KOMPAS.com - The day after Steve Jobs's death, Apple Inc.'s stock price barely budged. It was an outcome nearly a decade in the making.

Since at least 2004, Mr. Jobs and Apple's board of directors have been putting into place a plan to maintain the legacy of his management style and his decision making, according to former Apple employees.

Among Mr. Jobs and the board's moves: slowing the flow of departing executives to build a bench of talent and installing programs ranging from annual retreats for the company's “top 100“ managers to an in-house “university“ that codified Mr. Jobs's work over the years into case studies.

By the time Mr. Jobs died on Wednesday, much of the infrastructure and institutional knowledge was in place for Apple to continue on -- despite fears that a company that depended so acutely on its co-founder's vision and personality would immediately flail without him.