The management of jobs first learned to say "no"

The legend of Steve Jobs, Apple's founder, has long been a familiar one. But we have to listen to his story, use his products, but also learn to manage from him.

In the media coverage, it is not difficult to find several personal traits of jobs, including such as "Focus", "perfectionism", "elitism", "autocracy" and so on. If we re-interpret the understanding from the point of view of operation and management, Steve Jobs has his unique opinions on marketing, product design and employing standards.

　　First, learn to say "No."

Compared with other technology brands such as Sony or Samsung, Apple's product range is not much, and this is the result of jobs ' focus. He insists that the Apple computer only needs to focus on what they are good at and make these products the best. From the end of the 1990 to the beginning of 2000, there were up to 6 product lines for Apple computers. Even later, only iphone, Apple TV and some ipod accessory items were added. And Bigbuffalo Walkman There are more than 600 kinds of specifications, Sony President Howard Shi Ting (Howard Stringer) once lamented that, I really hope that Sony only 3 products AH.

The traditional idea is that enterprises can provide more product choices. However, each product is bound to wear down the enterprise resources (time, manpower, money), Apple's choice of slow, small number of products can attack the market share rate (ipod about 70% of the MP3 Walkman).

Another layer of focus for jobs is to say "no". When every manufacturer launches a product that offers the same specs, Apple has the courage and confidence to make it different for the consumer. Like the imac launched in 1998, jobs broke the standard specifications of the computer, took off the floppy disk, and, for the first time, used a USB interface on the computer.

While the market was not bullish on the decision at the time, Jobs was convinced that the imac was positioned as a "network computer" and that users would choose to use the Internet to transmit and access data. The change made the imac look futuristic, and Apple's computer was designed to create epoch-making products.

　　Second, the customer put the last

Many companies like to claim that they are customer-oriented, and product marketers humbly use questionnaires or focus group interviews to reach users and ask them exactly what they need. Jobs did not believe it, he only focused on observing the user experience, and his own experience of using.

It is the expression of personal ideas to show creativity in technology products. Artists cannot rely on focus group interviews to determine the direction of creation, and consumers cannot tell companies how to innovate in science and technology. Henry Ford once said that if he asked consumers what they wanted, they would say they wanted a horse that would run faster, rather than a Mercedes-Benz car.

Patrick Whitney, dean of the Design Institute at Illinois Polytechnic University in the United States, also understands that focus group interviews do not apply to technological innovation, "Users cannot tell you what they want, but should observe and discover what they want." ”

　　Third, the pursuit of perfection regardless of cost

The pursuit of perfection, regardless of cost, is the faith of Steve Jobs and the secret to Apple's outstanding design.

In January 1999, just before Apple launched a series of color imac, Jobs was practicing his product speech on stage. An American time reporter, who was present, later reported that Jobs wanted to make the new product on the stage look more dazzling, even if it was just 1 seconds ahead of the light, he tried again.

Back at the product design side, jobs thought that design meant product "function" rather than appearance. In order to implement his ideal of making technology products simple and easy to use, a product may have gone through countless times, and he has also improved the design process so that different teams can participate at the same time, rather than one linear process after another.

The highest realm of perfect product design is the so-called invisible design. Apple computers care about the brightness and color of the power switch display, care about the design of the power cord, and even the arrangement of the internal wiring of the computer is pleasing. Because of the visual and tactile aspects of these details, Apple's products are unique.

In pursuit of perfection, Mr Jobs does not deny that he often encounters bottlenecks. The way to break the bottleneck is to stop. During the Toy story, the first work of Pixar's animated film company, the team had been shut down for 5 months, during which jobs still equalling his salary to make the team "idle". If you don't have the courage to stop and think and re-imagine, there will be no later animated movie.

　　Four, only with the most intelligent people.

Jobs has a notorious notoriety: the boss of Hell. He has a high demand for the team, and he cannot tolerate the staff who are not smart enough. In his most famous Monday marathon session, he and the team examined the entire business, including what products the company sold last week, every product that is still in development, every design that meets the bottleneck, and a careful examination of the discussion.

You'll wonder why so many elites are willing to work with the bosses of hell? Because he created an environment where you can do things that can't be done elsewhere. For example, any computer introduced by Apple is unique in that it is the perfect combination of operating system and hardware. Apple computers are almost the only enterprise in the industry that can design software and hardware, and most of the software used by computers does not intersect with hardware vendors. But also because of this advantage, Apple Computer can develop from inside to outside more meet user demand of product.

It's hard to find the best employees, and it's not easy to cultivate good people, and the best way to do this is to create an environment that competitors can't replace, just like Steve Jobs.

　　V. Innovation = borrowing and linking

When it comes to innovation, Steve Jobs always quotes the famous painter Picasso (Picasso): "Good artists copy, great artists steal." "He never thought it was shameful to borrow other people's ideas.

The two innovation keywords jobs gave were "borrowing" and "linking." But the premise is, you have to know what others have done first.

Steve Jobs is constantly focused on the dynamics of the market, whether it is the advent of new technology or products, after observation and understanding of the improvement, borrowing or linking, is Apple Computer is good at the means. MP3 Walkman ipod and Smartphone iphone are the result of improved market products, and the USB interface on imac is an unprecedented borrowing and linking. Apple computers rarely invent the whole new technology themselves, they take it out of the lab and give it to the average person in a simple and easy way.

Links, you need to dabble in multiculturalism and enrich your life experience. Steve Jobs has always had a high interest in design, architecture and technology, and his office is filled with electronic parts he has dismantled, and he will even scrutinize the font, typography and weight of the company's Sony brochures, often with his team visiting museums and special exhibitions, To ingest the nutrients in the design and construction fields.

A lot of skills, after all, do not forget to inspire the enthusiasm of the team, which is the source of Apple's success. The team that developed the first generation of Apple computers used to work as slaves for 3 years, and they still love the 90-hour-a-week job. Because Steve Jobs made them believe that the computers they designed would change the entire industry and the times, they were artists who were merging technology and culture, and they would be irreplaceable.

Whether you like this person or not, Steve Jobs's maverick management and leadership style does give many managers a different way of thinking, rethinking whether the management principles that used to be customary are still applicable.

The management of jobs first learned to say "no"