deep insights from steve jobs biography

INSIGHTS FROM STEVE JOBS

Ideas provocateur: Andrew J. Waitman, CEO www.pythian.com

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2012 – Insights to Actions

How to build the next Apple without Steve Jobs

All Rights Reserved 2012 ©


A one-of-a-kind Individual A PERFECTIONIST

Not just about IQ, Not just about genius, Its also about…

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“How did Steve Jobs and Apple make a

dent in the Universe?”

“His ability to focus on the few things that count, get design right and co-op industry giants is remarkable…”

- Bill Gates


Apple’s Extreme Ascent

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Apple’s Market Value

The most valuable publicly traded company in the

world.

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Apple’s Market Value

The most valuable publicly traded company in the

world.

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  1950s – Cathode Ray Tubes •  1960s - Mainframes •  1970s - Semi-conductors •  1980s - Personal Computer •  1990s - Networking/Internet •  2000s - On-line / E-Commerce •  2010s - Mobile / Social •  2020s - Data Analytics?

IMPORTANCE OF

DISRUPTIVE MEGA TRENDS

“Playing in new spaces where innovation and scale opportunities are growing rapidly”

“New blue oceans with no whales, no sharks, few predators or parasites”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  At Apple 1975 - Steve Wozniak •  At Apple 1981 - Andy Hertzfeld/Burrell Smith •  At Apple 1984 - MAC Team •  At NeXT 1985 - Avie Tevanian •  At Pixar 1986 - John Lasseter •  At Apple 1998 - Tim Cook •  At Apple 1998 - Jonathan Ive •  At Apple 1998 - Jonathan Rubenstein •  At Apple 2000 - Ron Johnson (store) •  At Apple 2001 - Tony Fedell/ Jeff Robbin (iTunes)

The true Artists of the Business world

IMPORTANCE OF

OUTLIERS (EXTREMELY

GIFTED PEOPLE)

“One must be able to identify, attract and

retain the truly gifted people of the world”

“Outliers attract more outliers” 7


Lessons from Steve Jobs •  The decisions around which Leaders and

Managers are selected and promoted has more impact on the organization success than any other business decision of the CEO.

•  Steve Jobs successfully, consistently and continuously put the right people into the right roles. This is more art than science.

•  Culture emerges but starts from the top. The leadership team have an enormous impact on culture and capability of an organization.

•  It is not just about outlier technical talent but also outlier leadership talent.

IMPORTANCE OF

SELECTION &

PROMOTION

“Getting the right people into the right management and leadership positions drives successful culture”

“Success is about who you appoint, delegate, promote, empower” 8


Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Challenge matters to gifted outliers:

artists, designers, engineers, etc. •  Pushing to achieve the impossible

creates purpose and pride •  Keep pushing the envelope of the

possible •  Keep pushing the details to get

close to perfection •  Someone must “know” what

perfection looks like •  The pursuit of perfection is an end

in itself

IMPORTANCE OF

CHALLENGE

“What makes people achieve greater than

they thought possible?”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs

•  Credibility comes from outlier, extreme, and unusual success

•  Not only extreme, visible, and unusual success but also who gets credited with such success:

•  Steve Jobs vs Steve Wozniak •  Steve Jobs vs Jonathan Ive •  Steve Jobs vs John Lasseter

IMPORTANCE OF

Early @ Bats SUCCEEDING

“Those credited through money or fame with success gain additional and unfair advantage”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs

•  Every disruptive innovation has path dependency

•  All elements of innovation have timing dependencies: –  Technology –  Distribution –  User Experience –  Knowledge

IMPORTANCE OF

TIMING

“Getting major trends/technology/adoption right can be difference between leading or lagging”

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“Think Voice Recognition vs Mouse Tablet vs iPad

Think Stylus vs Touch Screen”


Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Enables speed to resources, expertise,

insights, experiments, talent •  Enables more experiments •  Enables longer experiments •  Tolerates more errors •  Enables ambitious scale decisions •  Enables risk appetite •  Attracts gifted outliers •  Reduces life’s mundane distractions •  Facilitates “brute force” competitive

strategy •  Facilitates “unfair” strategies:

