As Steve Jobs’s well being continued to fade, Tim Prepare dinner would take lengthy walks with him or sit with him throughout remedy. Throughout these hours of silence and moments of dialog, the true flashes of perception ignited in Prepare dinner, taking his relationship to the following stage of intimacy and growing a unique stage of empathy. In 2009, Prepare dinner even provided a portion of his liver to Jobs, as they shared a uncommon blood kind, however Jobs declined the supply. This gesture underscores their private {and professional} bond throughout that difficult interval. We’re not suggesting that anybody ought to be prepared to donate physique elements as a CEO candidate, however you have to embrace a deeper actuality of the human you’re partnering with.
Mark additionally had the chance to reconnect with Jobs within the hospital. He’d met him at Pixar and at Stanford, and even earlier than that at Homestead Excessive Faculty. In Jobs’s later days, it was lastly apparent to Mark that everybody wanted to cease complicated the person with the legend. Solely when he was sick did the historical past of Jobs’s life and work emerge in ways in which his administration group might absolutely embrace and internalize to hold the Apple torch ahead.
Each new and skilled CEO candidates share the notably intense and legitimate worry of getting into the shadow of a larger-than-life founder or predecessor. Greatest Purchase stood on the precipice of catastrophe when Hubert Joly, now a larger-than-life CEO hero, turned the corporate round; Corie Barry needed to substitute him. To be clear, Joly is the primary to inform you the transformation occurred with the assistance of the Greatest Purchase group that Joly led and empowered, and his successor Barry was on that brave group. However Joly was nonetheless a really arduous act to observe. Barry did what we’d advise any successor to a legend ought to do—don’t imitate, don’t attempt to replicate, deal with your gaps, get ready and do it your approach, whereas honoring the legacy of who got here earlier than.
Think about the stress on Tim Prepare dinner as he took Apple’s reins when Steve Jobs stepped apart. When Mark met Prepare dinner on the World Financial Discussion board, Prepare dinner shared that he had anxious concerning the transition and what Jobs nonetheless meant to the corporate. Prepare dinner’s efficiency had been exemplary at Apple—as yours has been, little doubt—however Jobs’s picture nonetheless outlined the Apple model. It’s honest to say that Jobs’s ongoing well being points associated to his battle with a uncommon type of pancreatic most cancers, which he had been managing since his prognosis in 2004, gave him what Marshall Goldsmith calls “non permanent sanity,” realizing that he needed Apple to prosper as he confronted an actual existential disaster. Aside from Prepare dinner, Jobs had not been nice at constructing a pipeline of management expertise or handing over the reins till he was fifty-six, when he anointed Prepare dinner. Jobs died later that 12 months. Prepare dinner, who had been Apple’s COO, already was successfully operating Apple and demonstrating his functionality to outlive his boss’s mercurial nature, stability the wants of the board, and reassure the Apple group that he shared a deep understanding of Apple’s tradition.
However clients and buyers nonetheless anxious whether or not he might proceed to instill the soul of Apple with the creative sensibilities of Jobs. Crucially, Prepare dinner invested in and supported the group of people that pre- served these sensibilities somewhat than attempt to remake the place in his personal likeness. As a CEO candidate, that is normally your finest strategy as you handle the worry of succeeding a legend: Don’t utterly reinvent your self within the different individual’s persona. Nobody expects you to duplicate your predecessor. You will need to assess and purchase the required added working abilities together with the broad strategic view that encompasses the complete firm after which construct the required relationships so the board acknowledges and selects you.
The lesson for you as a CEO candidate is that Steve Jobs and his board had been watching Prepare dinner to see if he might substitute, not replicate the founder. Not being similar to your predecessor is one thing that it is best to fear about briefly, solely so you possibly can channel that power towards understanding how one can develop within the new function and maybe broaden your self-concept of what makes you an excellent chief. As a candidate, Prepare dinner demonstrated to Jobs and the board that he was prepared to protect the very best of Apple’s model sensibilities. However Prepare dinner succeeded the place different CEO succession candidates failed by leveraging abilities that Apple wanted and that he had: his prodigious operational experience and skill to scale Apple’s international provide chain. On the identical time, the board didn’t count on Jobs’ visionary model however somewhat Prepare dinner’s personal definition of the way forward for Apple. The technique labored brilliantly, and Prepare dinner was the primary CEO to preside over the world’s first firm to exceed a trillion-dollar market capitalization and right now a tenfold enhance over what Apple was valued when Jobs departed.
The purpose right here is that the board and your boss—and your whole firm—desire a CEO candidate who can bridge the tradition as a result of, not regardless of, who you might be. By specializing in how one can develop as an individual and knowledgeable—understanding the corporate’s trajectory, addressing evolving buyer wants and rallying stakeholders—you possibly can chart your individual path, even within the shadow of giants.
Reprinted by permission of Harvard Enterprise Assessment Press. Excerpted from CEO Prepared: What You Must Know to Earn the Job–and Hold the Job by Mark Thompson and Byron Loflin. Copyright 2025 Mark Thompson and Byron Loflin. All rights reserved.
