Tuesday, April 26, 2011
iCon:Steve Jobs, the greatest second act in the history of business
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According to F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are no second acts in American life. Apparently he forgot to tell Steve Jobs. Jobs rose from an outcast high school electronics nerd to become the driving force behind Apple and avatar of the computer revolution, only to be driven from the company in failure and disgrace. Then, having endured repeated personal and professional disasters, he went on to make an indelible mark on the entertainment industry, reclaim the throne at Apple, and, with the extraordinary success of the iPod, regain his reputation as arguably the greatest innovator of the digital age.
Remember Incredibles , Monster Inc and all the toy story sequels which amassed a hug money world wide
Not to mention Ipod , Ipad and Mac series of computers
Apple had it all and he had already made the dent in the universe atleast thats what it look for some more years before another stefan Jobs come's in and take over this world
Nothing could deter this school dropout. He was there somewhere positioning his belief , moving with all the convictions he had in his heart and true evangelist.
He was a pirate in its true sense and what world once thought could end Job's era was just a beginning to this great man. His greatness was not in his characters but in his leadership to move a small team to conquer the world and make an History by itself
Thrice he got into a bankruptcy but then he is now the most charismatic figure you would see...that's steve job for you
He joined Apple , messed it up to an extent where he was thrown out of it and then he went on to believe Hardware is where his heart lies and design is what everyone thinks will stand out But then it was too late
IBM pc on one end and Microsoft on the other ripped apple apart and so does his next company which he founded when he was shown the doors from The apple..He called this company 'Next' and dreamt it to be the best seller in the PC market...But he misjudged everything from the starting. He misjudged customers and he even went to an extent where he thought he could sell those dumb computers by a spectacular design
Everything flopped. He had not learnt his lessons at least that's what world thought he could have ...But then , universe was just waiting to explode to his sheer enthusiasm and belief that he held for so long years
20 years of making is not a joke and holding on to his own convictions of proving his point is no way a sane act ..It was insane...Steve Jobs was bleeding with his loss making company , Next and he was looking out for a hope
He was looking out for another venture for a turn around and it was a sheer accident to Buy Pixer for few millions and turned that company to a billion dollar or may be more than that
Disney wanted it .So does every other great companies like Sony and others wanted Pixer. But it was Steve's remarkable power to turn around what seems impossible to possible which made apple ,Pixer and Next such great companies.
He gave un realistic demands , schedule to his world class engineers and everyone were working 18 hours a day and in the process broke all the history and here he was the king of Animation - Toy story which hit the market and he never turned back again..
He sold Next to Apple and went to sell iMac series to different market or rather he created a market for everyone to come and conquer...perhaps...but none could !!!
And not to forget Ipod which went head to head with Pixer sales and Now we are waiting , what next from Steve Jobs
The blue ocean strategy had just bugged him in the late 80's and he could never be failed ..
He had conquered everything from Hardware to Animation to Music to Technology but sadly couldn't be in a good health. the last I heard , he wanted to stay close to his family...Well that's the truth but he had made a dent already in the universe which no one could ever imagine .....
What set him apart could be seen in his sayings...read on and I am sure you will be excited !!!
"Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations."
"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me . Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful. that's what matters to me."
"We've gone through the operating system and looked at everything and asked how can we simplify this and make it more powerful at the same time."
"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected."
"I want to put a ding in the universe."
"I was worth over $1,000,000 when I was 23, and over $10,000,000 when I was 24, and over $100,000,000 when I was 25, and it wasn't that important because I never did it for the money."
"The Japanese have hit the shores like dead fish. They're just like dead fish washing up on the shores."
"Unfortunately, people are not rebelling against Microsoft. They don't know any better."
"Bill Gates'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger."
"The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products."
"My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better."
"We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them."
"Click. Boom. Amazing!"
"You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new."
"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
"Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?"
"A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets."
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."
"Recruiting is hard. It's just finding the needles in the haystack. You can't know enough in a one-hour interview.
So, in the end, it's ultimately based on your gut. How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they're challenged? I ask everybody that: 'Why are you here?' The answers themselves are not what you're looking for. It's the meta-data."
"We've had one of these before, when the dot-com bubble burst. What I told our company was that we were just going to invest our way through the downturn, that we weren't going to lay off people, that we'd taken a tremendous amount of effort to get them into Apple in the first place - the last thing we were going to do is lay them off."
"I mean, some people say, 'Oh, God, if [Jobs] got run over by a bus, Apple would be in trouble.' And, you know, I think it wouldn't be a party, but there are really capable people at Apple.
My job is to make the whole executive team good enough to be successors, so that's what I try to do."
"It's not about pop culture, and it's not about fooling people, and it's not about convincing people that they want something they don't. We figure out what we want. And I think we're pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That's what we get paid to do.
We just want to make great products. (I think he means "insanely great products!")"
"So when a good idea comes, you know, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, argue with people about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different people together to explore different aspects of it quietly, and, you know - just explore things."
"When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself.
They'll want to do what's best for Apple, not what's best for them, what's best for Steve, or anybody else. (this actually reiterates my oft-repeated mantra of "ubiquitous evangelism" in companies)"
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