On Wednesday, October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs co-founder of Apple, Inc. and “the ultimate key man”, died at the age of 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was an absolute genius and the “guru” behind Apple’s remarkable run of innovative technological roll outs. It is not too much of a stretch to say that he single-handedly altered the way people interact with technology and changed the future of human behavior.
A Tribute to Steve Jobs
This post is written as a tribute to Steve Jobs. the ultimate key man, and all of his accomplishments. However, the story has significant implications for all companies that rely on a”key executive” or “Rainmaker” for their ultimate success. Apple’s future success will certainly be impacted by the loss of Jobs but they are a very large corporation and have lots of talent within the organization. Their challenge will be to continue to innovate and come up with new gadgets and applications for their dominant products like the iPhone, iPad and Mac.
What about your business?
Your company likely doesn’t have a key person with the impact that Steve Jobs had with Apple, but there is a strong chance that the loss of your CEO, top salesperson or marketer could be devastating to future success. Therefore, it should be a “no-brainer” to consider purchasing key man insurance on the lives of your top people.
Key man insurance is either life or disability insurance or both on the life of your “key people” and is purchased by the company for the benefit of the company. If you have key man insurance in-place and one of your key employees dies or is disabled, proceeds are payable to your company, usually tax-free, and can be used to hire a capable replacement or to buy time so that the company can be sold for a fair market value. For a company that relies upon a few key people for it’s ultimate success, key man insurance should be considered mandatory. Key man life and disability insurance is relatively inexpensive and provides maximum protection and valuable peace of mind to any business.
RIP “Steve Jobs 1955-2011”
