Steve Jobs, the exclusive autobiography, by Walter Isaacson, published by Hachette (Review Part Two)

After reviewing this book last month, I went back to reading key parts of it again, concerned that my review had not done full justice to such an excellent book about such an iconic figure. This is no longer a critical review of the book - I couldn’t praise it more highly - but more of a selection of messages that deserve further thought.

During my first review, I pointed out the dangers of trying to apply the actions and philosophies of someone who was by any standards a genius; for instance most companies would go bust if they followed his advice to ignore market research and, instead, look into the mirror each morning.  But there are messages that we can learn from, or at least think about, in the context of our own ‘genius-less’ companies.

These are my highlights for further thought:

Centralisation

Jobs did not believe in separate divisions with all the potential for sub-optimisation, particularly in the area of innovation.  He owed a lot of his success to being in personal control which he could only achieve with a tight centralised group.  This also allowed him to make very quick decisions when reallocating resources between projects.

Personal contact

It is highly ironical that Jobs, who did so much to help us communicate electronically, did not believe in electronic communication in the workplace.  He was against video conferences and the like; he wanted people around him, brainstorming, arguing, bouncing ideas off each other.  He believed in the old fashioned virtues of ‘management by walking around’, keeping people on their toes, questioning and challenging what they were doing.  In many ways he was an old fashioned manager.

Importance of buildings

This is another irony.  While others talk about remote working and hot-desking, Jobs was obsessive about the importance of the building to work happiness and success.  This was originally in the context of Pixar and Apple’s offices, later in the context of Apple’s retail stores.  He was personally involved in every detail of building planning, which most CEOs would delegate to specialists and lower level managers.

Perfectionism

This was not only apparent in his obsession with buildings, but in every aspect of his work that involved design.  He was even obsessed with what a product looked like in areas that could not be seen by the customer, for instance the inside of a PC.  This obsession would extend to holding back development if there was something he was not happy with, even if this meant the team working all night to catch up.  This was one of many examples of his refusal to compromise and accept second best.

Simplicity

This obsession did not mean that the products became more complex, usually his perfectionism was about eliminating complexity, for instance cutting out a button on a PC or reducing the steps in the logging-off  process. He saw that the customer wanted simplicity and this became his obsession too.  He made Apple the perfect example of how high customer perceived quality leads to high return on investment.
 

A-list people

One of the many negative aspects of his behaviour was his division of people into ‘heroes or bozoes’, with very few in-between.  But beneath this unpleasantly black and white behaviour was a view that success depended on getting and keeping ‘great people’.  Either intentionally or sub-consciously, he was unkind and judgmental about those he did not rate - many of whom left - but totally different with those he saw as the heroes essential for future success.  In them he created a high level of loyalty which ensured that they were not lured away to the competition.

Selection

He believed that his success was partly around the ability to say no to many projects and yes to a few, and then to back the chosen few with all the resources necessary to deliver.  This is another example of where it helps to be a genius, most of us would follow the same philosophy but fail to back the winners!


Although he backed winners, he was also very flexible as projects developed.  For example he saw the opportunity to develop iTunes to link with the iPod and find a way of making the downloading of music legal, while making a huge amount of money for Apple at the same time.

Product Focus

To Steve Jobs, the product was everything; he didn’t like talking about anything but how to make a great product that would wow the customer.  And he didn’t need to ask the customers what they wanted because he believed that they didn’t know what was possible.   This approach is valid - indeed necessary - where radical or disruptive innovation is taking place.  When you are dealing with incremental innovation, the argument is less compelling.

Most of the above would not work in other businesses without the genius factor.  But we can at least use the experience of this brilliant man to question what we do and whether we can challenge conventional wisdom in the same way as Jobs did throughout his career.

I strongly recommend you read the book if you haven’t done so already.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steve-Jobs-Exclusive-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1408703742