I’ve taken a while to think about what to say after Steve Jobs death. I was shocked as most people in my generation. A huge loss. After the flood of words posted about Steve, it’s kind of hard to know what to say that isn’t just regurgitation. But finally, while riding the Muni 1 bus to work today, I realized there was one point of view, I hadn’t heard yet. Steve Jobs, for all the wonderful things he accomplished, he was not a strategist, at least as far as most people think of one.
Strategy is defined in wikipedia as “a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal.” Could you ever imagine Steve in the military or working at GE surrounded by MBAs coming up with net present value proven plans? Not quite. Rather than embarking on focus group, business planning and financial analysis; Steve was more mad scientist slash perfectionist about the user experience, about design, making sure every screw was just right, delaying an OS until the scrollbar was just right. Not what a strategist would do at all as strategists traditionally value the ideas over execution (especially their ideas.) In most organizations, business success is driven by clear strategic business objectives, analysis such as Porter five forces and financial simulations. But Steve seemed to skip all that, just as he skipped university. Instead of wielding words that attempt to explain how the stars should line up, he rolled up his sleeves, insisted on every little thing being done just right and inspired people around him to do the same. He even didn’t care what consumers said they wanted. Somehow this man who said you can only connect the dots when things are already over, redefined technology as we knew it by following his instincts about what would make simpler and more elegant technology.
The enormous vacancy Steve Jobs has left behind is partially because there are so few industry leaders like him who take the user experience so seriously, even when it costs more. His vision was as low as it was high, and as detail-focused as it was inspired. Steve Jobs proved definitively that it’s really about delivering expertly designed technology, again and again. Possibly it’s unfair to say Steve Jobs wasn’t a strategist. He had his strategy but it was so close to actual execution that it allowed Apple to innovate.
Words from Steve Jobs about starting from the user experience, not the technology…
Lance Shields
