Apple chief executive Tim Cook is just now emerging from the shadow of Steve Jobs, four years after he was hand-picked to succeed his famous former boss. With the Apple Watch, the firm takes up the first major product developed entirely after Jobs's death. Soon it will move to all-new headquarters, leaving its famous address at 1 Infinite Loop.
But Jobs's ghost is still very much a part of Apple's culture. In a lengthy Q&A with Fast Company executive editor Rick Tetzeli and Brent Schlender, who co-wrote an upcoming Jobs biography, Cook explained how Jobs's legacy will always be at the company. Cook has spoken before about his enduring admiration for Jobs. He still commemorates his former boss's birthday each year, and the new book includes the revelation that Cook even tried to offer Jobs part of his liver. The full article is well-worth a read, but the excerpt below, on how Jobs is still remembered at Apple, is particularly touching.
Fast Company: I noticed you still have Steve’s nameplate up next to his old office.
Cook: Yeah.
Why? And will you have anything like that over at the new place?
I haven’t decided about what we’ll do there. But I wanted to keep his office exactly like it was. I was in there with Laurene [Powell Jobs, Steve’s wife] the other day because there are still drawings on the board from the kids. I took Eve [Steve’s daughter] in there over the summer and she saw some things that she had drawn on his white board years earlier.
In the beginning I really didn’t personally want to go in there. It was just too much. Now I get a lot more appreciation out of going in there, even though I don’t go in very often.
What we’ll do over time, I don’t know. I didn’t want to move in there. I think he’s an irreplaceable person and so it didn’t feel right . . . for anything to go on in that office. So his computer is still in there as it was, his desk is still in there as it was, he’s got a bunch of books in there. Laurene took some things to the house.
I don’t know. His name should still be on the door. That’s just the way it should be. That’s what felt right to me.
But Jobs's ghost is still very much a part of Apple's culture. In a lengthy Q&A with Fast Company executive editor Rick Tetzeli and Brent Schlender, who co-wrote an upcoming Jobs biography, Cook explained how Jobs's legacy will always be at the company. Cook has spoken before about his enduring admiration for Jobs. He still commemorates his former boss's birthday each year, and the new book includes the revelation that Cook even tried to offer Jobs part of his liver. The full article is well-worth a read, but the excerpt below, on how Jobs is still remembered at Apple, is particularly touching.
Fast Company: I noticed you still have Steve’s nameplate up next to his old office.
Cook: Yeah.
Why? And will you have anything like that over at the new place?
I haven’t decided about what we’ll do there. But I wanted to keep his office exactly like it was. I was in there with Laurene [Powell Jobs, Steve’s wife] the other day because there are still drawings on the board from the kids. I took Eve [Steve’s daughter] in there over the summer and she saw some things that she had drawn on his white board years earlier.
In the beginning I really didn’t personally want to go in there. It was just too much. Now I get a lot more appreciation out of going in there, even though I don’t go in very often.
What we’ll do over time, I don’t know. I didn’t want to move in there. I think he’s an irreplaceable person and so it didn’t feel right . . . for anything to go on in that office. So his computer is still in there as it was, his desk is still in there as it was, he’s got a bunch of books in there. Laurene took some things to the house.
I don’t know. His name should still be on the door. That’s just the way it should be. That’s what felt right to me.
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