‘THE REAL LEADERSHIP LESSONS OF STEVE JOBS “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” —Apple’s "Think Different” commercial, 1997 ts saan the enttepreneusial creation myth wre Inge: Steve obs cofonded Apple hispaents + rage n1976, was oustedin 1985, retuned to rescue itfemnearbankrupteinie57, and byte tine he ied, in October on, hn bale iin the world’s ‘most valuable company. Along the way he helped to transform seven industries: personal competing, animated moves, msc phones, tablet computing, rete stores, nd gta pobishing, ets belongs inthepantheon of meri ret ianovaors long with Tomas Eason, Henry ford, and Walt Disney. None ofthese men wasa saint, but long after this personalities ae forgotten, history will member how they appa imagination to technology and business, Inthe months since my biography of obs came out, countless commentators have tried to draw management lessons fom it Some of those eaders havebecr insightful, but think that many of therm (especialy thosevith no experionelnenteprenest- ‘ship) fixate too much on the rough édges of his per- soul. The essence of Jobs, think that his pee sonality was intgralto his way of doing busines He acted zs if the normal rules didn’t apply to him, and thepaslon, zens and extreme emotionalism he brought oeveryday ie were things also poured into to products ede His petulance an pa tience were partandparcelofhis perfectionism. Oneoftne astimesl si hn, feria ished vkingmost of the boo ak himagain about his tendency to be rough on people, “Look atthe re- salsherepie, “These allstat people work vith and any ofthemecou gst top job at ater place if they were truly feling brutalized. Bt hey don't Then he paused fora few moments and sid, almost wistfully “And we got some eazing things done” Indeed, he and Apple hadéhad a string of hits over thepast dozen yes that wes grete than that of ny othe innovative company tn moter tes: IMac, Pod, SPod nano, Munes Sore, Apple Stores, acBok, Phon, ad, Appstore, OS Lion-net to 94 Harvard Businase Revit April zorz ‘mention every Pixar film. And as he battled his final illness, Jobs was surrounded by an intensely loyal adie of colleagues wio had been inspired by him for Yyearsand a very loving wife, sister, and four children. Sa i think the reat lessons from Steve lobs have ‘tobe drawn from looking at what he actually acoom- plished, once asked him what he thought was his ‘mest important creation, thinking he would answer the Pad or the Macintosh, Instead he ssid it was Ap- ple the company, Making an enduring company, he said, was both far harder and more important than ‘making a great product, How did he do it? Business schools will be studying that question a century from now. Here are what I consider the keys to his sucvess. Focus ‘When Jobs retumed to Apple in igs, it was produc: inga random antay of computers and peripherals, ‘including a dozen different versions of the Macin- tosh. Aftera few weeks of product review sessions, he'd finaly had enough, Stop!" he shouted, “This ‘scrazy.” He grabbad a Magic Marker, padded in his bare feet toa whiteboard, and drew a two-by-two rid, "Here's what we need,” he declared. Atop the two columns, he vote “Consumes” and “Pro? He labeled the two rows “Desktop” and “Portable?” ‘Theirjob, he told histeam members, was tofocus 0 fourgreat products, one foreach quadrant. Allother products should be canceled. There was.a stunned silence. Butby getting Apple to focus on making just four computers, he saved the company. “Deciding What not to do isas important as deciding what to do’ he told me. “that’s true for companies, andit’s ‘rue for products” Afterhe righted the company, Jobs began taking his “top 100" people on a retreat each year. Qn the last day, he would stand infiont ofa whiteboard (heloved whiteboards, because they gave him complete contiol of a situation and they engendered focas) andask, “What are the 10 things we should be doing nex(?” People would fight to get their suggestionson thelist. Jobs would write them down—andthen cross offthe ones he decreed dumb. After much jockeying, ‘the group would come up with list of. Then Jobs ‘would slash the bottom seven and announce, “We canoaly do three” Focus was ingrained in Jobs's personality and hhad been honed by his Zen training, He zelentlessly filtered out what he considered distractions. Col- Teagues and family members would at times be exas- peratedasthey tried togethimto deal with issues—a legal problem, a medical diagnosis—they considered important, Buthe would give a cold stareand refuse tosbift