Slashdot Mirror
Inside Steve's Brain
cgjherr writes "There are management insights to be learned from Steve Jobs? You're nuts. The only things you can learn from Jobs is how to drive people nuts. Or at least, that's what I thought up until I read 'Inside Steve's Brain.' Turns out, there are things to learn from Steve's obsessive perfectionism. Certainly I wouldn't copy every aspect of Jobs' management style. Doing that will likely get you fired, or at least reprimanded, in most companies. But there is some stuff to be learned from how Jobs designs products and analyses the market, and that's the view that Leander Kahney gives us access to." Keep reading for the rest of Jack's review.
Inside Steve's Brain
author
Leander Kahney
pages
304
publisher
Portfolio
rating
10
reviewer
Jack Herrington
ISBN
1591841984
summary
A look inside Steve Jobs' management style at Apple and Pixar
Chapter one covers in some detail Jobs and his relationship with Apple, both before he left and after he came back. He talks about exactly what steps Steve took to revive the company and restore the morale of the employees. As with all of the chapters it ends with a summary of what Leander thinks are the takeaways from each of the anecdotes.
Chapters two and three; Despotism and Perfectionism, talk about the two traits that most often associated with Steve. In Despotism Leander offers some stories about just how in control Steve is of every aspect of development at Apple. And Perfectionism, well, that's self explanatory. Though you'll probably find some things you don't know about exactly where Jobs gets his design and style influences.
Chapter four and five, Elitism and Passion, dig into how Jobs cultivates that magical Apple touch. He works his people inside the company and inculcates a sense of pride and perfectionism in the Apple brand. And he works the customer base through innovative advertising that promotes the ideals and the brand, even when the product was inferior when he first took over. In the short Passion chapter Leander talks about how he builds a wider sense of world changing responsibility in the company and through his products.
The sixth chapter, Inventive Spirit, cite several examples of how Jobs used his relentless management style to refine products, and most interestingly the Apple Store. He went so far as to develop a prototype store in warehouse at the edge of the Apple campus, and how he was willing to completely scrap the design of the store when it wasn't exactly right, costing him months of time.
The seventh chapter provides a complete case study on the development of the iPod and Jobs' role in that effort. It's intriguing to see how, while there had been MP3 players in the market already, Steve and his team were able to stand back and look at the larger picture of the iPod in it's complete product ecology.
The final chapter, the Whole Widget, covers what I think is the most important lesson to be learned from Apple; that they take care of the entire product cycle. Where other vendors take care of just one piece, the hardware, the software, the network, Apple takes care of everything. If there is a problem with an Apple product you take it to the Apple store and they fix it.
Leander Kahney is the same guy who wrote "The Cult of Mac" and "The Cult of iPod". He knows his way around Apple. He has a clear grasp of the history of Apple in the large and the evolution of their key products. His insights prove that he also has good working relationship with some of the people on the ground in Apple.
There are certainly some interesting anecdotes about Steve in this book. But it would be a mistake to look at the book as just some psychoanalysis of one man. Steve doesn't make all of the products himself. The developer and designers at Apple do. It's the culture of the company that Jobs' controls, but the people who work there are motivated by it and produce within it. What you really learn here is just how passionate these folks are about finely tuning everything about their products, their services, the whole deal. It's inspiring.
You can purchase Inside Steve's Brain from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Chapters two and three; Despotism and Perfectionism, talk about the two traits that most often associated with Steve. In Despotism Leander offers some stories about just how in control Steve is of every aspect of development at Apple. And Perfectionism, well, that's self explanatory. Though you'll probably find some things you don't know about exactly where Jobs gets his design and style influences.
Chapter four and five, Elitism and Passion, dig into how Jobs cultivates that magical Apple touch. He works his people inside the company and inculcates a sense of pride and perfectionism in the Apple brand. And he works the customer base through innovative advertising that promotes the ideals and the brand, even when the product was inferior when he first took over. In the short Passion chapter Leander talks about how he builds a wider sense of world changing responsibility in the company and through his products.
The sixth chapter, Inventive Spirit, cite several examples of how Jobs used his relentless management style to refine products, and most interestingly the Apple Store. He went so far as to develop a prototype store in warehouse at the edge of the Apple campus, and how he was willing to completely scrap the design of the store when it wasn't exactly right, costing him months of time.
The seventh chapter provides a complete case study on the development of the iPod and Jobs' role in that effort. It's intriguing to see how, while there had been MP3 players in the market already, Steve and his team were able to stand back and look at the larger picture of the iPod in it's complete product ecology.
The final chapter, the Whole Widget, covers what I think is the most important lesson to be learned from Apple; that they take care of the entire product cycle. Where other vendors take care of just one piece, the hardware, the software, the network, Apple takes care of everything. If there is a problem with an Apple product you take it to the Apple store and they fix it.
Leander Kahney is the same guy who wrote "The Cult of Mac" and "The Cult of iPod". He knows his way around Apple. He has a clear grasp of the history of Apple in the large and the evolution of their key products. His insights prove that he also has good working relationship with some of the people on the ground in Apple.
