Inside Steve’s brain
Steve Jobs, the founder and CEO of Apple Computers died on 5 October 2011, aged 56. This phenomenal man has no doubt assured his place in business history by being fired from his own company in 1985 (actually he resigned to avoid being fired).
Having started the business from his garage in 1976, in 1996 he returned to rescue the company from bankruptcy, and in ten years made the company bigger and better than it had ever been.
“He’s tripled Apple’s annual sales, doubled the Mac’s market share, and increased Apple’s stock 1300%. Apple is making more money and shipping more computers than ever before, thanks to a string of hit products – and one giant blockbuster”. This “blockbuster” was the iPod, introduced in October 2001.
In the years since then, “Jobs quickly turned the iPod from an expensive Mac-only music player that many people dismissed, into a global, multibillion-dollar industry that supports hundreds of accessory companies and supporting players”.
Jobs’ personal and management style was unique and legendary – so much so as to be regarded by some as totally bizarre. It forms the subject matter of this book, which doubles as a biography and as a business leadership manual. It “distils the principles that guide Jobs as he launches killer products, attracts fanatically loyal customers… a fascinating insight into one of the critical business and cultural figures of our time”.
Steve Jobs was a true product of the sixties generation. “A Buddhist and a pescadarian (a vegetarian who eats fish), he often walks barefoot to the local Whole Foods for fruit or a smoothie. Jobs was said to be a control freak extraordinaire. He was also a perfectionist, an elist, and a taskmaster to employees. By most accounts, Jobs was a borderline loony. He is portrayed as a basket case who fired people in elevators, manipulated partners, and took credit for others’ achievements. Recent biographies paint an unflattering portrait of a sociopath motivated by the basest desires – to control, to abuse, to dominate. Most books about Jobs are depressing reads. They’re dismissive, little more than catalogues of tantrum and abuse. No wonder he called them “hatchet jobs”. Where’s the genius?”
It appears therefore that this book is a bit more constructive than many others that have been written about Jobs. In fact, at the end of each chapter there is a summary entitled “Lessons from Steve.”
Each chapter discusses one of the key elements of the Apple business. So the final product is a quite engaging business philosophy for high technology companies, from design, engineering and manufacturing right through to marketing and retail sales. And all of it is totally unusual. Apple is one of the few high-tech companies left with complete vertical integration from beginning to end. This alone makes it one of the most remarkable companies of our time.
One of the most distinctive features of the company’s marketing is total secrecy about new product development to the extent that new consultants used fictional names when checking into hotels. Leaking news was a fireable offence. So when the time came for a new product release, which was always done at a media conference presented by Jobs himself, the hype was so great that the company got millions of dollars of free advertising.
Perhaps the introduction of Apple’s retail stores demonstrated the genius of the man, and of the company under his leadership. In fact, how any company could succeed in shopping mall consumer retailing as well as in engineering, design, software development etc. is a mystery because it defies all the standard business rules about “sticking to your core competence”. For a college dropout (like competitor Bill Gates) Jobs had a quite remarkable number of “core competencies”.
The whole concept of the Apple retail stores was different to any other retailing. Jobs decided that he wanted a “lifestyle” store where customers could get a taste of the Apple digital lifestyle – and hopefully leave with a machine. Apple chose high-end malls and trendy shopping districts, even though these would be hugely expensive.
The goal was to create an ownership experience for the customer. The store was to be “about the lifetime of the product, not the moment of the transaction. At many stores, the purchase ends the relationship with the store. At Apple stores, we like to think that’s where it begins.
” The stores were to be friendly and approachable, using natural materials such as wood, stone, glass and stainless steel. The prototype store was divided into four sections, each divided into “solution zones”. The stores were to be a public place, like a library. There would be unlimited access to internet computers and lots of in-store events. There were Apple Camps in the summer, which attracted thousands of school kids to take computer lessons.
The most important innovation was offering hands-on training and support at the Genius Bar. This was also where computers could be brought in for repairs, with a swift turnaround on repairs. These Genius Bars became the most distinctive and popular features of Apple’s stores.
Source: EngineerIT
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