Steve Jobs, BMW & eBay
Here it is 14 years later.  The thing about that meeting, that strikes me, is that this is what Apple always was.  Steve wasn't bringing a purpose to Apple, he was reminding Apple employees of Apple's purpose.  Apple still has that purpose.<p>Every product cycle you see the blogs and the pundits speculating on what Apple will do, and exclaiming what Apple should do.  Just today I saw an article along the lines of "now that Steve's dead, here's the four things that Apple MUST DO!"   None of these people get it, and that's why they are always wrong.. and then after the fact, rather than learn from their errors, they start spinning <i>why</i> the iPhone 5 wasn't announced.  Anyone paying attention knows the tick-tock pattern Apple is following.<p>People seem to think that apple has become microsoft-- some monolithic entity, focused on having a monopoly and controlling everything.<p>I can assure you, controlling everything is the last thing Apple wants.  Apple is not proprietary.  Hell, Mac OS X is the most popular open sourced operating system on the planet.  The Safari web browser is just a thin shell around webkit.  Apple could have kept both closed and innovated on them, instead they innovate on them and give them away (and yet so called "open source" fans actually complain about this.)<p>What Apple does care about-- the singular purpose that drives them to make the decisions they make-- is the best user experience for their customers.<p>IF you ever wonder why Apple did or didn't do something, that's why.<p>And that didn't go away with Steve's passing.  Even in the years when Steve wasn't there, and the company suffered from bad management, they still operated in the Apple way, just not so effectively.  Now they have great management, and though Steve is no longer there, it's a lot easier to keep to their purpose...<p>Maybe this is the real reason Apple accumulated so much cash.  It will be a long time, and likely never, in a situation where outside investors and wall street can dictate the CEO position, and so Apple can operate without fear that people who don't get it can undermine its mission.<p>The real question, though, is why do so few people get it?  There's nothing really secret about all this... but I'm unaware of a single other company that operates in this manner.