Because of his legendary status as one of the co-founders of Apple -- and, later, as the savior who brought the company from the brink of catastrophe to a position of dominance -- Jobs had more power within Apple than just about any major CEO anywhere ever.

That power -- combined with an iron will, an incredibly keen intuition and hard-won wisdom about which ideas are likely to work -- is what made Jobs so valuable to Apple.

In any organization, the leaders have to contend with a multiplicity of competing directions, ideas and perspectives. One persuasive VP wants to go left. Another wants to go right. So the company stands still. Or launches products that go in both directions.

Apple benefited from Jobs being able to overrule anybody in the company based on nothing more than his intuition, which was often right. And even when he wasn't right, his authority at least made course corrections faster.

Here's an example: Apple had been developing the for years. After major arguments about materials, the team had decided to use reinforced plastic on the screens for the first version. That was the plan, and everybody spent more than a year working on it.