Steve Jobs has become a phenomenon for his Leadership and vision in Apple. We can see lot of people have tried to draw management lessons from Steve Jobs leadership skill. But question comes to mind looking at Jobs aggressive and most of time abusive behavior is way of Leadership can be called best way of Management in today world. By Judging success of Apple Inc the answer will can be overwhelmingly “Yes”. But looking at negative aspect of those methods the definite answer can’t be all time positive. I got a chance to read the Biography of Steve Jobs which helps me to understand Jobs as a person and also his way of thinking. Also it help me to analyze all leadership aspect which Jobs possess and which will secure his place as one of the great entrepreneur and inventor of all time with great like Edison and Ford. My conclusion is that some aspect of leadership mantra can universally applied and some other can be based on environment and Organization culture. Also some aspect of his behavior I think should be avoided.
Some aspects of his Leadership which I think can be applied universally are as follow:
Look is not all about what customer see but also inside which customer do not: This is thought process which make Apple product just not ascetically good but also great. Steve Jobs not only emphasis the Desktop look to customer but also how cleanly they assemble inside. This mantra can be align to Japanese automaker philosophy where worker not only think from perceptive of end product but also each stage of assembly.
Cannibalism is good. If you don’t eat it someone else will: In other words be proactive rather than reactionary in innovation and don’t hesitate to kill your own product to gain market share in new product. Steve follows this in Apple. That why he is not waited for competitor to force Apple to move from ipod to iphone to ipad. Because he know if Apple don’t come with those product then someone else will come sooner than later and eat there pie. We can see many business cases where many time some company come with great product but can’t sustain next generation of product innovation due to scarce of killing there own cash cow product. Example like Kodak in photography, XEROX in hi-tech computers, Motorola in mobile, Sony is portable music.
Don’t look your products just from mechanical or Technical aspect only but also from Artistic sense: If you ask people what is the most important factor of Apple product, the first answer I am sure will come as it look. Take any apple product they always have great aesthetics look that make them apart from other competitor. Although it is very difficult to get great sense of aesthetics as Steve has been naturally gifted. This can be seen in ipad wheel navigation to iphone round corner design.
Focus, it is not important to yes to some of the things what we should do but more important to say No to most of other thing we should not do: When Steve Jobs join Apple again in 1997 he was surprise to see many product lines. He simply struck all but only few product offering. Rather than distributing energy and resource in many products Apple started concentrated only few. This really paid off with great product Apple produce on those segments. He also do same with product functionality for example removing unnecessary button in UI or simple drag and drop functionality rather complex menu in Application.
All aspect of product should seamlessly work: This is one of the Steve Jobs unique way of doing thing, he doesn’t think just of Product but the whole ecosystem of user experience. Hence often it is seen that Apple product are way ahead in term user experience from other vendor. When then with ipad they have not just come which a product which can just play music but the whole building block of seamless integration of integration with desktop through itune to having thousand of song library which can download and listen.
Concentrate on product not profit: How often we see Product launch big corporate with lot of promise fails. The reason is the critical decision of the Product is made by the people sitting in top often are bean counter (Accounting people) with very less understand of product. For them profit and cost reduction is more important than having great product. More often or not the end result is a louse output which differ greatly to what has been visualize. Apple moves to that mind when Steve was ousted in mid Eighty. The result Apple was in a verge of Bankruptcy by mid nineties with no worth product to mention.
Don’t loss on complicate and Jazzy presentation: Steve really becomes impatience when he see some deck of complicate presentation. Some of this can be attributed to his personality, but his believe that if a person knows what he talking then he really not required those jazzy ppt seems to be correct. How often we find our self napping in those colorful presentations where author make us loss on those complicate charts and figures.
Doesn’t expect Customer to tell what they want: How often we see company spend millions of money on customer survey to come up the next killer product and how often they fail. Steve belief it is not the customer who should tell want they want but rather company should develop their requirement. Steve never had done any market survey for any of his product.
Other concept which require to be applied Judiciary based on condition and environment
Always have with A player in Team : Don’t tolerate B player: This really help Apple to come up such a great product. Steve was famous for his intolerance to the extent of rudeness for louse team member. But this can’t become ultimate management mantra as ‘A’ player also required those type of challenges. Hence it is better to judge the work environment before insisting only ‘A’ player. For example doing some repetitive support job with ‘A’ team can impact the moral of team
Meet the people Face to Face: Steve prefer way of making decision is to have physical meeting with all concern team. How often we see that endless communication either in telecom or mail makes some decision so prolonged that the actual intend is loss. Steve always prefers to face to face discussion with his favorite white board and close the open point. But feasibility of this approach in today global world where team is dispersed across the globe is little doubtful.
