Steve Jobs, founder
of Apple(NASDAQ:AAPL) and Pixar (NYSE:DIS) was an iconic manager with a zest for
taking on feats deemed impossible. He was able win over an entire planet. His
Eastern beliefs set him apart from Western leaders. With an intense focus on
what should be, he disrupted dysfunctional markets with simple elegant
replacements. His Eastern wisdom encouraged focus and to “Think Different,”
which may have meant to experience the moment.
The 10 Lessons of Steve
Jobs are excerpts from Walter Isaacson’s, “The Real Lessons of Steve Jobs,”
published in the Harvard Business Review, April 2012
(hbr.org/2012/04/the-real-leadership-lessons-of-steve-jobs/ar/1). Isaacson gives
14 lessons.
1. Simplify
For the iPod, Jobs’ Zen simplicity shinned
through when he eliminated the on/off button. The device gradually powered down,
and flashed on when reengaged. Jobs also developed complex systems with
integrated hardware and software so the user devices could be simple and focused
on a few tasks. An ecosystem—an iPod connected to a Mac connected to an iTunes
store—allowed for a division of labor. The MAC could handle system
administration, freeing the portable devices play music or show videos. Later,
Jobs aimed for mobile phones, and he would grab a competitor’s phone and rant
that features could not be navigated, including the address book. His iPhone did
not need a user’s manual. At the end of his career, Jobs rethought the
television industry, so people could click and watch what they wanted. He
dreamed up ways to make television simple and personal.
2. Control the
Experience
Apple took end-to-end responsibility for the user. From the
performance of the ARM microprocessor to the experience in an Apple Store,
everything was tightly linked. Part of Jobs’ compulsion for “the whole widget”
stemmed from his controlling personality. But it was also driven by his passion
for perfection. The strategy set Apple apart from competitors.
3.
Innovate
Innovators don’t have to be pioneers. With the original iMac,
Jobs focused on managing photos and videos, but not music. People were
downloading music and then burning their own CDs. The iMac’s drive couldn’t burn
CDs. Jobs said, “I thought we had missed it.” But instead of upgrading the
iMac’s CD drive, he created an integrated system that transformed the music
industry. The combination was iTunes, the iTunes Store, and the iPod, which
allowed users to buy, share, manage, store, and play music better than any other
way. After the iPod became a huge success, Jobs thought phone makers
might displace it by adding music in the handsets, so he preempted them with the
iPhone.
4. Ignore Reality
Jobs’ (in)famous ability to push the
impossible was dubbed his Reality Distortion Field, after an episode of Star
Trek in which aliens create an alternative reality through sheer will. An early
example was when Jobs was on the night shift at Atari and pushed Steve Wozniak
to create a game called Breakout. Woz said it would take months, but Jobs stared
at him and insisted he could do it in four days. Woz ended up doing it.5. Have
ConfidenceWith the iPhone, Jobs found plastic scratched easily and decided the
face had to be glass. He met with Wendell Weeks, CEO of Corning (NYSE:GLW), who
told him that Corning had developed a chemical process in the 1960s that led to
“Gorilla glass.” Jobs said he wanted a major shipment of Gorilla glass in six
months. Weeks said that Corning was not making the glass. “Don’t be afraid,”
Jobs replied. A stunned Weeks, who was unfamiliar with Jobs’ Reality Distortion
Field, tried to explain that a false sense of confidence would not trump
engineering challenges. Jobs didn’t accept that premise. He stared unblinking at
Weeks. “Yes, you can do it,” he said. “Get your mind around it. You can do it.”
Weeks recalls his astonishment and then called the managers of Corning’s
facility in Kentucky making LCD displays, and told them to convert immediately
to Gorilla glass full-time. “We did it in under six months.”
6. Rethink
Designs
Jobs personally spent time designing the jewel-like boxes for the
iPod and iPhone and listed himself on the patents. He believed that unpacking
was a ritual and heralded the glory of the product. For the iPhone, the initial
design had the screen surrounded by an aluminum case. The problem was that the
iPhone should have featured the display, not the case. The team changed it so
the glass display was the phone.
7. Team with Winners
Jobs’
rudeness was packaged neatly with the diametrically opposed push for
inspiration. He infused Apple employees a belief that they could accomplish
anything. His rough treatment reflected a desire to work with the best and
prevent “the bozo explosion,” in which managers are so polite that mediocre
people feel comfortable staying. Jobs said, “Maybe there’s a better way—a
gentlemen’s club where we all wear ties and speak in this Brahmin language and
velvet code words—but I don’t know that way, because I am middle-class from
California.”
8. Collaborate
Jobs believed creativity comes from
spontaneous meetings. “You run into someone, and ask what they’re doing, you say
‘Wow,’ and soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas.” The Pixar building’s
design promoted unplanned encounters around an atrium. He commented if a
building didn’t encourage innovation, you lose the magic sparked by
serendipity.
9. Vision + Details
Jobs’ passion was applied to
issues both large and small. Some CEOs are great at vision; others know that God
is in the details. In 2000 he came up with the grand vision that the personal
computer should become a hub for managing all of a user’s content, and got
Apple into personal-devices. In 2010 he came up with the successor strategy—the
hub would be consumed by the cloud—and Apple began building a huge server farm
to upload and sync content to personal devices.
10. Rebel
Jobs
asserted his counterculture personality in ads, proclaiming his hippie
beginnings. When he returned to Apple, Jobs helped write the text for the “Think
Different” ads: “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The
troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes…” If there was any doubt that,
consciously or not, he was describing himself, he dispelled it with the last
lines: “While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people
who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” In
his commencement address to Stanford, he admonished students to follow their own
dreams, and not to get caught up in living someone else’s life.