his aselike focus until he was ready. Near the end of his if, Jobs was visited athome by Larry Page, who was about to resume control of Google, the company he had cofounded, Even ‘though thelr companies were fending, Jobs was will: ing to give some advice, “The main thing! stressed ‘was focus,” he recalled. Figure out what Google ‘wants to be when it grows up, he told Page. “It's now all over the map, What are the five products you vant to focus on? Getrid ofthe rest, because they're dragging you down, They'retwmningyou into Microsoft. They're causing youto tum out products thatare adequate but not grest.” Page followed the advice, In January 2012 he told employees to focus on justa few priorities, suchas Android and Google, and to make them “beautiful” the way Jobs would have done, he | simplify Jobs's Zenlike ability to focus was accompanied by therelated instinct to simplify things by zeroingin on their essence and eliminating unnecessary com: ponents. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” declared Apple's frst marketing brochure, To see what that means, compare any Apple software with, 583, Microsoft Word, which keeps getting uglier and more cluttered with nonintuitive navigational rib- bons and intrusive features. Itisa reminder of the glory of Apple's quest for simplicity, Jobs leauned io admire simplicity when he was working the night shift at Atari asa college dropout, ‘Atar’s games came with no manual and needed to be uncomplicated enough that a stoned freshman could figure them out. The only instructions for its ‘Star Trek game were: “Insert quarter. 2. Avold Kiin- ‘gons.” His love of simplicity in design was refined at design conferences he attended at the Aspen Inst tute in the late 19705 on a campus built in the Bau- haus style, which emphasized clean lines and func- tional design devoid of frills or distractions. ‘When Jobs visited Xerox’s Pelo Alto Research Center and saw the plans fora computer that had a graphical user interface and a mouse, he set about ‘making the design both more intuitive (his team en- abled the user to dragand drop documents and fold- ers ona virtual desktop) and simpler, For exemple, the Xerox mouse had three butttons and cost $300; Jobs went to aocal industrial design firm and totd ‘one of its founders, Dean Hovey, that he wanted & simple, single-button model that cost $15, Hovey ‘complied, Jobs aimed for the simplicity that comes from ‘conquering, rather than merely ignoring, complex- ity, Achieving this depth of simplicity, he realized, would produce a machine that felt asi it deferred tousers ina friendly way, rather than challenging them, “Ittakesa lot of hard work” he said, “tomake something simple, to teuly understand the underly ing challenges and come up rth elegant solutions.” In Jony Ive, Apple's industrial designer, Jobs met his soul mate in the quest for deep rather than su- perficial simplicity. They knew that simplicity snot ‘merely amminimalist style or the removal of cutter, In order to eliminate sevews, buttons, or excess naviga- tional screens, it was necessary to understand pro- foundly the zole each element played. “To be truly simple, you have to go really deep;” Ive explained. “For example, to have no screws on something, you can end up having a praduct that is $0 convoluted ‘and so complex. The better wayis to go deeper with ‘the simplicity, ounderstand everythingaboutitand howitsmanufactured.” During the design of the iPod interface, Jobs tried at every meeting to find ways to cut clutter. He in sisted on being able to get to whatever he wanted inthree clicks, One navigation screen, for example, asked usere whether they wanted to search by sang, album, or artist. “Why do we need that screen?” dbs demanded, The designers realized they didi “There would be times when we'd rack our brains ona user interface problem, andl he would go, ‘Did you think of this?” says Tony Fadell, who led the iWod team, “And then we'd all go, “Holy shit’ He'd oR.ona. ‘pil 2012 Harvard Business Review‘THE REAL LEADERSHIP LESSONS OF STEVE JOBS zedefine the problem or approach, and our little problem would go away" At one point Jobs made the simplest ofall suggestions: Let's get rid of the onjof? button, At first the team members were taken aback, but then they realized the button was unnecessary. The device would gradually power down ifitwasn’t ‘beingused and would spring tolife when reengaged. Likewise, when Jobs was shown a cluttered set of proposed navigation screens for iDVD, which al- lowed users to bum video ontoa disk, he jumped