Can Your Company Survive Without You?

Posted on 26. Jan, 2009 by Adam in Business

The recent announcement about Steve Jobs stepping down from the CEO position at Apple created a wave of panic through the tech marketplace and sent Apple stock plummeting 7% immediately afterward. The company employs around 32,000 people, and yet, headlines the next day read: “Will Apple Survive If Steve Jobs Goes?” and “What is Apple’s Future Without Steve Jobs?” In fact, Jobs’ health issues were a carefully guarded secret for months; not just for his own personal reasons, but because Apple’s management knew how the announcement would affect employee’s morale, the public’s view of the company, and the financial support of the shareholders.

In sharp contrast, last year Bill Gates retired as the CEO of Microsoft and focused his attention on his philanthropic foundation. The company is as well known as Apple and far more economically successful; yet Gates’ retirement did not send shareholders into a wild speculation about the future of the Microsoft and whether it would survive in the future without its founder at the helm.

It got me thinking about how difficult it can be to separate a company or product from its founder; and how dangerous it can be for the overall success of a company to create a cult of personality around a single person. As entrepreneurs, we place a huge amount of energy into our businesses. Many of us fund our startups with our own income or savings; we work long hours, many times unpaid. We forfeit vacations, luxuries, and sleep just to make our dreams come true. It is inevitable that we may begin to feel possessive about the companies we create.

But for a company to really succeed there has to be a point when the founder lets it go. I don’t mean that he or she walks away and leaves it to fend for itself; rather, they themselves have to be willing to offer it up as a community project with the combined efforts of many other talented people shaping its ultimate destiny. If the personality and vision of the founder is particularly strong, it can cause employees and even a board of directors to make decisions based more on what they think will please the founder than what is actually in the best interest of the company.

To be fair, there will always be a part of the founder in any organization they have launched. The overall mission of a company involves both monetary success, and very often, a personal vision that is near and dear to the heart of the person who started it up. This can be a continuing source of inspiration as long as it does not trump the actual primary basis for the existence of a business in the first place: to make money and expand itself.

When a company that is 32 years old with a net worth of almost $5 billion provokes questions about its ability to survive the retirement of a single individual; anyone who is currently struggling to establish a company should stop and think about the kind of foundation they are laying for long term success.

What things do you do to insure the long term success in your business ventures?

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Tags: Business, Companies

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