They tell me he calls in regularly. He talks to Tim, he talks to the top guys, he talks about the Apple stores,” Bajarin said. “But while he used to micromanage everything in ways that most CEOs would not, right down to issues with the company cafeteria, the big change with his latest leave is that there’s less micromanagement and more management of his executive team and the big-picture issues.
The execs at Apple know what Steve expects from them and they do it. They buy into the system and make the decisions necessary to get to where Steve wants them to be. Make no mistake though, Steve is still involved.