Evolution of Steve Jobs - excerpts from the new book Becoming Steve Jobs
Makradar Technologies / / December 19, 2019
Wunderkind. Bastard. Innovator. Tyrant. It's all about him. Even now, four years after Steve's death, it is difficult to read any story, describing his character without those jammed labels.
Known journalists Rick Tetzel and Brent Shlender covering Apple theme for Fortune, The Wall Street Journal and Fast Company, and repeatedly who got interviewed Jobs, cook book Becoming Steve Jobs, Which goes on sale March 24th. Judging by published the day before yesterday on the Fast Company fragment, it promises to be very interesting and unlike the already beyond biography of Steve.
Rick and Brent started to collect material for a book three years ago, but first close colleagues Steve refused to talk to them. First they spoke with people who parted with Jobs at some point in his life, often under difficult circumstances. However, even those people felt that he was not well understood by many. Susan Barnes was a financial manager for Mac team and CFO at NeXT Computer, but left the company, decided that Jobs spends wasted capital. Steve immediately struck her from life, remove the phone, email, and any mention of it. Despite this, she responds very emotional about it and still refers to him in the present tense, like many other people interviewed by Tetzel and Shlender.
"You read a book about him and can not understand how any one could agree to work for him. He was an amazing boss ", - said Susan.
Later, when the people from the inner circle, Jobs began meeting with Rick and Brent, they just blew his stereotype. Ed Ketmal, president of Pixar and perhaps most important mentor in Steve's life, he said that he constantly improved both in business decisions and in their own personal manner. "I look at Steve as a person who is constantly trying to change", - Ketmal said Jobs knew for 25 years.
The exclusive interview with John Ayvom, Tim Cook, Bill Gates, Bob Iger and other (including widow Steve Jobs Lorin Powell) surfaced plurality of images Steve dramatically different other. He was a man of unbridled thirst for knowledge, literally soaking them wherever possible. Steve preferred to talk and think about the future, not the past, so we have very few examples of how he assessed the successes and failures or acknowledge the lessons learned.
If you enter in a search on Amazon «Steve Jobs», you will get a whole heap of books with the same type names in the manner of "10 Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs", "66 Secrets of Steve Jobs" or "Recipes Steve's success Jobs ". In fact, no such recipe. Nor is there any truths about the design and simplicity that can change your company. Instead, there is a story of constant change. Evolution, the process which has been set up iPad, can not be compared with the artistic creation Apple II. Methods Steve management team of Apple in the 2000s have almost nothing to do with the management practices of the pirate crew that created the Mac.
The image of Steve in many ways different from the stereotypes created over the years. It clearly visible change.
In the "Steve" is not "I"
Despite its reputation as a tyrant during the second term of Steve Jobs at Apple, state executives was relatively stable. Becoming more mature and experienced, Steve has surrounded himself with strong and confident in leaders who feel comfortable arguing with him.
In the first ten years, Apple has been riven by internal conflicts, many of which were initiated or strengthened Steve. After his dismissal he was lucky to get into Pixar, where the corporate culture was highly developed thanks to Ed Ketmallu. At the animator, who grew up in the great manager for many years, it was a lot to learn. Ed spent Pixar through many difficult periods that preceded the emergence of "Toy Story", paving the way through the failure of the bad script, enough vivid characters and competition with Disney, then "monopoly" cartoon industry. And Steve has learned.
In 1997, when Jobs returned to Apple, most of the team leaders was new, including John Rubinstein in charge of hardware, Evie Tevanyan, was in charge of the software, and Tim Cook, who came from Compaq. Steve laid on them a huge commitment, but also provided a lot of freedom.
Fred Anderson recalls that Steve almost did not interfere in financial transactions: "It was not his forte, and he knew it." And Ron Johnson, former head of Apple's retail sales, points to problems of distribution of talent Jobs: "Steve was the best delegatorom, MDM I met in my life."
In disputes Jobs often shouted at his subordinates, but the best of its employees have adopted at once, you need not listen to the cry and the cries about Steve, to understand it.
The resurrection of Apple was a team effort and this fact is overlooked to the detriment of all.
Each of the members of the early team fulfilled its part of a great cause. Anderson completely revised the financial flows of the company, Cook built a robust global system supplies Tevanyan created an operating system, and Rubinstein oversaw stuffing Mac, iPod, and other products. Then came the designer by the name of Johnny Ive, who created the iMac, which was the first step towards the restoration of Apple. The same is said and Bill Gates: "This is really a first-class team, each of whose members is very steep in the business."