up ‘and diewasimplerectangle ona whiteboard. “Here's the new application? he said. “I's got one window. ‘You drag your video into the window. Then you clic the button that says ‘Burn’ That's it. That's what ‘we're goingto make?” In ookthig for industries or categories ripe for dis suption, Jobs always asked who was making prod: ucts more complicated than they should be, in 2001 portable mnsic playersand ways toacquire songson- Tine ft that description, leading to the Pod and the ‘Tunes Store, Mobile phones were next, Jobs would grabs phoneat meeting and rant coxrectly) thatno- ‘body could possibly figure out how to navigate half ‘the features, including the addressbook, AL the end. ‘fis career he was setting his sights on the televi sion industry, which had made itaimost impossible for people to click ona simple device to watch what they wanted when they wanted, Take Responsibility End to End JJobs knew that the best way to achieve simpli: sty was to make sure that hardware, software, and peripheral devices were seamlessly integrated. An Apple ecosystom-an iPod connected to a biacwith Tmes software, forexample—allowed devicestobe simpler, syncing to be smoother, and glitches to be rarer, The more complax tasks, such as making new playlists, could be done on the computer, allowing ‘the iPod to have Fewer functionsand buttons. Jabsand Apple took end-to-end responsiblity For the user experience—something too fev companies do, From the performance of the ARM microproces- sorinthe iPhone totheact ofbuyingthat phoneinsn AppleStore, every aspect ofthe customer experience ‘was tightly linked together. Both Microsoft in the 1980s and Google in the past few years have taken a ‘more open approach that allovs their operating sys- tems and softvare to be used by various hardware ‘96 Havvard Busine fevew April 2012 Being inthe Apple ecosystem could be as sublime as walking in one of the Zen gardens of Kyoto that. Jobs loved. manufacturers, That has sometimes proved the het- terbusinessmodel. But Jobs fervently believed that itwasarecipefor (ousehistechnical team) crappier prodnets, “People are busy,” he said, “They have ther things to do than think about how to integrate ‘their compaters and devices” Part of Jobs's compulsion to take responsibil ity for what be called “the whole widget” stemmed fram hispersonalty, which was very controlling. But itwas also driven by his passioa for perfection and ‘making elegant products, He got hives, or warse, ‘when contemplating the se of great Apple software ‘on another company's uninspired hardware, and he -was equally allergicto the thought that unapproved apps or content might pollute the perfection of an, ‘Apple device. twas an approach that did not always ‘maximize short-term profits, but in world filled ‘with junky devices, inscrutable error messages, aid annoying interfaces, it led to astonishing products ‘marked by delightful user experiences. Beingin the Apple ecosystem could be as sublime as walking in ‘one ofthe Zen gardens of Kyoto that Jobs loved, and neither experlence was created by worshipping at ‘the altar of openness or by letting a thousand flow: cers bloom, Sometimes its nice tobe in the hands of acontrolfieak. “When Behind, vel) Leapfrog ‘The mark ofan innovative company isnot only that st comes up with new ideas frst. It also knows how to leapftog when it finds itself behind, That hap: ‘pened when Jobs built the original iMac, He focused ‘onmaking tuseful for managinga user’sphotosand ‘videos, butt was left hind when dealing with sie. People with POs wore dovanloudingand swapping smusicand then rippingand buralng their ows CDs. ‘The iMac’ slot éhive couldn't burn Ds. “Ifetlikea dope? he said, “Tthought we had mised it?” Bt instead of merely catching up by upgreding the iMae’s CD drive, he decided to create an inte grated system that would transform the music it dustry. Theresult was the combination of Tunes, the ‘Tunes Store, and the iPod, which allowed users to buy, share, manage store, and play musicbetter than they could with any other devices ‘After the iPod bacame a huge success, Jobs spent Lite time relishing it. Instead he began to worry about what might endanger it. One possibility wasarors ‘that mobile phone makers would start adding music players to their bandsets, So he cannibalized iPod sales by creating the iPhone. “If we don’t cannibal- ize ourselves, someone ese will? he sai, @°9 Put Products Gas Before Profits ‘When Jobs and his small team designed the original ‘Macintosh, in the early 1980s, his injunction was to make it “usanely great” He never spoke of proflt maximization or cost trade-off. “Don't worryabout price, just specify the computers abilities” he told the original team leader, at his frst retreat with the ‘Macintosh team, he began by writing 2 maxim on bhis whiteboard: "Don’t compromise” The machine that resulted cost too much and led to Jobs's ouster from Apple. But the Macintosh also *put a dent in ‘the universe,” ashe said, by accelerating thehome computerrevolution, Andin thelong rune got the ‘balance right: Focus on making the product great and the profits will follow. John Sculley, who ran Apple from 1983 to 1993, ‘was a marketing and sales executive from Pepsi. He focused more on profit maximization than or product design after Jobs eft, and Apple gradually declined. "Ihave my ovn theory about why dectine happens at companies? Jobs told me: They make some great products, bu then the sales and market ‘ng people take over the company, because they are the ones who can juice up profits. “When the sales ‘guys run the company, the product guys don’t mat- terso much, and 2 lot of them just turn off. It hap- pened at Apple when Sculley came in, which wes ‘my fault, and it happened when Ballmer took over at Mlerosoft?” ‘When Jobs returned, he shifted Apple's Focus ‘back to making innovative products: the sprightly Mla, the PowerBook, and then the Pod, the one, andthe iPad. Asheexplained, “My passion hasbeen to build an enduring company where people were ‘motivated to make great products, Everything else ‘was secondary, Sure, twas great to make a profit, because that wes what allowed you to make great products. But the products, not the profits, were the ‘motivation, Sculley lipped these priorities to where ‘the goal wastormake money. Its a subtle difference, Dut it ends up meaning everything~the people ‘you hire, who gets promoted, what you discuss in meetings! Don’t Be a Slave To Focus Groups When Jobs took his original Macintosh team on its firstretreat, one memberasked whether they should do some market research to see what customers wanted. “No Jobs replied, “because customers don’tknow what they want until we've shown them.” He invoked Henry Ford's line “If Pd asked customers ‘what they wanted, they would havetold ine, A faster horse” Caring deeply about what customers want is. ‘much different from continually asking them what, they want; it requires intuition and instinct about desires that havenotyet formed. “Our taskis to read {things that are not yet on the page” Jobs explained. Instead of relying on mariet research, hehoned his version of empathy—an intimate intuition about the desires of his customers, He developed his ap- preciation for intuitlon—feelings that are based on accuinulated experiential wisdom—while he was studying Buddhism in India as a college dropout. “The people in the mndian countryside don'tuse thelr intellectlike we do; they use thelr intuition instead” he recalled. “Intuition is a very powerful thing ‘more powerful than intellect, in my opinion” Sometimes that meant that Jobs used 2 one person focus group: himself, He made products that heand his friends wanted, For exemple, here were ‘many portable music players around in 2000, but Jobs felt they were all ame, and as a music fanatic hhe wanted 2 simple device lat would allow him to carry a thousand songsin his pocket, “We made the Pod for ourselves” he sald, and when you're doing something for yourself or your best fiend or family, you'renot goingto cheese cut?” We Bend Reality Jobs's in)famous ability to push people to do theim- possible was dubbed by colleagues his Reality Dis- tortion Field, after an episode of Star Treein which allenscrestea convincingalternativereality through sheer mental force. An early example was when Jobs wason the night shift at Atari and pushed Steve Wosnisk to createa game called Breakout, Wor.said itwould take months, but Jobs stared at him and in- sisted he could do itn four days, Woz knew that vas impossible, but he ended up doing it. ‘Api gora Harvard Business Revew 87ey ‘THE REAL LEADERSHIP LESSONS OF STEVE Joes ‘Those who did not know Jobs interpreted the Reality Distortion Feld asa euphemism for bullying ‘nd lying. Butthose who worked with himadmitted ‘thatthe trait, infuriating asit might be, led them to perform extraordinary feats. Because Jobs felt that life's ordinary rules didn’t apply to lm, he could in- spire his team to change the course of computer his- ‘ory with asmall fraction of the resources thet Xerox orIBMhed. “ItwrsaselPfulfiling distortion,” recalls Debi