There are certainly some interesting anecdotes about Steve in this book. But it would be a mistake to look at the book as just some psychoanalysis of one man. Steve doesn't make all of the products himself. The developer and designers at Apple do. It's the culture of the company that Jobs' controls, but the people who work there are motivated by it and produce within it. What you really learn here is just how passionate these folks are about finely tuning everything about their products, their services, the whole deal. It's inspiring.
You can purchase Inside Steve's Brain from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
It's his unwillingness to share the means of resurrecting the victim between the killings that most deeply reflects his egomania.
Probably hasn't figured out how to commoditize the technique.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
The sixth chapter, Inventive Spirit, cite several examples of how Jobs used his relentless management style to refine products, and most interestingly the Apple Store. He went so far as to develop a prototype store in warehouse at the edge of the Apple campus, and how he was willing to completely scrap the design of the store when it wasn't exactly right, costing him months of time.
Anyone in retail that builds successful (or even ultimately unsuccessful) stores knows that building a full scale model is a huge help when building a new retail brand (or updating an older image).
Jobs was not a retail guy before the advent of Apple Store. Clearly, Jobs hired some pretty bright retail people to help pull it together. If nothing else, Job knows when he needs outside experts.
There are dozens of warehouses around the country that have partial or full retail stores within them. The fact that Apple Retail did the same is not a sign of Job's insanity or insight.
You can emulate being a despot. You can emulate being a perfectionist.
;).
;).
But can you emulate _taste_?
Say what you want about Steve Jobs. To me the big difference is Steve Jobs has _taste_.
If you work for him and he yells at you because the product you designed just has the wrong curves on the corners, or too many ugly screws visible, or it's "too klunky", deep down you know that it is likely that he is _right_. And so you respect that.
And when he finally tells you it is insanely great - though that might be an exaggeration, you at least know you've made something better than a Dell
In contrast if it were some other CEO screaming at you. What are the odds that CEO has taste?
From what I see a lot of CEOs can't even tell good from bad, so how are they going to tell "merely good" from "insanely great"?
It's like trying to emulate a top despotic perfectionist chef, but having no taste. You can yell at your kitchen staff all you want, good luck making something great.
I personally don't think you need a despot to produce a great product, but the people in charge of making it need to know the difference between good and great, and be allowed to make it great. Most bosses don't seem to care - they want to release the product ASAP.
BTW, I've never been at Apple nor do I know people there, but I wonder sometimes if working for Apple might be a bit like being married to an abusive spouse who can be very very good at times, insanely great even
I disagree whole heartedly, i used jobs as a role model when working on my MBA. My organizational behavior professor wrote me off as crazy.
Almost 12 years later, working in an architecture firm with deals with city and state bureaucracy and also some very cunning developers in a cyclical market your either good or your dead.
Yes being an ass hole is ill advised, being an ass hole with an uncanny ability to motivate employees to be productive and efficient and being able to make projects perform fiscally is undeniable.
Rome wasn't built buy polite MBA's who took there teams on ropes courses on a weekly basis it was built by unyielding eccentric assholes who made you think if you screwed up they would have your head.
I'm sure many of my own subordinates have plotted by demise but I usually pose it to them as follows. I can bring you donuts and call you buddy, or I can whip you into an outstanding worker. Which do you think will look better on you rresume?
...Rome wasn't built by MBAs at all. When Rome was built, the Romans were a very pragmatic people who probably wouldn't have wasted their time on a group of incompetent middle-men telling professional builders and engineers what to do.
Even the throw-away packaging somehow looks like someone really thought it through as to how it fits into the whole "product experience".
Yeah, I know a packaging engineer, and she loves Apple's stuff. Apple apparently wins packaging awards regularly.
I have been to Apple, have met Steve, and know a few folks there. The people I have met seem to like working there...a lot.
Over the years, I've been to countless businesses and there are definitely places where you can practically feel the "bad mojo" in the air. Others have a happy vibe, and a few were "ready for the Kool-Aid". Apple was NOT like that...didn't have a bunch of happy, shiny cult members running around. I did feel folks were very focused, which is not a bad thing to be.
As for Steve's _taste_, I'd say he has definite and somewhat immutable ideas about how things should look and feel and operate. Sometimes, it's good...others, maybe not.
I am my own gestalt.
I'm sure many of my own subordinates have plotted by demise but I usually pose it to them as follows. I can bring you donuts and call you buddy, or I can whip you into an outstanding worker. Which do you think will look better on you rresume?
That depends. If they fit into the all-whip all-the-time culture, they'll flourish. If not, it'll look worse, because their work will ultimately suffer under the tremendous amounts of stress induced by being left on pins and needles all the time. In this case, it'll look better if they acknowledge the management style wasn't effective and they left for somewhere else where they meshed with the culture better. Assuming they're competent, of course.
Honestly, what's all the hype?
I mean, I consider Steve Jobs my role model just as much as the next guy (even more probably) - but his success isn't that much of a secret.
a) For one, he still is personally involved in all new key product developements.
b) He won't stop short until he *personally* is 100% convinced that the product in developement has stopped sucking.
c) He builds products *he* wants.
d) If someone gets pissy with him or starts dragging his heels, he'll come down on him like a pile of bricks. And for good reasons too.
e) He surrounds himself with people who think and act the same. Aka "Smart people".
