A business lesson from Steve Jobs

By Kristen Stieffel

The last lesson Steve Jobs had to teach us wasn’t about technology, or industrial design, or following your heart and intuition. His final lesson was about plain boring old succession planning.

Steve Jobs. Photo by Matthew Yohe

Many businesses fail after the death of their founders simply because not enough thought was given to that big, ugly “what if?” Steve and his colleagues at least had the advantage of not being taken by surprise.

At my company, we were not so lucky.

As hard as it must have been for Tim Cook to write that Oct. 5 memo, how much harder was it for Whit Shaw, now the head of American City Business Journals, to write a similar memo one Monday morning two years ago, informing his employees of the weekend death of founder and chairman Ray Shaw.

His father.

Ray died suddenly, unexpectedly, almost stupidly — of complications from a bee sting.

We all felt great sadness at Ray’s loss, even though most of us had never met him. And uncertainty about the future goes without saying. But there was no fear, despite the abruptness of the change, because we trusted in the succession plan. We trusted Whit and the other leaders to be wise. And they have been.

Apple shareholders must now trust that Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive and the company's other leaders will be wise.

As a business leader, do you know whether, if anything were to happen to you, the leaders you leave behind would lead wisely?

It is vital for any businessperson with more than a few employees to have a succession plan. If you’re a one-person operation -- a freelancer or consultant -- then you are the business. But if the business can and should survive you, plan for that. It won’t happen by accident.

Steve’s succession plan was in place because he’d been dealing with cancers since 2004. But even though Ray’s death was an unpredictable fluke, the company leadership was nevertheless able to move forward because a plan was already in place.

Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding, yes. But also use the brains He gave you. To be good stewards of our businesses, we must consider those big, ugly “what ifs.”

Because someday, whether through retirement or illness or death, you will no longer be there to lead your company. You, or someone else, will write a memo to inform your employees.

What will happen after that?