I wrote this blog when Steve Jobs announced his retirement from Apple. Tragically it has now become an eulogy to a great man. It’s worth repeating.

When Steve Jobs launched the iPad, he described it as ‘revolutionary’, ‘unbelievably great’, ‘extraordinary’ and ‘truly magical’. He could just as easily have been talking about himself. No one in our lifetime will have more impact on how we live, today and tomorrow.

Apple was a significant investor in a company I founded a while back. Jobs was a  real friend and long-time colleague of my CEO at that company. We’ve talked. But, I know Steve Jobs in precisely the same way that average folks typically know great folks. I know him; he doesn’t know me. He’s had a huge impact on my life. His life has been barely touched by all the technical folks, business partners, and customers he’s encountered, except for that fact that, en masse, we’ve embraced what he’s created and tried to imitate his mode of creation.

Our years are pockmarked with the milestones created by the passage of significant people. We care about ‘stars’ because they immerse us in the charisma we wish we had. We care about politicians and billionaires because they have the power. We care about inventors and innovators because they gift us with things that make our days better, easier, more fun. Who but Steve Jobs  can stake a huge claim on our caring in all three dimensions?

Charisma: When we came to California some twenty-five years ago, we settled in Cupertino, because that’s where Apple is. When I sat in a small auditorium and watched Jobs unveil the NeXT a few years later, his presentation changed the direction of my start-up at that time. When I listened over and over to Job’s amazing demonstrations, I absorbed a voice that helped me thru hundreds of sales calls. Steve Jobs is simply the greatest technology evangelist of all time, and the most charismatic business leader of our time.

Influence:  Fittingly, Apple recently became the world’s most valuable company. Between Apple and Pixar, Jobs has been boss to hundreds of thousands, the well spring of hundreds of start-ups, the creator of an eco-system that touches billions daily.

Innovation: You have a Steve Jobs device glued to your body, right?  As I look over at my wife, she’s listening to her iPod while typing on her iMac. I have my iPad in the computer bag and an iPhone in my pocket. If my math is right, the average person in the United States spends three hours a day interacting with one of Steve Jobs’ brain-children. Sure, Edison’s inventions may be even more numerous and fundamental. Still, how insanely remarkable that one mind could be the guiding light behind so many products that shape our days.

But, here’s a pretty safe prediction: The Jobs’ legacy won’t be in re-inventing technology demos or constructing the world’s most important company or even in the products he fathered. The insanely great thing is that he’s taught us the power of “The Experience”. You can’t have a business strategy any more without taking into account the Apple example. You can’t understand the present or future of industrial design without seeing the Apple Influence. You can’t be a competent product architect without absorbing the Apple lesson: drive your brand into every iota of a product’s ‘being’.

Jobs is ‘revolutionary’, ‘extraordinary’ and ‘magical’ for one reason. He has a purity of vision and commitment to his own aesthetic that made every device and every company he ever touched a personification of his values. Steve Jobs essentially re-invented the product as ‘an experience‘. His influence will be felt for a long, long time to come.

(Mark Angel is EVP and CTO, KANA)

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