•  Acquire competition/market share •  Undercut margins/lose money for years •  Control/acquire limited supplies •  Buy/control distribution

IMPORTANCE OF

MONEY

“Money alone is not enough…but in

combination with other attributes…it is critical

to success”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Success is an emergent condition of

a thousand decisions •  Success drives its own momentum •  Success mollifies a great deal of

conflict, dysfunction, internal strife and disagreement

•  Success allows/enables others to tolerate intolerable behavior

•  Success creates opportunity for future @ bats, & future success

•  Success attracts and reinforces •  Success leads to fame

IMPORTANCE OF

SUCCESS

“Success absorbs/tolerates all kinds of

dysfunction: Personality, Management, Internal

organization strife, Poor decision making,

Board of Directors”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Fame facilitates awareness •  Fame facilitates access •  Fame facilitates opportunities •  Fame facilitates better terms •  Fame facilitates “believers”/followers •  Fame facilitates tolerance of missteps and

misbehavior •  Fame facilitates no second guessing •  Fame attracts / drives / creates its own

fashion •  Fame facilitates information advantage •  Fame drives boldness •  Fame becomes its own celebrity or halo effect

–  Artists made iTunes/Apple so “cool”/hip…that… –  Artists then clambered to be in iPod Ads.

IMPORTANCE OF

FAME

“Fame is its own unique and unfair

advantage”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Simplicity is a goal in itself •  Simplicity is sometimes difficult •  Drive for simplicity everywhere in

business: –  Messaging –  Communication/presentations –  Products –  Components –  Suppliers –  Processes –  Contracts/Agreements

IMPORTANCE OF

SIMPLICITY

“Less is more”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Don’t be everything to everyone •  Be clear what you are and why you are

different •  What do you stand for that is different…

and people care about… and will know you uniquely…from anything else

•  What natural advantages do you have that reinforce your focus

•  Focus in all areas of decision making and strategy

–  Products –  Messaging –  Channels –  Suppliers

•  Focus and simplicity are self-reinforcing objectives

IMPORTANCE OF

FOCUS

“Focus reinforces simplicity”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Simplicity is a goal in itself •  Simplicity is difficult •  Reduce complexity in everything:

–  Messages –  Products –  Components –  Suppliers –  Process –  Contracts

IMPORTANCE OF

SIMPLICITY

“Less is more”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Aesthetic matters •  Simplicity matters •  Integration matters •  Design first then Engineering •  Design in everything

–  Product - Manufacturing –  Package –  Retail store

•  “Why of What” matters •  Innovation requires Artistry •  User experience matters •  Vision by a “single mind” is critical

to consistency and coherence

IMPORTANCE OF

DESIGN

“Must understand the essence of everything”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Design and Engineering needs to

iterate toward an ideal •  That ideal keeps shifting as

technology keeps improving •  Constant improvement and

innovation is necessary •  However, someone must have a

vision/capability of the judgment to decide when close to an ideal (eg.when to launch) and when to improve a product after launch

•  A passion for perfection can drive to success or insanity

IMPORTANCE OF

ITERATIVE DESIGN

“Perfect design or engineering comes only

after many, many iterations”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  First impressions matter •  People form an opinion about a

company, a product or service based on ‘signals’ that it conveys

•  People DO JUDGE a book by its cover

•  For customers or clients to ‘care’ the designer, engineer, company must also care.

•  You must understand the needs and desires of customers/clients as well or better than they do

IMPORTANCE OF

IMPUTE

“Those who care that people will care show

empathy toward wants, needs and desires”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Path dependency drives negative

or positive feedback •  Series of good decisions reinforced

through numerous positive feedback loops (profit, fame, success etc.)

