Leadership lessons learned from Steve Jobs.

(Introduction to Universal Dents, a Leadership Profile Paper written for Advanced Leadership COM6207 Fall 21)

In order to gain a true contextual sense of the life and accomplishments of Steve Jobs, one must first wade through a seemingly endless amount of speculation, criticism, and first hand accounts that read more like internet folklore than eye witness accounts of true events.  Cutting through the mystique surrounding Jobs has turned out to be a challenging proposition, not only for the purpose of this research paper, but also to answer questions formulated throughout my two decades in computer research.  One could argue that Steve Jobs, for many reasons, was the single most fascinating individual in the age of computing and his unwavering laser-like focus on the end user allowed him to push his employees to achieve products that were not only nearly impossible to produce, but that would operate with a simplicity and elegance often described as magic.  

Ironically enough, Jobs’s focus on simplicity at the very beginning of Apple’s journey almost derailed the entire company.  In fact, if it weren’t for the unwavering stance of Steve Wozniak, the often overlooked cofounder of Apple, to add 7 slots on the motherboard to allow end users to upgrade the functionality of their machines, it’s doubtful that the Apple II computer would have been a successful product. In 1977, the year of the Apple II launch, the personal computing industry was in its infancy, and the main consumer base consisted of technically capable individuals who valued upgradability and function over form.  Jobs insisted that the end user only needed a keyboard, mouse, and two expandability slots for a printer and modem.  He argued against the expandability of the computer, not out of a desire to handicap end users, but because that the extra 5 expansion slots would make it harder to build a beautiful case for it (Isaacson, 2011, pp. 74-75). While his unwavering focus on elegant design and ease of use over customizable expandability would later propel Apple’s products- such as the iPhone, iMac, iPad, and iPod - to become the highest selling products of all time, it is relatively easy to see that at the beginning, in regards to the Apple II, it would have been a devastating maneuver.
In the end, Steve Jobs’s journey as a thought and business leader is filled with examples of decision making that produced extremely negative outcomes either for the companies he was in charge of, or himself personally. His brazen confidence and the impatience he demonstrated on others with different viewpoints are legendary attributes that served to alienate those closest to him on a regular basis, yet ironically he somehow motivated those same individuals to achieve what the rest of the computational world deemed impossible. Jobs famously introduced all of Apple’s products in highly theatrical events that not only showcased his brilliance in communication, but displayed his infectious passion for the devices that he and his team seemingly willed into existence.

One could argue there are relatively few products in recorded history that changed the way that humans communicate at a fundamental level. The printing press, the telegraph, and the telephone all had a direct impact on the way humans exchanged information at the peer-to-peer level.  Amazingly, two Apple products in particular had such an impact on global human society.  With the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984 and the iPhone in 2007, Steve Jobs reinvented the way human beings communicated seemingly overnight. Given that these two products literally redefined the human experience, it stands to reason that we should be able to extrapolate meaningful data by comparing the effectiveness of the communication strategies that Steve Jobs employed for each product launch.