I minimized Steve Jobs' personal role in Apple and the computer revolution of the last 30 years. I assumed he was simply a smart leader and happened to run a successful business. I knew there was a great deal of hype around him, but figured it was due to the same neuroses that make people camp out in front of Apple stores prior to major releases.
After having read the book, I now think he didn't receive enough credit. Steve Jobs was an amazing man. He deserved the acclaim he received in life and his story will be deserving of examination for many years to come.
I should point out, however, that I say all of this with as little positive emotion towards him as possible. At this moment I can't say if I hate him or not. I definitely hated him at times while reading the book, but now I think my emotions are more settled on acceptance and amazement.
In this biography Jobs is often mentioned talking about how he wanted to "make a dent in the universe." I accept that somehow, despite his shortcomings, he was able to do exactly that. I am amazed at exactly what he was able to accomplish. For example, two of the three companies Jobs spent his career in, Apple and Pixar, became more than just leaders in their industries. Both companies revolutionized the industries to which they belonged.
Apple
- Apple became the largest publicly traded company in the world in September, 2011. Apple's market capitalization currently exceeds $390B. Total sales in 2011 exceeded $100B and the company reported more than $115B in total assets.
- Apple's iTunes music service became the largest music vendor in the US in April, 2008. It then became the largest music vendor in the world a little more than a year later. The service currently sells billions of songs annually. In April, 2010 iTunes sold its 10 billionth song.
- One of Apple's retail stores located in NYC on 5th Avenue opened in May, 2006. It is the highest grossing retail store in all of New York City, estimated to have annual sales exceeding $350M. During its first year, foot traffic in the store exceeded 50k people per week. Apple has close to 400 such retail stores in multiple countries.
Pixar
- Pixar has produced 12 feature films, which grossed an average of $600M. This is by far the highest per-film gross of any studio.
- Toy Story 3 grossed over $1B worldwide. This makes it the highest grossing animated film of all time and the 7th highest grossing film (animated or not) of all time.
- Pixar films have been awarded 26 Academy Awards, 7 Golden Globes and 3 Grammy Awards.
- Disney purchased Pixar in 2006 for $7.4B. This purchase also put Pixar EVP John Lasseter in charge of the Walt Disney Animation Studios. So, while the studios were technically not merged, the creative control of all future Disney movies will filter through Pixar leadership.
After reading the biography, I don't think these accomplishments can be attributed to Steve Jobs being a brilliant businessperson or an exceptional leader of people. He was neither. There were aspects of his personality that made him at times completely awful on a personal level, but made him an inspirational leader. The biography doesn't define these characteristics in exactly this way, but they are repeated throughout his life in various ways.
1. He Defined His Enemies
Steve Jobs imagined a world where he alone was fighting for all that was good in the world, while powerful enemies conspired against him to keep humanity in darkness. The famous "1984" commercial was based on Jobs' view of the competing visions offered by IBM (evil) and Apple (good).
That he sincerely believed his company had a stronger philosophy is obviously not unusual for CEOs. Leaders believe in the visions they advocate. What was unique was his view of the competition. Steve Jobs seemed to be personally offended by his view of the vision offered by Apple's competitors (first IBM and eventually Microsoft).
Defining an enemy is an important part of group psychology. Steve Jobs was always good at drawing the line between "us" and "them." He was expert at pointing across that line and defining exactly who "they" were and the threat they represented.
This approach to the development of the Apple brand wasn't based on a marketing strategy, it was based on Jobs' personality. What made Steve Jobs an annoying know-it-all at a personal level were the same characteristics that allowed him to create world class corporate culture and brand loyalty. The fact that this individual characteristic had so many positive repercussions for the Apple organization was somewhat accidental. In other words, Jobs didn't act this way because he was thinking "this is exactly the culture we need at Apple to compete with the big players in technology." Jobs acted this way because this was his personality.
2. He Knew About Technology And Aesthetics
Steve Jobs was not a brilliant engineer like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Jobs did have enough technical knowledge, however, to be aware of things that would one day become possible. In addition, Jobs had very refined aesthetic sensibilities. This characteristic is not typical in people who know about computers today, but was rare for people who knew about computers in the 70s.
These two traits (technical knowledge and aesthetic tastes) gave Steve Jobs vision. He didn't always know exactly what his companies should do, but he knew the kinds of things they should focus on. Possibly due to his black/white view of the world, he was often able to describe what should be done by first describing what was wrong with the products being offered by the competition.
Jobs vision was so prescient that many of us take it for granted as being inevitable. It was not. For evidence, here are some examples of tablet computers being offered within the last 5 years before and after the release of the iPad.
The vision went beyond just appearance, it embodied everything a person experienced in relation to the device. In other words, he knew that a customer's relationship with a brand begins before they are using a product.
The relationship begins at advertising/marketing, then progresses to the purchasing experience, then moves to unwrapping and setting up the device, and ultimately begins to be influenced by the device itself.
