Inside Steve's Brain
by Leander Kahney
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Book Summary Information
Author: Leander KahneyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2008-04-17
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
Book Reviews of Inside Steve's Brain
Book Review: A good profile on a fascinating subject
Summary: 4 Stars
The author compiled his material from public media as he did not have access to Steve Jobs. If you have followed Jobs career closely this book may not offer many new insights. On the other hand, if you have not this book is a treat. The author has followed Apple closely. He has already written The Cult of Mac, The Cult of iPod and covered Apple as a journalist for 12 years.
Jobs thinks differently from any other CEOs. He is primarily focused on design and simplicity of products. Everything he does is original from the iPod to today's network of Apple stores. Jobs is obsessed about packaging and advertising that most other CEOs ignore.
Jobs is a paradox. He is known to be the most charming person one minute and the number one bully the next. Also, he manages Apple as the archetypal micromanager from hell. However, he manages Pixar as a hands off manner. And, he is equally successful in both ventures. At Apple, he has created the most innovative environment within the hi-tech industry. But, it is a pressure cooker. Burn outs and firings are common. Somehow, Jobs keeps attracting top talent to revive innovation and keep Apple way ahead of the PC industry.
Pixar is a different story. There Jobs has created a unique nurturing environment unlike the cut-throat short term contract model of the movie business. Pixar programmers, designers, story tellers, and directors are long term employees. Their livelihood is secure. Their creativity is unbound and is 100% retained by Pixar. This is a huge competitive advantage. As a result, they have a 10 year lead in animation technology.
Despite the huge differences between Apple and Pixar, there is one area where Apple is like Pixar. This is design. Apple outsources a lot of the manufacturing and assembling but not the design. Jobs treats design as the number one proprietary competitive edge of Apple. It is managed by one of the best industrial designer, Jonathan Ives. Similar to Pixar, the Apple's design team is closely knit and has a very long tenure at the company.
When Joseph Schumpeter, an Austrian economist, came up with his concept of "creative destruction" as explained in Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy first published in 1942, he must have anticipated Steve Jobs rising. Indeed, Jobs is a top creative destroyer. Think of what he did to the movie business (Pixar), the music business (iTunes, iPod), the smart cell phone business (iPhone with apps store). In each cases, he has taken those industry apart and created new business models.
The author explains why Apple has been a closed system for so long. It insures robustness, compatibility, and ease of use that Microsoft will never match. Microsoft has to work out compatibility with so many different PC manufacturers and peripheral companies, it is a losing battle. Today, Apple is more open. The inner components of its PCs are increasingly interchangeable with Windows PCs. But, the difference is that Apple develops its own operating system that serves only its own hardware. Also, Apple's vertical integration allows it to seamlessly develop digital ecosystems. Everything works with everything else, the hardware, the software, the digital interface. That's why no one can readily compete with the iPod or the iPhone. To take on those products you first have to develop the counterpart to iTunes and the special apps stores. That's so far too tall an order.
With all of those achievements, Jobs has no college degree and is not an engineer or a programmer. The author suggests his lack of hi tech skills is a competitive advantage. He does not think like a programmer or an engineer. He does not know what is impossible. So, he barges through barriers others would consider terminal constraints. In every product Apple delivered, he had to challenge his engineers and programmers who told him certain features were just impossible... maybe not... not for Steve!
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