Misunderstanding Jony Ive

A number of years ago, a senior colleague of mine died. He was larger than life, dominated any room he entered and had a number of quite incredible traits and skills as a human being. After his death, things rumbled on – we scored some considerable achievements, we continued to grow, we sometimes failed – but we kept going. Earlier this year, the man who worked with my departed colleague most closely announced that he was leaving the organisation. Reasons for his leaving were thrown around our team and then, over drinks one evening, he confided in me: ‘Every day I come in here, I see him. I see him everywhere’. The walls echoed with my colleague’s laughter, his ideas and his energy. It’s hard to continue when your best friend – maybe even your professional father figure – passes on.

This story should sound familiar if you’ve been watching Jony Ive’s recently-announced departure from Apple. Ive and Jobs’s sympatico is a well known, if perhaps mythologised, aspect of Western corporate history. From the weird bromance portrayed in the film Jobs with Ashton Kutcher, to the most touching illustration of this relationship in Ive’s eulogy for his departed friend after Jobs’s death, we are all aware of their partnership.