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

by Jay Elliot

Overview

Most books on Apple or Steve Jobs have been written by journalists and focus on Steve's colorful personality. Jay Elliot was personally hired by Steve, just in time to accompany him on the last of his historic visits to Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center—visits that changed the course of computing. As Senior VP of Apple, Jay served as Steve's right-hand man and troubleshooter, overseeing all company procedures and strategic planning, as well as software development and HR. In Leading Apple with Steve Jobs, Jay details the management principles he learned from Steve—and what every manager can learn about motivating people to do the best work of their lives.

Most people don't realize that Steve cared as much about how Apple operated, and how it motivated its people, as he did about creating great products. He 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 expressed the heart of Apple and Steve. The management principles that grew out of that statement form the backbone of this book, including how to:

• Find talented people who will understand your objectives and make a contribution to that effort
• Identify the traits that determine whether a person will be so committed to the vision that they will provide their own motivation
• Ensure that your employees possess the ability to come up with original, unique ways to approach a problem and are self-guided with a strong sense of direction
• And much more

Leading Apple with Steve Jobs provides the wisdom and the inspiration you need to shift your thought paradigm, manifest your vision, and inspire your team to achieve groundbreaking innovations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118431429
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	08/23/2012
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	959,784
File size:	524 KB

About the Author

JAY ELLIOT was a senior member of the original Macintosh development team and helped Steve Jobs develop the overall Mac design inspired by Xerox PARC. Becoming Senior Vice President of Apple reporting directly to Steve, Jay ran all corporate operations, including business planning, IT, facilities, and HR, for Apple worldwide. As a mentor to Steve, Jay was able to impart the management principles Jay had learned at IBM and Intel, which helped Steve build Apple into a multibillion-dollar company.

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Table of Contents

Preface Why I Wrote This Book ix

Chronology xiii

1 A Ding in the Universe: Everything Starts with an Inspiring Vision 1

2 Steve’s Business Philosophy and Values 15

3 People Who Know More than You: Choosing and Leading Your Lieutenants 29

4 Steve’s Secrets for Selecting Great People 41

5 Unusual Interviewing Techniques 53

6 To Protect Innovation, Create a Company within a Company 61

7 “No More Crap Products”: Creating Excellence 73

8 More on Product Strategy: Design Is How It Works 85

9 Entrepreneurial Confidence and High Standards 93

10 Employee Owners: Rewarding the Product Stakeholders 99

11 The Apple Workplace: Fostering Creativity 107

12 When Selling Becomes More Important than the Product 121

13 “And One More Thing”: Looking into the Distance 139

14 Flowers at His Doorstep: The Heritage of Steve Jobs 149

Notes 161

Acknowledgments 165

Index 167