Steve listened to the opinion of its experts. After he fell in love with video editing in 1999, Apple created the iMovie, but the executive management Jobs convinced that digital music will be a better bet. He admitted that they were right, and a year later were released iTunes and iPod. Then Steve was against the third-party applications on the iPhone, but listening to his team, he gave the go-ahead for the creation of the App Store, allowing iPhone has made history.
Inch by inch, day by day
Steve always presents us with exciting new products from Apple II to the iPad. However, the process of creating these products vary greatly throughout his life. From Jobs' revolutionary he became a Jobs-inkrementalista.
In 1991, Brent held with Jobs and Gates joint interview in the home of Steve in Palo Alto, in which Gates argued that incrementalism - is what needs the computer industry. Referring to its corporate clients, he said: "All I need is a car that can ride on the existing streets. I'm on this evolutionary path. " Then Jobs had another purpose, he liked the transformation of both the Apple II and the Mac, something like that, he relied to do with a computer NeXT. "Subtlety is to balance incremental improvements with periodic large steps", - he said. "From time to time standard-bearer needs a good kick in the ass."
When Steve returned to Apple, he softened his approach. After the sale of NeXT in December 1996, he spent months pondering the main problems and Apple pondering whether he should return at all. In September of 1997, when he decided to return to full-time as CEO, he realized the full depth of the problems: too much product line, droopy employees, low stock price and a tiny fraction market. One, even the most revolutionary, the product can not be pulled out from the bottom of Apple.
Therefore, Steve opted for a strategy of gradual progress step by step. He launched a campaign Think Different, Apple aimed at raising the spirit among the employees of the company, launched the iMac, which was more dizaynersokoy ploy than engineering. Then Fred Anderson optimized to reduce financial costs and find more valuable personnel who replaced fired. It was necessary again zastvait society positively perceive Apple and be at the hearing.
Annual consumer electronics market demands made incrementalism necessity and still rising technological progress given the potential for innovative breakthroughs. "I have always believed that there are many things, which you reach at the end of the project", - said Jon Ive.
"There is the object, the actual product itself, but in addition it has also all that you have learned in the process of its creation. This knowledge is the same material, as the product, but they are even more valuable, because it is your future. "
Again and again, Apple has used in new products knowledge and experience gained in earlier projects. After creating the iTunes Company realized how pitiful are digital players and created iPod. Burned with a "music phone", which was made by Motorola, Apple knew how to be the iPhone and the fact that its production need to be addressed independently. And the iPhone experience has been moved to the iPad, completely rethink everything suschesvuet foundations of tablet computers.
In Jobs he had a talent for "synthesize" by which Apple greatly expanded its product line. iPod, iPhone, iPad - all of these products are new versions of devices with which the experiment, but failed other manufacturers.
Apple - an outlook
After Steve's death, many wondered how Apple will be able to stay on the wave of success without its charismatic leader. On this question there is an answer.
In 2008, Steve hired Joel Podolny from the Yale School of Management to create Apple University, an educational program for interns and new employees. It was created to tell the story of Apple and corporate values.
The Apple U lectures, question both the successes and failures of the company. All this is done for the reason that Steve did not want to leave behind the team leaders, who will copy it after the departure. Instead, he was going to entrust a company group of people who apply the same rigorous decision-making process, which he has used for the past 15 years. He wanted to leave the company, which will be united even without the charismatic leader at the center.
According to Steve, Cook was just the man who could move on Apple. The company now sells a total experience, made up of many complex parts: hardware, software, services, and network services. Cook copes with the domestication of difficult things, that he had already proved before switching to Apple products, contract manufacturing and modernizing supply chain. In truth, Cook could successfully manage many complex companies, which can not be said of Jobs.
- Can you imagine Steve as head of Microsoft?
- It would have been terrible - Gates laughed.
Cook, meanwhile, leading Apple to prosperity: during his leadership share price has doubled, and the number of units sold - has tripled. Yet it is very difficult to predict what will be the company through several years. A recent Apple stimulates growth of side branches that need processing power and all these possibilities have not been exhausted.
Whichever path is chosen, Tim and the local environment, they will have to apply the real lessons of Steve, not stereotypes talented enfant terrible. They will have to rely on instinct and did not look back. This is the main precepts of Jobs, who he left.
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