"Where will we find another one," Steve Wozniak asked of the man he co-founded Apple with 35 years ago.
Jobs is among a handful of people who have built companies that both reinvent industries and change the wider world. Here in the US Thomas Edison and Henry Ford are others. Wozniak added that no one could have predicted the success of Apple, which he and Jobs established in a garage in Los Altos, California, at a time of great political and economic uncertainty.
America was grappling with inflation in the wake of the oil shock and Britain was turning to the International Monetary Fund. The economic and political challenges faced by most countries today means that Wozniak won't be the only person asking the question.
The White House releases a policy initiative most months trumpeting innovation. And this is what George Osborne, the Chancellor, had to say to the Tory Party Conference this week: "I want Britain to be the home of the greatest scientists, the greatest engineers, the greatest businesses – a land of innovators."
This is what Jobs told Fortune magazine about innovation in 1998, just a year after he rejoined Apple as chief executive and when the company was still facing severe difficulties.
“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”
Governments can, of course, craft policies that either help or hinder the emergence of people like Jobs. But his sad passing is both a reminder that you can't manufacture what Jobs had and that the world is in desperate need of his successors.
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