August 24, 2011 would go down in the history as the day a giant warrior decided to put down his armour and sit at the sides to help other fight the war for him. Steven Paul “Steve” Jobs announced his resignation as the CEO of Apple Inc. and brought down curtains over an era which had all the required ingredients of a Bollywood pot-boiler. From the founding years of Apple Inc. in the late 1970s with Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula, and others to his being ousted in 1985 by the then Board of Directors of Apple to his reinstatement as the CEO in 1997 till the time he decided to hang his boots, his life has been a roller-coaster. I fumbled upon an amazing collection of his quotes during all these years (http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/08/24/steve-jobss-best-quotes/) and would try to understand the meaning of a few here.
On Technology
“But it’s a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light — that it’s going to change everything. Things don’t have to change the world to be important.”
Through Apple, Jobs never tried to change the world or the mannerism. He brought change in the rules of the game, the perception of the people and the levels of imagination that they could fathom. Apple never invented, it merely innovated – but it made sure those innovations were the best.
On Design
"Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works."
Whatever your domain, you have to appreciate Apple's impact on the field of design. Apple built a mastery of design so deep, it reshaped the entire field. Would you say the Gap's reshaped textiles? No. Would you say McDonald's has reshaped nutrition? No again!
On His Products
“We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.”
The Mac OS X was such a revolutionary operating system, that it redefined the OS industry completely. The look and feel of the MAC OS was so refreshing and GUI so advanced that it made the user be in complete awe.
“It will go down in history as a turning point for the music industry. This is landmark stuff. I can’t overestimate it!”
Apple changed the music industry and established itself as their messiah. Flogged by the piracy menace, the music industry breathed revival with the iTunes store which made possible the sale of individual soundtracks. Result - Customer happy and the industry on its way towards prosperity.
On Business
“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”
When Apple came up with its Macintosh, IBM was spending many times more. But it was never money for Apple. It was always recognizing the right opportunity, the right market and the right partners. From understanding the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, to the requirement of a dedicated music player and from making the world believe that buttons were cumbersome, to re-establishing the market of tablet PCs, Apple was almost never wrong.
On His Competitors
“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste."
Great work doesn't just require legions of bean counters, or armies of willing muscle — it requires the capacity to make cultural judgments: in a word, taste. We might just be approaching the tackiest point in history known to man. In a world where customer service can barely pronounce organization’s name (and they theirs), a world where big-box stores barely even bother to tidy up the over-crammed shelves, a world where things get cheaper and cheaper — but look and feel like they were dreamt up by the dream team of Frankenstein, Simon Cowell, and the Wolfpack — a tiny morsel of taste is probably a competitive super weapon. Apple did that!
On Predicting Future
“I’ll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I’ll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I’m not there, but I’ll always come back.”
Jobs, while stating this line in 1985 when he was ousted from Apple Inc., knew very well his potential, what Apple meant to him and what he meant to Apple. 12 years later he proved it. This is a perfect example of believing in your abilities, persevering towards excellence and clearly defining your goals no matter how much adverse the situation may become.
On Life
“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”
The secret of success of Jobs and thus, Apple Inc. lay in the fact that he never rested on laurels too long and always tried discovering new opportunities. Apple has always been at the forefront of technological innovation. From the Macintosh to the iPod, from the iPhone to the iPad, it has been constantly innovating. We all know what happened to Xerox. Jobs made sure it never happens to Apple.
Last but not the Least
"We didn't build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves."
It's the received wisdom that Jobs never listened to his customers — and he'd often make a point of saying so. But how many other CEOs do you know that were listening so intently that they responded to the average fanboy's (or troll's) emails? Job's goal in paying obsessive attention to all things Apple wasn't merely to "listen" but to discern people's wildest expectations, and then firmly take a quantum leap past them, instead of merely discovering the lowest-common-denominator of what people wanted most today, and then pandering to it. Leapfrogging your customers means creating new markets, not just new products. And Apple's created and rejuvenated market after market by applying the logic above.
In conclusion, I would only like to state that these may be the best lessons for some, and not so for others. But they do showcase one of the best corporate minds this planet has ever seen.
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