•  Early poor decisions limit opportunity to adjust strategy later

IMPORTANCE OF

FEEDBACK

“Large and rapid market successes are often surprises even to the innovator”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Being timid gets you no where •  Always calling high does pay off

once in a while •  Demanding more sometimes works •  Being obnoxious has its benefits •  Extreme narcissism keeps you

focused •  Extreme behavior can be both

powerful and dysfunctional •  Being a pathological truth recreator

is audacious

IMPORTANCE OF

BEING AUDACIOUS

“Outrageous success

comes from outrageous people”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Doing something that you believe

in vs making money •  Motivation alignment during

collaboration •  Motivation misalignments on team

can be highly disruptive •  Steve Jobs vs Larry Elision •  A passion for perfection can make

a huge difference •  People want to believe in

something or someone

IMPORTANCE OF

VALUES

“What motivates people in the face of adversity will often determine whether they keep going”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Details always matter •  Details are what make big things

happen distinctly •  Does everyone and particularly the

CEO care about the details •  Details matter must be in the

culture •  Caring about the details requires

time, patience, caring and an eye for the details

IMPORTANCE OF

DETAILS

“Distinction comes from caring about the

details”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  During first @ bats is there the

best coaches, bats/balls, training etc?

•  Who do you get introduced to first? Who do you gravitate to? Who do you select? Who is in your sphere of opportunity?

•  McKenna / Leonardo Da Vinci “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”

•  Silicon Valley’s density of extreme talent is unparalleled

IMPORTANCE OF

PROXIMITY

“If you are going to change the world it will take effort

and contribution from numerous world class

people, suppliers, service providers and advisors”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  To attract gifted people you must

“sell” them on a “different” future •  To achieve unusual or favorable

supplier terms you must convince them its in their interest

•  To raise money you must convince investors that you have a path to the “promised land”

•  If you are trying to convince people of your ideas you must be compelling, charismatic and passionate (eg.crazy)

IMPORTANCE OF

SELLING FUTURES

“Great Sales People Can

Sell You The Future”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  When you rely on other companies

you put your vision of the future at risk

•  Control provides significant advantages for end-to-end user experience

•  The companies that control their eco-systems’s /customer experience / destiny are in a better position of making dramatic improvements/change in the industry

•  Adobe <à Apple

IMPORTANCE OF

CONTROL

“Not controlling your own destiny may mean

not having one”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  A single mind (Captain) who is capable of

clear, consistent and efficient decision making

•  Democracy is a terrible “outlier results” decision methodology

•  Groups of people generally revert to average, sub-optimal, self-biased, self-interested, and inconsistent decisions by selecting lower risk, lower cost and uninspired, incoherent business decisions

•  Great Boards do not interfere in great companies. They select the leader and help them lead to succeed with one clear vision and strategy.

IMPORTANCE OF

CLEAR & RAPID DECISIONS

“Two Capitan's on a Ship, two Chefs in a

Restaurant, two CEOs in a business has rarely ever been successful”

28 ONE-MIND DECISION MAKING DRIVES SUCCESS


Lessons from Steve Jobs •  The whole can only succeed when

the majority of decisions around the important elements are good, consistent and coherent

•  One element, attribute, variable or function decided well is not enough

•  All functional decisions must synchronize toward consistent “end-game” values, goals and objectives

•  “One mind” gains distinct advantages in achieving this

IMPORTANCE OF

SYSTEMIC DECISION MAKING

“ The whole can only succeed if all the

elements succeed with coherence”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Are the key, important and critical

decisions recognized and decided by the principals who have the right values, capability and insights?

•  In the pursuit of WOW is the right balance struck between “speed vs perfection” for all the key, important, critical decisions?

•  The “one mind” can help achieve great decisions but can bottleneck or slow decisions as company scales

IMPORTANCE OF

WHAT ARE THE CRITICAL

DECISIONS

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Out of one thousand ideas which

are the most important/valuable •  Which work in symphony with other

great ideas •  Which ideas out of the myriad of

ideas should be seized upon, improved and implemented?

