inside steve mind

www.geniustribes.com

“Design is a funny word.

Some people think design means

how it looks. But of course, if you

dig deeper, it’s really how

it works.”

“As technology becomes

more complex, Apple’s core

strength of knowing how to make

very sophisticated technology

comprehensible to mere mortals is

in even greater demand.”

“I always considered part

of my job was to keep the quality

level of people in the organization

I work with very high ...”

“… That’s what I consider one

of the few things I actually can

contribute individually to—to really

try to instill in the organization the

goal of having ‘A’ players. In

everything I’ve done it really pays

to go after the best people

in the world.”

“Many times in an [job] interview

I will purposely upset someone: I’ll

criticize their prior work. I’ll do

my homework, find out what they

worked on, and say, ‘God, that

really turned out to be a bomb.

That really turned out to be a

bozo product. Why did you

work on that?’ ...”

“… I want to see what people

are like under pressure. I want to

see if they just fold or if they have

firm conviction, belief, and pride

in what they did.”

“Innovation has nothing to do

with how many R&D dollars you

have. When Apple came up with

the Mac, IBM was spending at least

100 times more on R&D. It’s not

about money. It’s about the people

you have, how you’re led, and

how much you get.”

“The [innovation] system is

that there is no system. That’s

doesn’t mean we don’t have

process. Apple is a very disciplined

company, and we have great

processes. But that’s not what

it’s about. Process makes you

more efficient.”

“Innovation comes from

people meeting up in the hallways

or calling each other at 10:30 at

night with a new idea, or because

they realized something that shoots

holes in how we’ve been thinking

about a problem ...”

“… It’s ad hoc meetings of six

people called by someone who

thinks he has figured out the

coolest new thing ever and

who wants to know what other

people think of his idea.”

“You need a product-oriented

culture, even in a technology

company. Lots of companies have

tons of great engineers and smart

people. But ultimately, there needs

to be some gravitational force that

pulls it all together.”

“The older I get, the more I’m

convinced that motives make so

much difference. HP’s primary goal

was to make great products. And

our primary goal here is to make

the world’s best PCs—not to be

the biggest or the richest.”

16