On: Apple’s Exec-sodus
Apple’s big, sweeping changes at the executive level can cause chaos, but there’s also potential for a lot of good here
What’s Going On?
So a ton of high-level people at Apple are leaving the company all around the same time which has been making headlines. We've all seen the news cycle, and it's definitely weird to see a whole group of highly tenured people leave all at once. A lot of people are curious as to what's going on to cause all of them to leave right now, fearing that it's something bad.
Why People Are Nervous
Fear of the unknown is a natural response—people don't know what's going to happen, so they naturally start to account for the worst-case scenario. But in my experience seeing disproportionately high numbers of people leaving organizations, that's usually not the case.
What I see happening is, well, the same reaction from those inside Apple as those of us outside: fear of the unknown. There are rumors of big changes within Apple, especially around Tim Cook leaving. A regime change is definitely the kind of thing that would cause this kind of uncertainty, which is likely what's pushing people to leave the company now.
Undergoing Change
It's not necessarily bad, just different
In my experience in these kinds of situations, the organization isn't failing, it's just moving in a new direction. There's a lot of potential for good to come from this kind of change—it's just that the thing people are more worried about is that there's also potential for bad. What I imagine happening is that Apple will stumble a little bit; some of the product refreshes right after Tim leaves will stumble, and Apple's stock will take a hit. This is the defining moment of the next regime: where they go from here.
After the cruft of the old regime has time to make its way out of the company in personnel, timeline, culture, and everything in between, the new leadership can finally start to settle into their own rhythm. Much like how the timeline between the 4S and the 6S was a little shaky, we'll see that with other products as Apple starts to pivot. It's not that the 5, 5S, and 6 were bad phones; it's just they were interstitial products in the shift between the Jobs and the Cook eras of Apple.
My Outlook
Now I don't know what the products are actually going to look like over the next few years, but as the company makes this transition, this is likely what we're going to see. After a few product cycles, the company will start to find its footing and land on something new. Much like how Apple went from the iPod and Mac company to the iPhone company to the Apple Ecosystem and Services company, we'll see these kinds of changes as the new leadership stamps their identity. Cook is a supply chain guy and he's into fitness, so the wearables, software services (which tend to have the ability to be incredibly high margin seeing as there's no bill of materials to account for), and supply chains got big bumps and helped propel the company into the multi-trillion dollar status that it's at now.
The Apple Watch is the most popular watch in the world. AirPods alone are a Fortune 100 company.
The people at Apple aren't stupid. The company will transition into something new, but unmistakably still Apple.
