On Steve Jobs

This is based on Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I have included many of my observations.

It is nice to catch hold of the book, while so many snippets are being quoted out of the book in the media, apart from being sad about Steve's departure :(

I have already read 3 books on Jobs: John Sculley's 'Odyssey', What's in Steve's Mind and iCon. In spite of the earlier reading, Isaacson has made the treatment so special, I am going through Steve's life in the book without skipping any page! Isaacson has done his research well. And he has a way to bring the details to life. Not only he gives the view of the subject as known to self also balances with the views from others.

Read about Steve's childhood, background, schooling very nicely sketched portrayal without any reality distortion! In fact, I had a complaint about the last two books I had read on Steve. While one was as sugary as an 'insider's job' the other was highly critical even when the negativity was unwarranted! Here, the author, not only provides balanced view but also enriches our understanding by his own insights. In a way, he compares Steve to Shakespeare's Henry V.

Though Steve doesn't agree, 'abandoning' had been a very strong theme in his life. He was abandoned by real parents and he did the same for his first child! Some of my takeaways!
- Steve was no doubt, a brilliant person with near 150IQ (He was offered upgrade by 2 classes while at his 5th grade).
- He was restless due to better intellect. Only one teacher could understand and channelize his energies in solving tougher problems!
- Though Steve picked up good craftsmanship from his father. (He would care for the aesthetics for the invisible parts too.) 

 - Steve could pretty soon realize that he was smarter than his dad! In a way Steve could, pretty early in life, find out whether the others are better off than him or not!
- He developed leadership skills pretty early and could exercise those skills.
- He picked up a great skill in negotiating with vendors through his father.
- For him, the real biological father was irrelevant! 

 - He grew as independent minded & could take business calls without formal exposure to it!
- Pretty soon, he could figure out what needs to be done to make money in a given situation.
- He developed a great eye for talent and would manage the talent well
- In my view, he reached 'Self Realization' peak of Maslow's Hierarchical needs faster than anybody else, hence the quest for spirituality, hippy-ism and India visit
- Fruitarianism, vegan-ism, .... were signs of reaching peak of the self actualization.
- His pricing sense, whether for Blue Box or Apple I is astute, to say the least, Apple I pricing: WP=3XCost and RP=133%WP!
- He, though wasn't fair, could provide counterweight to Woz's idealism.  (Atari's Self Pong version!) Even Woz was sad for not being fair but wouldn't use that as a criteria while evaluating Steve.
- Definitely, due to his angst ridden existence, Steve didn't develop the flair for fairness as anybody else but the same background helped him to leap ahead in other spheres of life.
- Though his lone India visit exposed him to that days' India's poverty beyond his expectation. He could appreciate the intuition of the Indians and consciously converted that into his strength.
- One of the greatest show of sharpness of the author: The author could figure out Steve's wife is the smartest one he has come across at the same time. She is well grounded! She could clearly tell the author to focus on truths while Steve may get him in his famous 'Reality Distortion Field'
- Steve, a naturally shy person, picked up the tricks of staring in the eyeballs and punctuating discussions with long silences to cow-down the other person from Friedman at All One Farm.
- Nolan Bushnell of Atari could spot 'undefinable element' of entrepreneurship in Steve! He could also influence Steve in presenting his ideas in a grand manner!
- Mike Markkula could teach a lesson or two in marketing to Steve! (especially: 1. Empathy to providing great customer value, 2 Focus, on the products and markets and 3. Impute: Creating the right impression to make great promises and keep them!
- His famed Reality Distortion Field (RDF), looks to me more like, a combination of his sheer charisma, some well practiced influencing tactics and real insights, which can't be explained in rational terms with the limited understanding of the other person. The author has addressed in a separate exclusive chapter on this. He also enlists the tactics by the employees to overcome this.
 - For me it looks more like Steve's way of adjusting to corporate culture defiantly. Coming from 'abandoned' mentality, strong 'counter culture', relatively different 'spiritual understanding' ... background. It was Steve's way of adjusting to (redefine) the Corporate culture!
- Additionally, for somebody without formal management education, he had to  manage with his natural abilities. By the time he succeeded, he hadn't acquired enough maturity and wisdom in managing people. Additionally, he had developed his own 'spiritual superiority' over others!
- The above factors might have contributed to his brashness.
- Since many of his employees understood this aspect implicitly or otherwise, responded in the like manner.
- A few of them didn't mind going against his wish, when needed (especially, Sony 3.5inch FDD for iMac) he accepted saying that 'He would have done the same, if he were in his place!
- IMHO, Steve succeeded because he took big risk when it was needed. He succeeded immensely, in spite of his weaknesses because more able managers/leaders didn't take the risk at that time!
- The great take away is 'take a plunge to put the ding in the Universe!'
- Largely rationalism has been pessimistic so the success in the face of many uncertainties seems almost improbable. But, for the rational optimists it all looks the other way, highly probable!