Coleman, a member ofthe original Mac team ‘who won an award one year for belng the employee ‘who best stood up to Jobs. “You dia the Impossible Decatuse you didn’t realizeit was impossible?” One day Jobs marched into the cubicle of Larry Kenyon, the engineer who was working on the Ma- intosh operating system, and complained that it ‘was taking too longo boot up. Kenyon started to ex. plein why reducing the boot-up time wasnt possible, but Jobs cut him off. tFit would save a person's ie, could you finda way to shaveo seconds off theboct tlme?” he asked. Kenyon allowed that he probably could. Jobs went toa whiteboard and showed that iffive milion people were using the Mac and it took Ao seconds extra to tun itn every day, that added ‘up to 300 million or so hours year—the equivalent of atleast 100 lifetimes a year, After a few weeks Kenyon had the machine booting up 28 seconds faster, When Jobs was designing the Phone, he decided that he wanted its face to bea tough, scratchproof Slass, rather than plastic. He met with Wendell ‘Weel, the CEO of Coming, who tola him that Com- ‘ng hd developed 2 chemical exchange ‘he 1960s that led to what it dubbed “Goxilla glass” Jobs replied that he wanted a major shipment of Go- rill gassinsixmonths, Weeks sald that Coming was not making the giass and didn't have that capacity. “Don't be aftaid” fobs replied, This stunned Weeks, ‘who was unfamiliar with Jobs's Reality Distortion Field. He tried to explain thata felse sense of conic ence would not overcome engineering challenges, but Jobs had repeatedly shown that he didn't accept that premise, He stared nblinking at Weeks. “Yes, youcan doit hesaid. “Get yourmind atoundit, You can do it” Weeks recalls that he shook his head in astonishment and then called the managersof Com- ing’s facility in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, which had een making LCD displays, andtold them toconvert immediately to making Gorilla glass fl-time, “We dt in under six months," hesays, ‘We putourbest scientists and engineers on it, and we just made it ‘98 Hard ausinessRovow April zona Jobs's (in)famous ability to push people to do the impossible was dubbed by colleagues his Reality Distortion Field, after an episode of Star Trek. ‘work: As a result, every piece of glasson an iPhone oran Pads madein America by Corning, ss impute Jobs's early mentor Mike Markkula w2ote him a ‘memo in 1979 that urged three principles, The fest ‘wo were “empathy” and “focus.” The third wins an awlward word, “impute? butit became one of Jobs's key doctrines, He knew that people forman opinion about aproductoracompany on thebasis of hhowr itis presented and packaged. “Mike taught me that people do judge abock by its cover? he told me ‘When he was getting rendy tashipthe Macintosh in 1984, he obsessed over the colors and design of the box. Similac, he personally speat time design- ‘ng and redesigning the jewellike boxes that cradle the iPod and the iPhone and listed himself on the patents for them. Hie and Ive believed that unpacle ‘ng was ritual tke theater and heralded the glory of the product. "When you open the box ofan iPhone or iPad, we want that tactile experience to set the ‘tone for how you perceive the product,” Jobssaid. Sometimes Jobs used the design of a machine to “impute” a signal rather than to be merely func- tional. For example, when he was creating the new ‘and playfal iMac, after his return to Apple, he was shown a design by Ive that had alittle recessed hat- dle nestled in the top.1twas more semiotic than use- fil, This was a desktop computer, Not many people \werereally goingto catry itaround. But Jobsand ive realized that alot of people were still intimidated by computers. IFit had e handle, the new machine would seem friendly, deferential, and at one’s ser- vice. The handle signaled permission to touch the ‘tae, The manufacturing team was opposed to the extra cost, but Jobs simply announced, “No, we're doing this He dida’teven try toexplain, Push for Perfection ‘During the development ofalmost every product he ever created, Jobs at a certain point “hit the pause button’ and went backto the drawing board because he felt it wasn’t perfect. That happened even with the movie ‘Toy Story. After Jef? Katzenberg and the team at Disney, which had bough therrights to theHerons ‘movie, pushed the Pixar team to make itedgier and darker, Jobs and the director, John Lasseter, finally stopped production and rewrote the story to make it flendllier. When he was abont to launch Apple Stores, he and is store guna, Ron Johnson, suddenly