04, Nov 2011

Though Apple’s founder Steve Jobs’s passing was definitely sad for the entire technology industry––for Silicon Valley and certainly for everyone who has personally experienced the man’s energy, creativity, and charisma––Apple seems to be focused on the road ahead.  The Los Angeles Times reports that an Apple team has been working on a top-secret project to create an executive training program called Apple University. Their objective?  To train people to think like Steve Jobs.

An anonymous Apple employee reported that Jobs proposed the creation of a corporate university––a critical part of Apple’s future. “The idea was to take what is unique about Apple and create a forum that can impart that DNA to future generations of its employees,” the employee said. “No other company has a university charged with probing so deeply into the roots of what makes the company so successful.”  Reports also suggest that––though the curriculum is still under wraps––Jobs himself oversaw the creation of the “university-caliber courses.”

Though Apple has refused to comment on the possibility of creating any such university, it is reported that in 2008 Jobs personally recruited Joel Podolny, the dean of Yale Business School, to help Apple internalize the thoughts of its visionary founder to prepare for the day when he’s not around anymore. Apple analyst Tim Bajarin explains, “it became pretty clear that Apple needed a set of educational materials so that Apple employees could learn to think and make decisions as if they were Steve Jobs.”

From his vision to his obsession with good design to his emphasis on creative brainstorming–– Steve Job’s success can be attributed to several of his indigenous qualities.  And many of his success-driven ideologies don’t actually concur with the curriculum of traditional colleges or professional schools—fittingly, since Jobs himself dropped out of college after freshman year. Therefore it is only appropriate for Apple to launch a university in honor of Jobs for carrying forward the legacy left behind by the man who made technology that made people sit up and take notice.

“I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it.” – Steve Jobs.