Almost a year after his , it's a good time to look back at seven key moves Jobs made to right the Apple ship during his early days as iCEO.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive or complete study: Jobs made dozens of decisions a day. I don't include some of his most important decisions--for example, the ones to pursue the development of innovative new products such as the iMac, OS X, and the iPod. Instead, I'm thinking about the operational decisions that put his company on the track it still follows to this day.

The most important decision Steve Jobs made was to take control of Apple. It didn't have to be that way.

After the purchase of NeXT in late 1996, Apple's then-CEO brought Jobs in as a special advisor in January 1997. Jobs could have been content to simply provide advice and stay out of the way. Of course, that wasn't in his nature. Jobs quickly convinced Apple's board of directors to oust Amelio. It wasn't long before Jobs nominated himself as a potential replacement. The board agreed, and Jobs was back in control.