decided to delay everything few monthssothat the stores? layoists could be reorganized around activi= tlesand notjust product categories. ‘The same was true for the Phone. The intial de- sign bad the glass screen set into an aluminum case. ‘One Monday momning Jobs went over to see ve. “I didn't sleep last night? he said, “because [realized ‘tat [just don’tlove it” Ive, to his dismay, instantly saw that Jobs was right. “I remember feeling abso- lutely embarrassed that he had to make the obser~ vation,’ he says. The problem was that the Phone should have been all about the display, butin its cur- rent design the case competed with the display in- stead of getting out ofthe way, The whole device felt ullne tasledriven, efficient. “Guys, you've Iuled yourselves over this design for the last nine ‘months, but we're going to change "Jobs told Ives team, “Were all going to have to work nights and weekends, and if you want, we can hand out some ‘guns so you can kill us now.” Instead ofbalking, the teamagreed. “twas oneofmy proudest momentsat Apple?’ Jobsrecalled. ‘A similar thing happened as Jobs and Ive were finishing the iPad. At one point Jobs looked at the ‘model and fet slightly dissatisfied. It didn’t soem casual and friendly enough to scoop up and whisk away. They needed to signal that you could grab it vith one hand, on impulse, They decided that the Dotiom edge should be slightly rounded, so that ‘user would feel comfortable just snatching it up rather than lifting it carefully, That meant engineer- ‘nghhadto design thenecessary connection ports andl butions in thin, simple lip that sloped away gen. tly undemeath. Jobs delayed the product until the ‘change coild be made, “Jobs's perfectionism extended even to the parts unseen. As a young boy, he had helped his father build a fence around their backyard, and he was told they had to use justas much care on the back of the fenceas an the front. “Nobody will ever know” Steve said, His father replied, “Butyou willlmow?"A ‘mie craftsman uses a good piece of wood even for the back of cabinet against the wall, his father ex plained, and they should do thesame forthe back of the fence. twas the mark of an artist to havesucha passion forperfectio. In overseeing the Apple Hand too mas the Macintosh, Jobs applied thisIassom tothe circuit board inside the machine. in both instances he sent ‘the engineers back to make the chips line up neatly so the beard would lookcnice. This seemed particu- larly odd to the engineers ofthe Macintosh, because Jobs had decreed that the machine be tightly sealed. “Nobody is going to see te PC board” one of thean protested, Johsreactedashisfatherhad: “Iwantitto ‘be as beautiful as possible, even ift's inside the box. A great carpenter ist going to use lousy wood for ‘the back of cabinet, even though nobody's going to see" They were trucartiss, he sald, and should ‘ctthat way. And once the board was redesigned, he had the engineers and other members ofthe Macin tosh team sign thelr names so that they eauldl be en- saved inside the case. “Real artists sign their work” hesaid. f, | Tolerate Only “ps Players Jobs was famously impatient, petulant, and tough ‘with the people around him. But his treatment of ‘people, though not laudable, emanated from his passion for perfection and his desire to work with only the best. It was his way of preventing what he called “the bozo explosion,’ in which managers are so polite that mediocre people feel comfort able sticking eround. “I don’t thinkeIrun roughshod ‘over people,” hesaid, but if something sucks, Itall ‘people to their face. It’s my job tobe honest” When pressed him on whether he could have gotten the ‘same Tesults while being nicer, he said perhaps so. “Butit’s wot who fam? he said. “Maybe there's abetierway—a gentlemen's cub where weall wear ‘tes and speakcin this ahmin language and velvet code words—but dor’tinow thatway, becauseTam middle-class from California” ‘Was al ls stormy and abusive behavior neces- sary? Probably not. There were other ways he could have motivated his team. “Steve's contributions couldhavebeen made withoutsomany storiesabout hhim terrorizing folks?” Apple's cofounder, Wozniak, sald. "Tike belng more patient and not having so ‘many conflicts. [think a company canbe good fam- ily? Butthenheadded something that isundentably ‘uue: “Ifthe Macintosh project had been ran my way, things probably would havebeen amess?” It’s important to appreciate that Jobs's rudeness and roughness were accompanied by an ability to ‘apell aor Hore Business Review 