Leander Kahney: “Ive Is Now More Important To Apple Than Jobs Was When He Died”

Leander Kahney, author ofJony Ive, the Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products posits that Ive is now more important to Apple than Job seas before he died in an interview with Dezeen Magazine. Kahney was quick to point that this a quiet a controversial thing to say. He also said that this is probably a testament to the way Jobs went about creating a successful culture at Apple that will last in his absence. However, the future of Apple is not so clear if Ive was to leave the company today.

Leander Kahney:

It’s just interesting how important he is to Apple. Jobs was almost lionised after his death and became known as the world’s greatest CEO ever, but I think the world thought the main narrative is that Apple is now doomed because Jobs is dead, without him they’re going to be lost. The point for me is how central was Jony Ive to the product creation process, the creativity of the companies. Jobs enabled the culture, but Ive and his design team came up with the products.

[…]

Ive is now more important to Apple than Jobs was when he died, which I think it a hugely controversial statement. But in a way it is a testament to Jobs. What he did in the last 12 years was build a company that could survive without him.

It’s not clear whether Ive has created a design department that could survive without him. I think that Ive is so central to what Apple does that it would be in trouble if he left. Jobs was the CEO but he wasn’t really the CEO – Tim Cook was the CEO. Cook ran Apple day to day whilst Jobs hung out with Jony Ive and created new products. Jony Ive has now got the same job that Jobs had.

Agreed. I’ve said this before, the day Ive leaves Apple – is the day Apple fans should be very concern about the future of the company.