My Reflections on Steve Jobs

There are already a ton of articles, interviews, videos and books on Steve Jobs. And I don't intend to add to that clutter. This blog is purely personal and will focus on only what I liked the best about him - break rules and conventions, when it matters.

But before I get into that, a few things about, when I got to know about him or Apple. Before 2010, I had heard a few mentions about Apple and Steve Jobs. At that point, I was blissfully unaware of an iPod or that an iPhone existed. No, No, I am an earthling only, but such was my naïveté and innocence. 

By chance, when I heard about the iPad introduction in 2010, it stuck a chord in me. Such was a device, that I wanted for a long time, a personal always on Reader. Slowly, my google searches on Steve Jobs and Apple grew, till I sucked everything online and in books about them. I have read about many business turnarounds, but Apple from 1997 to now, is the most fascinating, from close to bankruptcy to 130billion dollars+ cash reserves.

Break rules

Well, when I refer to rules here, they refer to best practices, safe and time tested procedures, guidelines, conventions etc. which develops in every field over long periods of time.  And not to principles like ethics, breaking law, breaking into your neighbours house etc. So, please don't read me wrongly, and blame me later.

Typically, most of us grow up with this list of dos and donts and prefer always the beaten path. These rules works on us so subconsciously that, we think we are different, when we are not. This practice becomes more acute, when we enter schools or graduate and becomes a disease for people with higher degrees. If you ever happen to be an expert in your field, then this is a chronic problem for you. Please contact your nearest doctor immediately.

That is why, breaking rules is easy for people with no degrees. Bless the souls, who don't pass out from colleges. Whether, they become thought leaders or not, they do not have any thought barriers.

Will just pick a few examples for illustration.

Well, after his return, Apple was losing cash. So, what will you do?  Cutting costs, trimming product lines are normal. This was done by cutting products from 20 to 4. But he did one more thing, which knocked me off. 

Apple released an ad, 'Think Different' and spent heavily on it. This ad was not even about Apple products or could earn revenue in any way. This ad, which echoed Apple's core value of innovation, was released for all who supported Apple through its thick and thin, their loyal fan base and employees. Why on earth would someone do that? Which business book or rule will talk about this?

This was to reassure all its stakeholders, mainly its loyal customer fan base, that Apple was back to its innovation mode. This was when, Apple was months away from bankruptcy. This actually bought Apple more time, till they came out with new products.

Next, in 2000, when the entire world was going online, they came out with their retail stores and hired Ron Jonson from Gap for this. The retail stores, was a way to control the last mile customer experience of purchase, support, advice etc. This was when Apple was a  failing computer company, with zero experience in retail. This was, when top retail companies, like Gateway were on their way down, Dell was getting everything online and when all jargon was about core competence.

Moreover, the retail stores had expensive materials,  their location was in high foot movement areas ( again expensive ), hardly 4 products to show off at that time, with retail staff incentivised on customer experience, rather than sales. Cutting costs out of bankruptcy is one thing, but innovating out of bankruptcy is a different ball game. 

I was equally surprised to know that Steve Jobs was replying to all sorts of customer issues and even calling up customers and talking to them. This was not a CEO's job. They are supposed to be 30000 feet thinkers, tinkering with the vision and mission statements of a company. This showed an amazing amount of passion for the products, which other CEOs talk about, but do not mean it. This made his inbox overflow with customer complaints, that Apple started using these as data points for their internal use(1). An excerpt below,

"Yeah," Jobs said. "I just wanted to apologize for your incredibly long wait. It's really nobody's fault. It's just one of those things."

"Yeah, I understand."

Then Jobs explained that he expedited the repair. "I also wanted to thank you for your support of Apple," Jobs said. "I see how much equipment you own. It really makes my day to see someone who enjoys our products so much and who supports us in the good times and bad"

And he really understood desire. How to kindle people's emotions, create a fan following, create blogs and news around every Apple move and make people wait in queues to buy a mobile phone. Apple's cult of secrecy about product launches, creates a so called Streisand effect. The less they talk, the more they are written about. Why do people give Apple free marketing space? When others pay for it, but don't get noticed.

And finally, he really understood, what is effective communication. Till a few years back, I was always under the impression, that having a great product is sufficient. The world will notice it. How naive, I was. It needs communication as a bridge to connect it to the real world. People have better things to do, until you make them notice it. 

When I refer to communication, here, I refer it in a border sense. It is not just about the presentations, demos, advertisements etc. But every consumer touch point. The product's every  point of interaction with the customer has to communicate its core. Be it the hardware, software, its packaging, its documentation, the products ecosystem, the presentations and demos in product launches, the customer ordering experience, customer support experience, all come together, to give the user an engaging experience. If the communication does not create an excited user, the dollars can go missing. I am not sure, if any other company, goes to such levels of vertical integration to get this right, when on the other hand, focusing on core competence, is the flavour of the day.

So, if you have got very inspired by now and looking for the next rule to break, just hold on a bit.

The other side of the untold story is that Apple is actually a disciplined company, following a set of rules and processes during product development, be it Apple new product process plan, or the rules of the road plan. And though they proclaim that customers do not know what they want, once a product is released, they take their feedback very seriously, in further iterations.

Now, the twist, is not just on breaking rules, but on knowing which rules are worth breaking.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few” 

― Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

References

1. http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/22/tech/innovation/jobs-excerpt-customer-service