Apple’s challenge

Jobs emphasis on design and research is a template for creative and cultural sector. Steve Jobs resignation as Apple’s chief executive has prompted volumes of coverage and has been on news bulletins internationally across all media today. For some time Jobs has been a talismanic figure at the company, particularly since his return in 1996 to the firm after an eleven year absence. In the intervening years he had taken the not insignificant step of being a co-founder of Pixar Studios. Apple’s share price and future profits are portrayed as being linked in an immediate sense to Jobs, though he is not the creator or designer of many of Apple’s key products. “Without Its Master of Design, Apple Will Face Many Challenges” is the headline of one New York Times article, while the Irish Times reports that “Move opens door for rivals”. There is no doubt about the role that Jobs has played at Apple or the impact he has made. However is one person the sum of Apple’s output? Can you name the chief executive of Samsung or the designers who produced the HTC range of smart phones. Didn’t think you could, yet a significant amount of us buy their products. Sometimes we are too ready to create symbolic figureheads and portray them as being business superheroes. Apple is a huge organisation and has made a multi billion dollar investment in designing new products. Individual leadership decisions are critical but a lot more is happening at the company than the work of Steve Jobs. How firms in the creative and cultural sectors are organised and run is a critical part of communications and media studies as is the importance of design. Organisation theory and behaviour is a feature of undergraduate modules on the business degrees in Griffith College. It is also part of the media and photography programmes and appears in modules such as Media Marketing, Newspaper and Magazine Production, Business Jou alism and Radio Jou alism. Collaborative work is a key feature of media production. We needs leaders, but an effective team is vitally important. The other aspect of the Jobs legacy is the significance of investment in design and research. In Ireland as we seek at an individual and national level to rebuild the economy these two factors are critical. Investing in research, innovation and new design alongside the creative output of new artistic, cultural and media products is a necessary part of a realistic economic strategy for the coming years.