A Tough Balancing Act Remains Ahead for Apple

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From the nytimes.com) As the high-tech industry mourns the death of Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s executives will face the challenge of how to keep its streak of hit products going while avoiding the problems that have befallen other companies that lost their beloved founders.

The risk is this: How to follow the lessons Mr. Jobs imparted to his fellow Apple executives over the last 14 years without being trapped by his legacy and unable to adapt to future changes.

Timothy D. Cook, Mr. Jobs’s longtime lieutenant at Apple, captured the difficult balancing act in an e-mail he sent to all Apple employees in late August after taking over from Mr. Jobs as chief executive. “I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change,” Mr. Cook wrote.

On one level, the message was an effort to reassure nervous Apple staff members that the commitment to innovation that Mr. Jobs established would not change, even if Mr. Jobs was no longer involved in Apple’s day-to-day operations. But management experts say change is often exactly what companies need as market conditions shift in the years after their founders are gone.

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