•  The “one mind” is often better at processing, synthesizing and selecting for implementation the coherent set of GREAT ideas

IMPORTANCE OF

RECOGNIZING GREAT IDEAS

FROM GOOD IDEAS

“Everyone has ideas. Every day new ideas

arise. How to distinguish that which are great, from that which are merely

good?” 31


Lessons from Steve Jobs •  iPod, iPhone, iPAD, iTunes •  MacBook Air •  MacBook Pro •  iMac

•  Always out innovate your own products

•  Easier said than done

IMPORTANCE OF

KNOWING WHEN TO AND WHEN NOT TO CHANGE A WINNER

“What is working maintain until just before

it doesn’t”

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“Pace your innovation ahead of competition but not before customer frustration”


Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Product: iPod, iPhone, iPAD •  Supply Chain •  Manufacturing •  Promotion: Launch, Campaigns •  Distribution: iTunes, Apple Store •  Ecosystem: Application Dev •  Integration: Software, Hardware, E-

Commerce

IMPORTANCE OF

REINFORCING CLEVER STRATEGY

“Dramatic or extreme outlier success requires

broad, coherent & disruptive success”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  What the competition was doing

was observed and often derided by Steve Jobs but he never was preoccupied by competition

•  You will end up in incrementalism if you don’t ignore the competition.

•  Your strategy, differentiation, culture, philosophy, execution must stand unique and alone

IMPORTANCE OF

NOT GETTING PREOCCUPIED WITH

COMPETITION

“Rarely is competition worth watching. Focus primarily on your own, startegy, execution and

innovation. ”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Large organizations that become

divisionalized become balkanized •  Each entity works to its own values,

goals, cultures and priorities •  Apple was aligned under “one

mind” and co-operated functionaly or be obliterated by Steve’s ire

IMPORTANCE OF

THE ELIMINATION OF DIVISION

“ SONY had all the components and lost

the war”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Patterns are valuable and limited •  Unknown or misunderstood

contributor elements, variables, context will be missed, poorly understood or over-interpreted in any complex system analysis

•  Recognize correlation vs causality •  Every success path has random

elements--including timing—that contributed but were poorly understood a-priori

•  Hindsight contributes to a sense of false wisdom

IMPORTANCE OF

COMPLEXITY

“You can NOT deconstruct success

paths perfectly”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  The future is unknown. •  What ‘emerges’ from a thousand people

making a thousand decisions in a thousand days can be dramatic or dreary

•  Business is a complex system with a thousand constituents, a thousand variables and a thousand decisions resulting in an unpredictable & improbable outcome

•  The timing of who you meet and whether you “connect” and whether you or they decide to work together impacts your future outcome and that process is somewhat “random”

•  Decisions are often made for unintended, wrong or misguided reasons with unintended (both positive & negative) outcomes or consequences.

IMPORTANCE OF

SERENDIPITY or RANDOMNESS

“Fortune comes to those who don’t

count on it”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  The reliance on one individual to orchestrate,

organize, prioritize, authorize and drive a insanely great business is dangerous

•  The pantheon of truly great business artist/leaders is rather small:

–  Andrew Carnegie –  Henry Ford –  Sam Walton –  Steve Jobs –  Jeff Bezos

DANGERS OF

STEVE JOBS

“There are very very few gifted people who can

navigate perfectly the art of design, engineering, and

business”

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Lessons from Steve Jobs •  Because it takes a single mind to weigh the

known, the possible, the probable and the unknown. Groups can't do that. Only one mind can.

•  Making deals…ones that mattered….with Suppliers, Partners (think music), Industry Giants (Sony) was one of Steve Job's great talents. Why? Because he had fame, hustle and hutzpah. He understood often better than others how and when the one+one equalled five. He was aggressive, often obnoxious, and was a one man negotiating phenomena…on the important terms that mattered.

•  One can not know whether a deal between Apple and Twitter was in the cards, was important to either party or really mattered in the large scheme of success in both their businesses or whether if Steve Jobs had been around would the outcome have been different.

DANGERS WITH

STEVE JOBS GONE

Failure to get Twitter Deal by Apple because no longer

“ONE MIND”

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“Apple Talks With Twitter Said to End Without Investment”


Conclusion?

Success is rarely one person or one thing…

Causality is complex to understand and distil from context.

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In Steve Job’s & Apple’s case, he was absolutely necessary… but not alone.


How do you predict the future?

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…by creating it…..

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deep insights from steve jobs biography

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