It's been 16 months since Steve Jobs passed away, and even though Apple has released several new products and broken every sales record, for some of Steve Jobs' closest friends, his absence is still felt.
Apple chairman Art Levison was a close friend and collaborator of Steve Jobs and has been a member of Apple's board of directors since 2000. When asked what it's like to run the board now that Steve Jobs is gone, Levison had only one word, "weird.".
Levison, in an interview at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, talked about Jobs, Apple's profits, and what it's like to be on the board without Steve Jobs.
There's not a moment when I walk into a boardroom and I don't miss Steve. He was one of a kind. Steve Jobs was not what the public saw him as.
Art then talked about whether the board dictates the direction new products will take. According to him, while they see products 6 to 18 months before they are released, they don't really have any influence on the design or technical features.
The board of directors is not there to define product features. It is there to give its opinion. It is there as a resource. And finally, it is there to hire and fire the CEO
Although Apple has had a tough year with Tim Cook at the helm, things have been looking up lately, so the board of directors won't have much work to do for a while yet.
