Jobs, Well Done

Farhad Manjoo chats with readers about Steve Jobs' resignation from Apple and the future of tech innovation.

Steve Jobs, who recently resigned as the CEO of AppleSlate technology columnist Farhad Manjoo chatted live with readers at Washingtonpost.com today about the resignation of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. An edited transcript of the chat is below. Read his piece about Apple's prospects here.

Farhad Manjoo: Hi, everyone. I'm ready to take your questions on Steve Jobs and Apple after his tenure. Let's chat!

Q. Why Apple Doesn't Need Steve Jobs: Apple seemed to have benefited greatly from having a charismatic boss who was able to get us to buy every new product. How can they replace that charisma?

A. Farhad Manjoo: The short answer is that they can't replace the charisma. Or, at least, they can't immediately. Apple's executive team has a lot of skills, but Jobs was singularly good at presenting new products to the public, and at inspiring employees to do better than what they believed they were capable of.

But as I wrote in Slate today, I believe that much of Jobs' personality has already been injected into the culture of Apple. That won't be the same thing as having him there every day, saying what's great (and, usually, what stinks) about products they're working on. But I believe that he's inculcated some of his keen product sense in everyone around him, and they'll be able to at least approximate some of his genius.

Q. Health: How bad do you think his health is? Is that definitely the reason he resigned?

A. Farhad Manjoo: I have no idea. The only clue comes in this BusinessWeek piece, in which an unnamed source "described Jobs' condition as weak but added that his resignation was not indicative of a sudden downturn." I wouldn't want to speculate beyond that, but I hope he's well.

Q. Why Apple Doesn't Need Steve Jobs: Steve Jobs' charisma helped sell a lot of product. Does a successful company need a charismatic leader at its helm?

A. Farhad Manjoo: I think we tend to overestimate the effect of Jobs' "charisma" on Apple's sales. I think they're much more attributable to great products at great prices. In recent years Apple's sales have skyrocketed even while Jobs has taken a less public role. This suggests his public face is not the main reason for Apple's success.

A. Farhad Manjoo: It looks like it's following the rest of the market today—down just a little bit. So maybe it won't take a hit at all.

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Farhad Manjoo is Slate's technology columnist and the author of True Enough: Learning To Live in a Post-Fact Society. You can e-mail him at and follow him on Twitter.

Photograph of Steve Jobs by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

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