There are two things everyone knows about Steve Jobs. He pushes his employees to make some pretty impressive—and market-changing—products. He’s also a horrible person to work for. Now the Harvard Business Review confirms, once again, the latter.
Jobs, for all of his virtues, clings to the Great Man Theory of Leadership – a CEO-centric model of executive power that is outmoded, unsustainable, and, for most of us mere mortals, ineffective in a world of non-stop change. A Wired magazine cover story from last year made the point well. The article begins with a memorable anecdote – the CEO, in search of a space in the company’s crowded parking lot, regularly leaves his Mercedes in a handicapped space, sometimes taking up two spaces. The pattern became so noticeable that employees, according to the article, put notes on his windshield that read, Park Different.
“Jobs’ fabled attitude toward parking”, writer Leander Kahney says, “reflects his approach to business: For him, the regular rules do not apply.” That means shrouding his company in secrecy; treating his employees to tyrannical outbursts; and refusing basic accommodations that would make beautifully designed products more customer-friendly. (As one wise-guy blogger commented, in decidedly bad taste: “I can’t believe Steve Jobs’s liver is replaceable but the battery in my iPhone is not.”)
So to all those execs that are looking to Steve Jobs to emulate? Cut it out. Emulate his good points, like the ability to get products out the door, but not his lousy points. [Harvard Business via PC World]
Azizi Khan
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 11:00 AMIt was quite an irony that I came across this post when I spent a good two hours last Saturday in with Apple drones in Malaysia.
They talked about Apple vision and what it stands for. I talked about what it actually means for the average person.
Remove the cool factor, remove the secrecy, remove products that deliver always 90% of what competitiors provide, remove the “my way or the highway” mentality. In reality what are you left with exactly ?
I am a Mac user.
How can at this day and age can a company deliver less and charge more ?
I am a Mac user.
I said I want a replacable battery for my Macbook Pro. They said you have 7 hours of battery. I said thats not the point.
I am a IPod user.
I said I want a radio for my Ipod. They asked me why ?
I am a customer. I want to compare products with Acer, Dell, HP, not walk into an Apple store and bombarded with Apple religion. They refused.
They want me to join the Church of Jobs. I just want to change my Ipod battery and use my Ipod with other machines without ITunes committing suicide.
In ten years Apple couldn’t work with Novell to come up with a single client for Novell networks.
The first generation of IPhones couldn’t do simple things that phones that were ten years old could do out of the box.
See, I am not as smart as Steve. I am not a visionary. I am just a customer who knows what I want. And I know its not blind faith.
What would I know ?
AK.
Bennish
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 11:01 AMEveryone knows he’s an a-hole. and yet everyone loves him. Freaky, freaky, scary man. Being brilliant doesn’t mean you’re a good person.
Kif
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 12:38 PMDo Apple products have electrolytes?
Jimbo
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 12:54 PM@Azizi Khan
One of the most constructive comments I have read all year, though I am not a Mac user at home (I do at school), I feel your burning pain deep down.
DTP
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 2:50 PMThey have a cream that will fix that for you.
Azizi Khan
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 9:42 AMJimbo,
Here it is :
I am also a Windows user. I bought a Mac because for the first time I didn’t have to sell my future first born for a ‘cool’ computer. I use Unix as well, so I am versatile with multiple OS. It was either the Dell or a Macbook Pro.
Don’t get me wrong, I like my Mac. But like Microsoft, Apple sells hardware AND software. So the onus is higher on them to get things running better rather than removing “stop” buttons on their products to make them cool!
Apple said their “drones” could answer anything about their product. To me they are just spewing Steve gospel. They couldn’t tell me for example if I can move my Microsoft Virtual PC VMs into VMWare Fusion without rebuiiding everything. (Yes you can. And its easy but not straightforward.)
I walked into Apple store in Sydney and I was walking around so I could get information on the above. A drone comes to me and starts talking about the IPhones. I tell him they are too “pretty” for me. He doesn’t get it. So I whip out my Blackberry and show him. It isn’t the most prettiest PDA. But its built on trust. Trust RIM earned in the business world.
That is something Apple never got. Their “here it is, take it or leave it” will only get them so far. Steve will only get them so far. The rest is not about Steve. Its about trust and reliability.
I want to trust that my Macbook Pro will survive a 8 hour flight filled with work in economy class (yes who has the money for business class these days so you can use the MagSafe adapter ? ) and walk into a presentation. It has to be reliable enough so I can pack an extra battery pack.
Moral of the story, Apple may be able to have big conventions to show off its latest version of its browser, but the rest of the world doesn’t function that way.
You cannot push away paying customers by saying Steve says this is enough. Steve says you don’t need a stop button. Steve says you can’t change your IPod battery. Steve says that you have to pay extra for Apple Care.
What do I know, I’m just a customer.
PS : Now I just wish there was a Novell client without me having to buy a third party one or as Apple says it in its documents, “get Novell servers to ‘pretend’ to be Apple servers…”.
Sigh.
AK.