96‘THE REAL LEADERSHIP LESSONS OF STEVE JOBS war.ong bbe inspirational. He infused Apple employees with ‘an abiding passion to create groundbreaking prod- vets and a bellef that they could accomplish what seemed impossible, And we have to judge him by the outcome. Jobs had a close-knit family, and soit was at Apple: His top players tended to stick around Jongerand be more loyal thanthoseatather ‘companies, including ones led by bosses who were Kinder and gentler, GROs who study Jobs and de- cide to emulate his roughness without understand- inghis ability to generate loyalty makea dangerous mistake, “Pve learned over the years that when you have really good people, you dor't have to baby them” Jobs told me, “By expecting them todo great things, ‘you can get them to do great things. Ask any mem- berofthat Mac team, They wil tell you it was worth the pain? Most of them do, “He would shout at a meeting, ‘Youasshole, you never do anything ight.” Debi Coleman recalls, “Yet I consider myself the ab- solute uckiast person inthe world to have worked vith him t _ Engage Face-to-Face Despite being a denizen of the digital world, or raybe because he mew all too vl is potential tobe isolating, Jobs was a strong believer in face- to-face meetings, “There's a temptation in our networked ageto think that eas can be developed bby email andichat? he told me, “Tha’s czy. Cre- ativity comes fiom spontaneous meetings, from random éscussions, Yourun nto someone, you ask ‘what they're doing, you say ‘Wow and soon you're cooking upallsorts ofideas?” He had the Pixar buflding designed to promote unplanned encounters and collaborations. “if a building doesn't encourage tha, you'l lose alot of ovation and the magic that’ sparked by ser cncipity? he sai. “So we designed the building to, rmakepeople get outothsiroficesandminglein the centralariumwith peoplethey might not otherwise set" The front doors and main stars nd corridors all led to the atrium; the café and the mailboxes were there; the conference rooms had windows that Jooked out onto andthe 6o0-seattheter and two smaller screening rooms il spilled into i “Steve's theory worked from day one? Lassoter recalls. “1 rept runinginto people rhadsyt seen fer montis ‘0 Harvard Busnes Revie Apel 20x2 ve never seen a building that promoted collabora- tion and creativity as wellas this one!” ‘Jobs hated formal presentations, buthe loved freewheeling face-to-face meetings, He gathered his executive team every week to kick around {ideas without a formal agenda, and he spent ev- ‘ery Wednesday afternoon doing the same with his marketing and advertising team. Slide shows were banned, “Ihate the way people use slide preseata- tions instead of thinking” Jobs recalled, “People would confront a problem by creating a presenta: tion, I wanted them to engage, to hash things out at ‘the table rather than show bunch ofslides. People who know what they're talking about don’t need PowerPoint.” Know Both the 2 Big Picture and The Details Jobs's pasion was applied to scues both lage and rminuscile, Some Cis aregreatat vison thersare managers who kuow that God isin the deta. Jobs ‘was both Time Wanner CEO Jeff Bewkes says that cone of Joe’ salient rats was is ability and desire toenvison overarching strategy whl alo focusing ‘onthetnist aspects of desig. Forerample, 2000 became up withthe grand vision tht the personal computer should become a “digl hub? for manag Ingallofausersmusic videos, photos, and context, anc thus yot appleinto te personal-dvice business ‘with the Pod and then the Pad. In2010he cameup with the successor strategy the “bub” would move to the cloud—and Apple began building a huge server fam so thtalla user's content could be up- leaded and then seamlessly syncedtocthe:petsonal devices. But even ashe wat laying oat these grand sions, he was fretting over the shape and colorof thescrensinsdethe Mac. Combine the RS Humanities with ‘2! The Sciences “Talways thought of myselfas a humanities person asakid, but liked electronics,” Jobs told me on the day he decided to cooperate ona biography. “Then | read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land ‘of Polaroid, said about the mporlance of people wino‘THE REAL LEADERSHIP LESSONS OF STEVE JOBS could standat the intersection of humanities and sci- ‘ences, and 1 decided that’s what I wanted to do?" It ‘was as fhe was describing the theme of hislife,and ‘the more! studied him, the more [realized that this Was, indeed, the essence ofhistale. He connected the humanities to the sciences, creativity to technology, arts