For example: I just took 45 minutes today to check out the current range of music players. Sony, Archos, TrekStore, you name it. People, the utter pieces of pure shit folks put out to sale for MP3 players nowadays is un-f*cking-believable. Believe it or not, the iPod line of music players is actually *really* among the top of the line. No replaceable battery and no OGG support be damned. There is not *one* f*cking player where you can see that some CEO with balls and brains actually took a look at the iPod and then simply built a player that was better. Where is the player that supports all formats, has a replaceable battery, better sound processing, is water-resistant and has firmware that just works?
Jobs is a lucky man in a lucky position, and he happens to have enough life and business experience not to screw it up. But aside from combining discipline, business-sense and geekdom, I don't see any secret about him that requires a book to uncover. It's only that most competitors are so über-stoopid that Apple is reaping the benefits right now.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
here's what I found at forbes: "Jobs is also among the most controversial figures in business. He oozes smug superiority, lacing his public comments with ridicule of Apple's rivals, which he casts as mediocre, evil, and-worst of all-lacking taste. No CEO is more wilful, or more brazen, at making his own rules, in ways both good and bad. And no CEO is more personally identified with-and controlling of-the day-to-day affairs of his business. Even now, Jobs views himself less as a mogul than as an artist, Apple's creator-in-chief. He has listed himself as "co-inventor" on 103 separate Apple patents, everything from the user interface for the iPod to the support system for the glass staircase used in Apple's dazzling retail stores."
"Jobs' personal abuses are also legend: He parks his Mercedes in handicapped spaces, periodically reduces subordinates to tears, and fires employees in angry tantrums. Yet many of his top deputies at Apple have worked with him for years, and even some of those who have departed say that although it's often brutal and Jobs hogs the credit, they've never done better work."
Here's some of my favorites quotations from Steve: "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 it." "It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."
for microsoft fanboys, Bill Gates is also very rude when communicating with his people, but both motivates their troops a whole lot as you can see in Bill Gates: how a geek changed the world, BBC Money Programme. Here is a quote from bill:  That's the dumbest idea I have ever heard  ;)
I'm gonna give this book a try, but I'm still waiting for a real book ON steve's insights though one that he will have personnaly oversees.
source: Article, THE TROUBLE WITH STEVE. By: Elkind, Peter, Burke, Doris, Fortune, 07385587, 3/17/2008, Vol. 157, Issue 5
Packaging?
I drank what? -- Socrates
Indeed, picture Apple without Jobs' contribution surviving until the 2000s whereas every other non-IBM PC clone died in a way or another. Right, that sounds impossible without Jobs' charisma, leadership and vision. And the Apple II only got Apple that far, Apple would have experienced a relatively quick death without the Macintosh, which I believe wouldn't have occurred if it wasn't for Jobs.
You just got troll'd!
none of apples products were industry firsts, NONE of them. the mp3 player, smart phone, slimeline laptop, even OSX's features - all of them existed well before apple jumped on the bandwagon. apple is at it's core a marketing machine, nothing more.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Going from memory here (oh oh...) I think there was a time very early in the original Apple computer's life when Jobs managed to get credit for components using nothing but force of personality. Then there were the sales, persuading retailers to stock the thing.
And didn't Jobs talk Wozniak into leaving HP and focusing on Apple?
All the technical genius in the world would never have resulted in Apple becoming more than a garage company, and all the personality and salesmanship in the world can't sell a non-existant product. It took the respective geniuses of both Wozniak and Jobs to get the company started.
If you're going to look inside someone's brain, than choose someone who's different to "the pack"...
How about looking into Linus Torvalds' brain to work out why someone would choose NOT to make themselves a billionaire from a brilliant idea?
How about looking into Stepheh Hawking's brain to understand how such a great intellect flourishes inside a "broken" body?
Steve's made his money by selling products that some people like because it makes them feel exclusive and good luck to him - but that's no different Jean Paul Gaultier, Enzo Ferrari or Anita Roddick.
So how about respecting those people who TRULY think differently rather than those who are clever enough to make others buy stuff that makes them feel differently.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
PHB alert!
Do you do that empowering their actualization of value added team playing in the channel?
Steve Jobs OTH is not a PHB but as he said an "artist that ships." I suspect he doesn't use business school jargon because he is too busy doing real things like making sure the interface is intuitive and polished BEFORE shipping unlike the Windows and Linux model of ship early, ship often, hack, hack, hack (in both the good and bad sense of hack BTW).
Tired of all the isms, don't exploit people as an employer, or a government, mmmmK?
It's one thing to be able to single-handedly manage a company through the creation of an iconic set of products, explode a brand onto the world scene, develop mad mindshare... But it's all just a flash in the pan if it dies when he leaves. Good leaders help others do good things. Great leaders make new leaders. If Apple dies again when Steve leaves, I will have lost some respect for his leadership abilities. If his legacy remains at Apple after his passing, I will openly hail him as not only one of the best business leaders, but one of the best leaders period that I've seen come through in the last hundred or so years.