Steve Jobs

It's been 5 years since Steve Jobs passed away on October 5th, 2011. Much has been written before and since; this is my opinion on what he meant for the technology industry. My familiarity with Apple goes back to the Apple IIe, a European version of their second product. This preceded the IBM Personal Computer, which gave rise to the term PC and brought the concept of desktop computing in to the mainstream. But IBM was Big Blue, almost 100 years old at the time. They were the corporate machine to Apple's up-start rebel. Years before the famous Big Brother commercial, Apple's spirit was different. And that spirit was Steve Jobs.

He brought design values to the computing industry, values that are now omnipresent via the web. He released products that took minutes to set up and learn ( rather than days), came with mice and graphical interfaces, and without noisy internal fans. Jobs didn't invent these things, but he recognized winners when he saw them, insisted on previously impossible standards of scale and quality, and took the risks required to get products to market before anyone realized.  Ultimately, he didn't mind that others copied. Much. That was flattery.

Most of all, Apple products came with attitude. Jobs launched the personal computer industry and revolutionized publishing. 20 years later, as PCs became commoditized, Jobs moved computers into everyone's pockets and purses. In so doing, he revolutionized phones, the distribution of music and film, and succeeded where others had failed in perfecting the tablet form factor.

Leaving aside his remarkable run of hits with Pixar, the ultimate vindication was not being asked back to run Apple. It was in building the most valuable business in the world. Big enough, ironically, to buy IBM. Not that he would have done that, ofcourse. Apple somehow managed to be huge without losing that great, rebel attitude.

And as we knew would happen, Apple misses him now.

Jobs was the inspiration at Apple for 23 years over his two spells with the company. The strategy was design innovation and he was the key man.

My challenge to you today:

1. List the key innovators at your business, people without whom your new product creation would stagnate.
2. Are you supporting these people as best you can, allowing them to focus on bringing successful innovation to your customers?
3. Great innovators are hard to find. Do you have the best retention measures in place? What is your insurance strategy in the event that they left the organization?
4. Do you have a process that spreads innovative practices around your organization?

If you would like to discuss the outcome of this challenge, please contact me at graham@primeFusion.ca to schedule a conversation about your innovation strategy and process.