to engineering, There ‘were greater technologists (Woznlak, Gates), andl certainly better designers and artists. But no one else in our eta could better firewire togetner poatry and processors ina way that olted innovation, And he did it with an intuitive feel for business strat- gy. Atalmost every product launch over the past decade, Jobs ended with a slide that showed a sien at the intersection of Liberal Arts and Technology: Streets. ‘ ‘The creativity that can occur when feel forboth the humanities and the sciences exists in one strong personality was what most interested mein my biog- rTaphies of Franti and Sinstein, and Thelieve that it Willbea key to building imovative economiesin the ‘ist century, It isthe essence of applied imagination, and it’s whty both the humanities and the sciences are critical for any society that Is to ave acreative edgein the future, Even when he was dying, Jobs set his sights ‘on disrupting more industies. He had a vision for ‘turing textbooksinto artisticcreations that anyone ‘witha Mac could fashion and craft—something that ‘Apple announced in January 2012, Healso dreamed of producing magical tools for digital photography and ways to make television simple and personal, ‘Those, no doubt, will come as well. And even though hewill notbe around toseetiiemto fruition, his rules for success helped him build a company that not only will ereate these and other disruptive products, but will stand at the intersection of cre- ativity and technology as longas Jobs's DNA persists atits core, Stay Hungry, Stay Foolis! ie Steve Jobs was # product of the tio great socal movements that emanated from the San Francisco Bay Areinthe late 19608, he fist was the counter culture of hippies and antwar activists, which was rated by psychedelic drugs, rock music, and ant authortartanism, The sacond waste high-tech and hackerculture of icon Vale, filed with engineers, ‘ox Harvard Business Review April 2o1e No one else in our era could better firewire together poetry and processors in away that jolted innovation. HaR.onG geeks, wireheads, phreakers, eyberpunks, hobby- ists, and garage entrepreneurs. Overlying both were various paths to personal enlightenment~Zen and Hinduism, meditation and yoga, primal scream therapy and sensory deprivation, Esalen and est. Anadmixtureof these cultures was found in pub- lications such as Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Cata- og. Onis fist cover was the famous pleture of Barth taken from space, and its subtitle was “access to tools? The underlying philosophy was that technol- ogy could be our friend, Jobs—who became abippie, rebel, aspittual seokes,a phone phreaker, and an clectroniec hobbyist all wrapped into one—vias a fan, ie was particularly taken by the final issue, which came out in 1971, when he was still in high school, He tookit with him to college and then to the apple farm commune where he lived after dropping out, ‘He Tater recalled: “On the back caver of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning coun ‘uy road, the kind you might find yourself hitehhike ‘ng of you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: ‘Stay Hungry Stay Foolish’” Jobe stayed hungry and foolish throughout his careerby making sure that the business and engineering aspect of his personality was always complemented by a hippie nonconformist side from his daysasan artistic, acd dropping, eniightenment-secking rebel. In every spect of his lif—the women he dated, the way he dealt with his cancer diagnosis, the way he ran his Dusiness-~his behavior reflected the contradictions, confluence, and eventual synthesis of allthese vary- ingstrands. ven as Apple became corporate, Jobs asserted ‘his rebel and counterculture streak in its ads, as ‘if to proclaim that he was still a hacker and hip- ple at heart. he famous "1984" ad showed a ren- egade woman outrunning the thought police to sling sledgehammer atthe screen of an Orwellian Big Brother. And when he returned to Apple, Jobs helped write the text for the “Think Different” ads: “Tlere'sto the crazy ones. ‘The misfits. The rebels, The tuoublemaiers,Theround pegs in the square holes.” If there was any doubt that, consciously ornot, he was describing himself, he dispelled it with the lasttines: “While some see them as the crazy ones, ‘we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones whodo” © HOR Reprint R066 walter leaneson, the CEO ofthe Aspen Intute, is 5) the author of Stee Jobs and of biographies of Henry singe, Benjamin Frain, aed Albertine, (sae ence eeepeemenenll