Leading Apple With Steve Jobs: Management Lessons From a Controversial Genius

Leading Apple With Steve Jobs: Management Lessons From a Controversial Genius

Released September 2012
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781118379523

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Book description

A former Senior VP of Apple shares how Steve Jobs motivated people to do the best work of their lives

Jay Elliot was hired personally by Steve Jobs, just in time to accompany him on the last of his historic visits to Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, the visits that changed the course of computing. As Senior VP of Apple, Jay served as Steve's right-hand man and trouble-shooter, overseeing all corporate operations and business planning, as well as software development and HR. In Leading Apple with Steve Jobs, Jay details how Steve managed and motivated his people—and what every manager can learn from Jobs about motivating people to do the best work of their lives.

Steve Jobs used the phrase "Pirates! Not the Navy" as a rallying cry—a metaphor to "Think Different." In the days of developing the Macintosh, it became a four-word mission statement. It expresses the heart of Apple and Steve. The management principles that grew out of that statement form the backbone of this book.

  • Explains how to find talented people who will understand your objectives and be able to make a contribution to that effort

  • Lists traits that can determine whether a person will be so committed to the vision that they will provide their own motivation

  • Explains how to ensure that your employees hold an allegiance to the captain and to his/her shipmates, and also possess the ability to come up with original, unique ways to approach a problem, and be self-guided with a strong sense of direction

Leading Apple with Steve Jobs will shift your thought paradigm and inspire you to assemble and lead innovative teams.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Preface: Why I Wrote This Book
  7. Chronology
  8. Chapter 1: A Ding in the Universe
    1. Rating Steve as a Leader
    2. Vision and Passion Are More Important than Credentials
    3. Vision Must Be Based on Your Customers
    4. Vision and Your Vendors
    5. Acquiring a Company Can Water Down Your Vision and Culture
    6. Communicating the Vision
    7. The Way It’s Made Can Be a Part of the Vision
    8. Giving Your Team a Special Identity
    9. The Magical World of the Pirate Life
    10. Flying a Flag
    11. Vision for Innovation
  9. Chapter 2: Steve’s Business Philosophy and Values
    1. Recognizing the Need for a Values Statement
    2. The Worldwide Culture
    3. The Lack of Secrecy in the Early Apple
    4. A Background in Business Values
    5. Companies with Values that Steve Admired
    6. Losing Ground
    7. The Head Pirate Returns
    8. Building on the Values
    9. Steve’s Most Important Value: Attention to Details
    10. Power of the User Culture
  10. Chapter 3: People Who Know More than You
    1. The Role of the Team Leaders
    2. Cross-Pollination and Monday Meetings
    3. Steve and the Use of Language
    4. Dangers of the Middle Management Fear-of-Change Syndrome
    5. Lessons from a Mutiny
    6. Thinking of Everything
    7. The Challenge of Finding New Team Leaders
  11. Chapter 4: Steve’s Secrets for Selecting Great People
    1. Wisdom Required
    2. Your First Ten People
    3. Project Groups
    4. A Process for Hiring
    5. Talented People Know Other Talented People
    6. An Updated Version
    7. Choosing People Who Can Adapt to the Style of the Leader
    8. Special Hiring: Another Example
  12. Chapter 5: Unusual Interviewing Techniques
    1. Résumé? Don’t Bother
    2. “Let Me Tell You Where We’re Going”
    3. Leaving the Door Open
    4. Will This Person Be Able to Share Bad News?
    5. “Have You Ever Been Fired?”
    6. Looking for a Reaction
    7. Judging the Ability to Contribute
    8. The Below-Decks Crew Members
    9. On Not Using Recruiters
    10. All Hands on Deck
  13. Chapter 6: To Protect Innovation, Create a Company within a Company
    1. Taking Over
    2. Reviving a Radical Idea: A Virtual Company within a Company
    3. Creating a Skunk Works
    4. Being Intrapreneurial
    5. If All of Apple Had Become a Skunk Works
    6. The Quest for Autonomy
    7. Off Course: An Argument with Peter Drucker
    8. Checklist: Is Your Organization Pirates . . . or The Navy?
    9. An Effective Structure Can Survive a Change of Command
  14. Chapter 7: “No More Crap Products”
    1. No More Crap Products
    2. Seeing into the Future
    3. What Customers and Competitors Can and Can’t Tell You
    4. Don’t Just Enter a Market, Build a Market
    5. Becoming Your Own Best Customer
    6. Facing Up to Mistakes
    7. Steve Describes His Product-Creation Process
    8. The Product Lineup: Saying No
    9. Learning from Failure
  15. Chapter 8: More on Product Strategy
    1. Product Development Decisions
    2. Setting Standards: Design
    3. Setting Standards: Simplicity
    4. Setting Standards: Secrecy
    5. Maintaining Control of Quality
    6. Facing Up to Criticism
    7. Steve’s Legacy: The Power of the User Interface
    8. Looking Ahead
  16. Chapter 9: Entrepreneurial Confidence and High Standards
    1. Swagger
    2. An Enthusiastic Leader
    3. The Power of No
    4. The Virtues of Small Teams
    5. A Leadership Challenge
    6. Evangelizing Innovation
  17. Chapter 10: Employee Owners
    1. Stakeholders
    2. Ownership
    3. It’s the “Thanks”
    4. T-Shirts, T-Shirts, T-Shirts
    5. Let’s Party
    6. Continuing the Tradition
  18. Chapter 11: The Apple Workplace
    1. Apple University
    2. The First Day
    3. The Buddy System
    4. Creating an Innovative Organization within a Navy Company
    5. Opting Out
    6. The Workplace
    7. One Infinite Loop
    8. Apple’s Space Ship
  19. Chapter 12: When Selling Becomes More Important than the Product
    1. Understanding All Parts of the Sales Equation
    2. A Meeting of Titans
    3. Choosing the Wrong Direction
    4. Apple Becomes The Navy
    5. The Loudest Voices: Sales and Marketing
    6. Sales Focus versus Product Focus at IBM
  20. Chapter 13: “And One More Thing”
    1. Defining the Goal
    2. The Whole Product
    3. Missteps
    4. Self-Training
    5. Content Is King, Platform Is God
    6. Power of the Family—No User Left Behind
    7. Going against the Grain
    8. Staying the Course
  21. Chapter 14: Flowers at His Doorstep
    1. A Warning from Steve about Pursuing the Wrong Values
    2. It’s Too Easy to Be Satisfied with the Status Quo
    3. It’s Personal
    4. Steve and Students
    5. Steve and Charitable Giving
    6. Legacy
    7. Capturing the Steve Jobs Legacy
    8. New Man in Charge
    9. The Apple Culture: Still in Place
    10. Tributes
    11. Finale
  22. Acknowledgments
  23. Index

Product information

  • Title: Leading Apple With Steve Jobs: Management Lessons From a Controversial Genius
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: September 2012
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781118379523