opened in Chicago. However, that was long after Richard Sears retired due to failing health. He died in 1914 at age 50. As an interesting side note, Roebuck had long left the company due to the pressures involved and his own health concerns, but returned later as a spokesman --  in a way mirroring the Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak relationship with Apple.

It probably isn’t complete coincidence that all three of these visionaries died fairly young. The three lived to work as much as they worked to live. Disney was still working from his hospital bed when he passed away. And while Disney’s death was more sudden than that of Sears or Jobs, in each case the company’s future seemed to be in question.

However, when looking back, the future of the company was also clearer than many might have admitted at the time.

The Sears Wishbook was started in 1906, two years before Richard Sears resigned, and this was the same year the company opened the Sears Merchandise Building Tower, which would be the site of the first retail outlet. Sears was in good hands when Mr. Sears stepped aside.

Walt Disney was working overseeing production of the film The Jungle Book, and more importantly had announced plans Disney World in Orlando, Fla., with the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT (Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow) when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. From his hospital bed he still pushed for EPCOT, which was finally opened as EPCOT Center in the 1980s.

Jobs made his last public appearance on stage at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in June to introduce iCloud, which could be another game changer from Apple. Thus his legacy with Apple will live on with iCloud as well as Lion, the next OS X for Macs. And while this week’s announcement of the iPhone for Sprint wasn’t exactly the big news everyone was hoping to hear – no iPhone 5 yet – it proved that the show will go on even without Jobs.

Finally, consider that most people don’t know the names Julius E. Pitrap, Alexander Dey, Herman Hollerith, William Bundy, or even Charles Ranlett Flint. Who are they? The first four invented or patented various important technologies while the latter, Flint, helped merge them together to form Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R) in 1911.

That name probably doesn’t even sound familiar either. Flint recruited Thomas J. Watson, Sr. to run the company, and it was Watson who created the motto “THINK.” Does that sound familiar? This was long before Apple offered “Think Different” as a not so subtle nod to Watson.

It was during the Watson years that his company changed its name in 1924 to International Business Machines (IBM).

Sadly, business leaders come and go, but if they leave us with something truly unique it change make us think differently and they can leave a mark. Steve Jobs may have left the building for good this time, but Apple will continue to honor his legacy.