Pushes the Team to do impossible by making them believe it is doable: It is also called reality distortion. Many great leader and warrior have done it in past history to achieve impossible task. Winston Churchill has done it for England in World War II. Steve Jobs was master of this and make his people achieve what they themself though was impossible. This approach will only work if your Team is really capable and their belief for you as a leader is unquestionable.
Some aspects of his Leadership which I think can be applied universally are as follow:
Look is not all about what customer see but also inside which customer do not: This is thought process which make Apple product just not ascetically good but also great. Steve Jobs not only emphasis the Desktop look to customer but also how cleanly they assemble inside. This mantra can be align to Japanese automaker philosophy where worker not only think from perceptive of end product but also each stage of assembly.
Cannibalism is good. If you don’t eat it someone else will: In other words be proactive rather than reactionary in innovation and don’t hesitate to kill your own product to gain market share in new product. Steve follows this in Apple. That why he is not waited for competitor to force Apple to move from ipod to iphone to ipad. Because he know if Apple don’t come with those product then someone else will come sooner than later and eat there pie. We can see many business cases where many time some company come with great product but can’t sustain next generation of product innovation due to scarce of killing there own cash cow product. Example like Kodak in photography, XEROX in hi-tech computers, Motorola in mobile, Sony is portable music.
Don’t look your products just from mechanical or Technical aspect only but also from Artistic sense: If you ask people what is the most important factor of Apple product, the first answer I am sure will come as it look. Take any apple product they always have great aesthetics look that make them apart from other competitor. Although it is very difficult to get great sense of aesthetics as Steve has been naturally gifted. This can be seen in ipad wheel navigation to iphone round corner design.
Focus, it is not important to yes to some of the things what we should do but more important to say No to most of other thing we should not do: When Steve Jobs join Apple again in 1997 he was surprise to see many product lines. He simply struck all but only few product offering. Rather than distributing energy and resource in many products Apple started concentrated only few. This really paid off with great product Apple produce on those segments. He also do same with product functionality for example removing unnecessary button in UI or simple drag and drop functionality rather complex menu in Application.
All aspect of product should seamlessly work: This is one of the Steve Jobs unique way of doing thing, he doesn’t think just of Product but the whole ecosystem of user experience. Hence often it is seen that Apple product are way ahead in term user experience from other vendor. When then with ipad they have not just come which a product which can just play music but the whole building block of seamless integration of integration with desktop through itune to having thousand of song library which can download and listen.
Concentrate on product not profit: How often we see Product launch big corporate with lot of promise fails. The reason is the critical decision of the Product is made by the people sitting in top often are bean counter (Accounting people) with very less understand of product. For them profit and cost reduction is more important than having great product. More often or not the end result is a louse output which differ greatly to what has been visualize. Apple moves to that mind when Steve was ousted in mid Eighty. The result Apple was in a verge of Bankruptcy by mid nineties with no worth product to mention.
Don’t loss on complicate and Jazzy presentation: Steve really becomes impatience when he see some deck of complicate presentation. Some of this can be attributed to his personality, but his believe that if a person knows what he talking then he really not required those jazzy ppt seems to be correct. How often we find our self napping in those colorful presentations where author make us loss on those complicate charts and figures.
Doesn’t expect Customer to tell what they want: How often we see company spend millions of money on customer survey to come up the next killer product and how often they fail. Steve belief it is not the customer who should tell want they want but rather company should develop their requirement. Steve never had done any market survey for any of his product.
Other concept which require to be applied Judiciary based on condition and environment
Always have with A player in Team : Don’t tolerate B player: This really help Apple to come up such a great product. Steve was famous for his intolerance to the extent of rudeness for louse team member. But this can’t become ultimate management mantra as ‘A’ player also required those type of challenges. Hence it is better to judge the work environment before insisting only ‘A’ player. For example doing some repetitive support job with ‘A’ team can impact the moral of team
Meet the people Face to Face: Steve prefer way of making decision is to have physical meeting with all concern team. How often we see that endless communication either in telecom or mail makes some decision so prolonged that the actual intend is loss. Steve always prefers to face to face discussion with his favorite white board and close the open point. But feasibility of this approach in today global world where team is dispersed across the globe is little doubtful.
Pushes the Team to do impossible by making them believe it is doable: It is also called reality distortion. Many great leader and warrior have done it in past history to achieve impossible task. Winston Churchill has done it for England in World War II. Steve Jobs was master of this and make his people achieve what they themself though was impossible. This approach will only work if your Team is really capable and their belief for you as a leader is unquestionable.
