Steve jobs died on Oct 5 this year. He was the man who co-founded Apple computers and recently made the company very successful with introduction of iPads, iPods and iPhones. It is mainly the last one, the iPhone that made him hugely famous and his company a big corporate success. His death was major international news and was covered by almost all the news media of the entire world even in the poorest countries where only a handful could lay their hands on one of his creations. His obituaries appeared in every newspaper and magazine including millions of blogs and twiterlogs. Many described his innovations as word changing. Even the most powerful man of our world the president of USA lamented, “The world has lost a visionary”
On Sept 27 this year Wilson Greatbatch died. He invented the first practicable cardiac pacemaker in 1960. The heart has a collection of specialised tissue that initiates regular and orderly contraction of its chambers to pump the blood around our body. In many patients this area does not work properly which leads to failure of the heart. In these patients, cardiac pacemaker is implanted to do the same job. Not only the pacemaker but also the long lasting lithium battery was also introduced by Greatbatch. Now more than half a million pacemakers are implanted each year. Greatbatch held more than 300 patents. The implantable pacemaker was cited as one of the 10 greatest engineering contributions to society. It has saved and continues to save lives of millions of heart patients. His obituaries only appeared in few news papers, which generously devoted a couple of inches in a hidden obscure column.
Job was a man of vision but only for the ever-wanting consumer society. His creations no doubt beautiful and efficient were but elegant and cool toys for rich. After everything is said and done, his company produced improved glamorised entertainment equipments. However it did make a lot of money and very fast. In 21st century, that is probably the benchmark not just of success but of greatness as well!
