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Last Friday I had a series of brilliant ideas for a blog post and by accident I did a better job proving my point than I did talking about it. In a rush I ended up making a mess of my post. So today I’d like to apologize and try to demonstrate, with a good example this time, the point I was trying to make. And that is that Steve Jobs' point to Google and others is that it is far better to do fewer things at higher quality than it is to throw crap against the wall.
Steve Jobs, through his authorized biography, gives advice to Google and Obama directly and provides some indirect advice to Microsoft. This advice is to set a pace that is fast but also where quality is preserved. It is also one of focus on who will actually use your product and not on anyone in between this includes retailers, resellers, or IT professionals. I’d also like to bring in some information from Sir Richard Branson who was asked to compare himself to Steve Jobs and provided some additional important perspective of work/life balance that Jobs himself may have learned was important at the end.
Google/Microsoft
The advice of focus that is spelled out in the book in his last meeting with Google’s CEO was indirectly tied to Microsoft as well. In effect he cautions Google that they are becoming too much like Microsoft with the implication that Microsoft is not focused enough on what is important. He is on point and historically accurate.
One of the patterns I think is really interesting is on the rise and fall of technology companies. Commodore was the first to dominate the PC space and they failed when they tried to go after the business market. Apple tried to go after the business market and was failing until Steve Jobs came back and killed those efforts. Netscape, Microsoft’s first big challenger on the Web, went from darling to dunce when they chased the business market. Microsoft reached its peak in 1995, with Windows 95 still user focused and has been in a slump ever since becoming a true enterprise vendor. Research In Motion, the only Smartphone vendor focused on the enterprise is currently failing, and Apple now ignores the enterprise and is arguably the most successful company in the segment.
Watching this, if you made user focused products, you might conclude that enterprise focus was death yet Google is off doing this and, with L.A. as an example, it isn’t going well. A big part of the Steve Jobs story is that he built products that he personally loved. So, on top of the focus message, his last message to Google and Microsoft appeared to not only be focus, but that if you are going to build user targeted products build products you love, focus on what the user wants, and don’t focus on bulk buyers like IT. Looking at the iPad and iPhone, third parties like BMC, IBM, and EMC have focused on those users and both products are hits without Apple having to do much at all.
The simple advice was to build what you love and focus on the folks who actually use the product. Sounds easy, apparently it’s not.
Message to Obama and Successors
One of the most troubling parts of the book (and I’m not done with it) is that he evidently volunteered his time to help Obama. Clearly not only the most powerful guy in the only market that truly now defines U.S. dominance, technology, but a marketing wizard and he was effectively ignored. How do you throw away an asset like this? It is clear that had Obama followed Steve’s advice to focus, do a few things well, and market what is done effectively he’d be looking at an assured second term. He didn’t and I think Jobs is right, Obama is a one-term president.
But Jobs advice transcends any one presidency and speaks to the nation. Top to bottom we lack focus, we lack perspective, we lack a willingness to take the time to do things right the first time or to keep going until we get it right. I can’t help agree this is a problem that should be a higher priority than it is.
Wrapping Up: Sir Richard Branson on Steve Jobs
One of the things I tossed into my last post as an afterthought was Sir Richard Branson talking about Steve Jobs at McAfee Focus in Las Vegas. He clearly appeared to agree with the focus and quality part of Steve’s message but he also wanted to add the need for a work/life balance. Something else I often forget myself. Branson is able to run a large number of companies and still have time for flights of fancy like Virgin Galactic, philanthropic activities, and he has a major project on alternative fuels all while still spending quality time with family. Steve, in the biography, seems to regret not spending more time with his kids and I believe, had he been able to focus more on his health, he’d still be with us today.
In the end, Steve’s unintentional lesson appears to be to focus on balance in life, make it well rounded so that the time you spend with those important to you is quality time. It is a lesson I need to relearn from time to time myself.
One final thing on the biography, and you should buy and read it, is his letter to his wife on their anniversary. It is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen written by a man to his wife and it showcases a depth and caring that most of us didn’t see in Steve. Now that he is gone we can all choose how to remember Steve, he had some troubling aspects as we all do, I’m choosing to remember him through this letter.
