Wozniak wanted Apple to be a family while Jobs wanted the company to grow quickly. Jobs felt that Wozniak had failed him because Woz appeared to be unfocused, and failed to get a ‘floating point’ BASIC finished for Apple II. The Apple II launched the personal computer industry. Wozniak had created the machine, and Jobs designed the exterior which was marketed more effectively. Steve Jobs wanted to spur a great advance in computers. This meant that the company had to hire more and more people, and Jobs became increasingly disrespectful towards slackers, and B Players within Apple. The point is you can’t really have a family environment in a startup that scales. And you need to scale in most competitive industries because the big players will try to destroy you at every turn. If you want to have a family like atmosphere then good luck you but expect to fail.
This is an analysis based on Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and other sources of research. Enjoy.
Jobs’ Management Style Was “Shit” from 1977 to 1985 Firing:
Steve Jobs loved to tell people that their work was shit, and would force his co-workers to pull all-nighters to finish applications. When Apple started to get going in 1978 – 1979, he would come into the office, and tell Wozniak’s engineering team that they were all shit. This further distanced the two as Wozniak felt that Jobs was abusive, and had changed. Jobs would cry easily, and he would put his feet in the toilet bowl in the middle of the day to wash them. For more stability, Michael Scott was brought into Apple Computer Inc as the president, Scott was fat, had ticks, and was highly wound.
Scott was argumentative, and Jobs clashed with him. Jobs produced conflict, and he was only 22 years old, but Apple was Jobs’ company, he did not want to relinquish control. Steve Jobs and Michael Scott fought about employee numbers. Steve Jobs wanted to be employee number 1, and Wozniak would be number 2. So Scott made Jobs’ badge number O but in reality Jobs’ pay role remained number 2. Scott was a pragmatist while Jobs was not. Steve Jobs started crying over a one year warrantee for the Apple II. At age 26, he had a successful company and the Apple II. In 1981, Jobs was kicked off the Lisa project and took over Macintosh so that he could make a contribution comparable to Wozniak.
Once at Macintosh, Jobs was considered to be a dreadful manager. Jef Raskin (who had headed the Macintosh team and disagrees with Jobs on most issues) said the following about Jobs:
a) Jobs missed most appointments;
b) Jobs acted without thinking and with bad judgment;
c) Jobs attacked any suggestion without thinking, claimed it is stupid and a waste of time only to turn around, if the idea was good, and propose the same idea as his own a week later;
d) Jobs would never give credit where it was due;
and e) Jobs would cry when conflicts erupted in board room meeting.
Michael Scott was fired as he became more and more erratic giving Jobs more power. In retrospect, the New York Times wrote: “by the early 80’s, Mr. Jobs was widely hated at Apple. Senior management had to endure his temper tantrums. He created resentment among employees by turning some into stars and insulting others, often reducing them to tears. Mr. Jobs himself would frequently cry after fights with fellow executives.”
This is an analysis based on Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and other sources of research. Enjoy.
Jobs went in to pitch Atari for support for Apple II which had colour, a power source, and keyboards. It was rejected partly because Jobs went to the meeting without shoes. Another company, building the Commodore decided that it would be cheaper to build their own machine. The Commodore Pet came out 9 months later which sucked according to Jobs. Jobs was willing to sell to Commodore but Wozniak felt that this was a bad move. They designed a simple case for the Apple II which would set Apple apart from other machines. The VisiCalc also allowed Apple II to breakinto in the Financial market. Jobs wanted light molded plastic, and offered a consultant $1,500 to produce the design. The Apple II had the advantage of not requiring a fan, or multiple jacks. Jobs wanted a closed system, a computer that was difficult to pry open. Conversely, Wozniak wanted to give hackers the chance to plug in, but Jobs did not want that option.
Steve Jobs endorsed the view that less is more, and that God is in the details. Jobs embraced the Bauhaus style which rejected Sony’s approach of gun metal or black. The alternative was to create hi-tech products by packaging the products in beautiful, white, and simple casing. Apple customers understand the value of presenting their products out of the packaging. You design a ritual of unpacking a product. Jobs also felt that intuitive ideas need to be connected in computers
This is an analysis based on Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and other sources of research. Enjoy.
Create A Simple Product For Households, Steve Jobs:
Macintosh was built around the idea that people should own their computers and computers should be for the masses. Rather than having to travel to a library or computer centre to use them, computers should be available within the home. It should be pitched as a kitchen appliance and an accounting tool. Few companies thought the computer would have mass appeal but Apple had developed the market and then began losing ground to IBM. Enter Jef Raskin, a professor, academic, and computer specialists who set up what he called the “Macintosh” office off of the main HQ of Apple Computer, Inc. Engineering brilliance was needed but Raskin was too willing to make compromises on the price point at $1,000. Raskin believed in starting with the ambitions of the immediate technology and not with Jobs’ goal of creating an insanely great machine. Raskin did not believe that they could distort reality. In fact, Jobs was moved out of the Lisa project in 1980 for his absurdities with regard to what could and couldn’t be done through the badgering of his subordinates.
This is an analysis based on Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and other sources of research. Enjoy.
A Startup Will Become Impersonal With Success:
This is an analysis based on Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and other sources of research. Enjoy.