Jobs knew that his competitors were ignoring all of these steps and as a result creating an unpleasant experience. By controlling how pleasing the packaging of a device was, for example, Apple could create a more lasting and positive relationship with its client.
The vision wouldn't have mattered, however, unless he was able to execute it with a team, which leads to the next characteristic.
3. He Was Sensitive But Cruel
When Jobs was a sophomore in high school, he was looking for a specific electronics component and eventually called Bill Hewlett (founder of HP) at home to try to find it. In those days, people didn't have unlisted phone numbers. Steve was charming enough over the phone that he was able to get a job at an HP plant nearby. Eventually, he would have to be put to work on the night shift. He refused to take baths or shower in those days, claiming his fruit-only diet prevented B.O. (it didn't). More problematic was the fact that he would get in arguments with anybody he worked with.
People who worked with Steve Jobs would describe two defining characteristics: black/white thinking and brutal insensitivity. People were either geniuses or dumbshits. Results were either the best in the world or shit.
But more interestingly, Jobs wasn't an unfeeling savant. He was capable of being sensitive. He chose to flatter and compliment some people, while he chose to mercilessly insult others until they were fired or their output met his expectations. He often had difficulties with his children or within his family, but many in the industry were shocked when he was able to convince major record labels to sign up with the iTunes music service.
His employees were often in fear of angering him or being on the wrong end of a bad mood, but they all relied on him to make the important deals.
At the end of the biography, there is a letter Jobs has written explaining some of the criticism he receives. He makes the comment that he always felt complete honesty was the "ante" one paid to be in the room. He wasn't worried about hurting feelings. He was worried about something else, something more of us should probably be focused on.
4. He Cared More About Results Than Money, Deadlines or Status
By the time he passed, Steve Jobs was a billionaire. Still, despite the success of Apple and Pixar, his wealth was dwarfed by other businessmen who were more shrewd with their investments. Jobs' estate is estimated around $8B. For comparison, Bill Gates is currently worth around $56B. Warren Buffett is worth around $50B.
In terms of lifestyle options of course, the difference between $7B and $50B is basically irrelevant. Despite Jobs' billionaire status, however, his home was almost devoid of furniture. He just couldn't find anything that was good enough.
This meticulous nature extended to his diet. Even from a young age, Jobs was very careful about what he ate. He was either only eating fruit, or fasting, or vegan, etc. When his cancer got worse, there were very few things he could eat.
By the time he passed, Steve Jobs was a billionaire. Still, despite the success of Apple and Pixar, his wealth was dwarfed by other businessmen who were more shrewd with their investments. Jobs' estate is estimated around $8B. For comparison, Bill Gates is currently worth around $56B. Warren Buffett is worth around $50B.
In terms of lifestyle options of course, the difference between $7B and $50B is basically irrelevant. Despite Jobs' billionaire status, however, his home was almost devoid of furniture. He just couldn't find anything that was good enough.
This meticulous nature extended to his diet. Even from a young age, Jobs was very careful about what he ate. He was either only eating fruit, or fasting, or vegan, etc. When his cancer got worse, there were very few things he could eat.
He just wasn't a very reasonable person. He didn't worry about the things most people worried about. He worried about tons of things nobody thought twice about.
For example, when Apple was first getting started, the typical computer design process worked like this:
- Specialists in each area (motherboard, memory, hard drive, power supply, etc.) are given specs which they design components to meet.
- All components are jammed together in a case that can hold them all.
- Product is completed.
Steve Jobs started at the end result and worked backward. He imagined what the device should feel like, what it should look like to interact with, after which he brutally enforced component specialists to conform to that end result.
Similarly, when new office buildings or Apple stores had to be built, Jobs was intimately involved in the design process. In a few cases, new technologies had to be developed to achieve the structural goal Jobs set out to achieve.
This approach was extremely expensive and could never have been justified financially, especially in the early years of the company. There was no evidence that customers cared about what a product looked like.
It is sometimes difficult to find evidence for things that are later revealed to be true. Jobs famously asked if it was necessary for Alexander Graham Bell to do market research before inventing the telephone. We all now know that it is really important if a smart phone is nice to look at and simple to use. The only reason we know this specific thing to be true is because Jobs knew it first and because he cared more about that than anybody else did.
A lot of talented people worked at Apple. Without them, Steve Jobs wouldn't be a household name. Without Steve Jobs, however, Apple never would have become anything at all. In a way, Apple was Steve Jobs. At a personal level, his characteristics were at best annoying, and at worst abhorrent. Those same characteristics, when applied to the talented people around him, served as the foundation for a world class organization.
After finishing the book, I found myself searching for videos of him in interviews or in his product demos. I think simply due to the fact that I can't figure him out. Everybody should watch his commencement address to the Stanford graduating class of 2005. There is so much to his character. He is simultaneously humble and pompous, smart and simple. He was at times the most amazing thing to happen to technology. At other times, he was a complete dumb-shit.
Steve Jobs passed away on October 5th last year at the age of 56 after having made an impressive dent in the universe.
No comments:
Post a Comment