- Looks like, Steve Jobs picked the following from his biological father
   - Emotional 'Disconnect'
   - Quest for knowledge, Art and wisdom (Shown by Mona Simpson too)
  From nurturing by his 'parents'
   - He picked up eye for details, perfection. (Even for the parts inside, got stretched far into the assembly line!)
   - Middle Class Values (the way he lived v/s the other billionaires).
- His quest for perfection led to emotional distancing
- His 'A Class people and Ideas' concept increased his capability to identify and grow the talents to deliver the best products, but his brutal ways of addressing the others (non A type) created huge distraction.

- In fact, Isaacson brings that aspect through the 'binary world' of Steve!
- In a nutshell, He could foresee the future, find the gaps to address through products. He could get the right team and resources to deliver the 'perfect' products.
- He was a great leader; He could inspire the best capable people to deliver great results. But managing other people, processes, systems, was not his forte!
- He went with great spirit to build NeXT; the managerial challenges let him down!
- Pixar, though bought for hardware and graphics was a great revelation of getting into software (movies!)
- I was thinking, if Steve had grown up in Hollywood, he would have been a great movie maker like Lasseter, whom he gave free hand and encouragement in spite of losses.
- Pixar became a great come back vehicle for Jobs! (In a way, Next OS too was a vehicle to get into Apple!) Probably, the message lied in getting into Software and Hardware! 
- I always thought iPod should've come from Sony. I was pleased to see Isaacson's argument to the same pointer! In 2003, the new CEO of Sony-BMG raised the issue at the annual meeting!
- IMHO, I always felt in the Technology Adoption Curve by Geoffrey Moore that the  tornado phase happens while the 'ecosystem' is in place. iPod with iTune proves that; even MicroSoft's success (thanks to IBM created ecosystem!)
- In a way, Steve Jobs could create ecosystem & the products to ride the tornado! eg: iPod, IPhone and IPad
- BTW, Steve always (right from Mid '80s) played on the idea of iPad through Touchscreen pioneers,  Small format PCs....

- My view that, if one takes risks, with a view to create great products/offers and if he is flexible enough to adapt to the world around. Then s/he succeeds tremendously in spite of odds against him.

- IMHO, Dan Estridge (?/!), who built the PC ecosystem for IBM, would have become a great partner for Jobs to redefine the market. He let it go to remain in IBM. That's a great revelation!

- Steve Jobs talks about Class A guys being 50X better than the rest! They also want  to be with the other Class A guys!  For a startup, or any great company it's critically important to discriminate between passionate, great talent and the rest.
- One of the ways to ensure that is to allow the candidates to express themselves fully about their passions and ask them to show the proof of what they can deliver. Steve had almost rejected a candidate. The candidate came across Steve again in the office and requested to demonstrate a capability he had built. Steve gave a chance. The candidate demonstrated a move over effect of magnifying of an icon in a cluttered desktop. No wonder Steve took him in on the spot and... it was the prominent feature of MacOSX!

- Jobs admitted later that he could feel that the increased importance of motivation while building great products and great company.

- My take away: Passion and capability (referred as Class A people.) catalyzed by motivation towards common goal will deliver great results. It could be 100X or more in terms of productivity!

- In spite of the success of iPod, though grudgingly and frustratingly admitted by Bill Gates as a master stroke. MicroSoft took nearly  3 years to respond with a comparable product. But the product took 3 more years to achieve just 5% share! 

- There were elements of quirkiness, darkness in Steve Jobs; Though he matured and mellowed after NeXT episode. IMHO, he could achieve greatness because of the following.

•      Choose great passionate people, 
•      Provide collaborative work (no PPTs! only across the table sharing), 
•      Pick the critical candidates with consensus from top guys from all departments, 
•      Consistent and Continuous Review system (Monday - Operations., Tuesday - Design, Wednesday - Marketing meetings!) 
•      Passionate involvement from the CEO, ... 
•      Annual Top100 meetings
• Seek Top10 ideas for the next year
• Brainstorm rigorously
• Focus on Top 3 amongst them!
• Empathy for the customers (though need not do the market research!)
• An eye on the latest technologies
• Creative and helpful (Min.10X effect) inclusion in products
• Look at the second rate implementation of the emerging technology, polish and deliver Eg: Siri!)
• Focus on only a few products
• But develop upto minimum Gen4 products at the beginning!
• Impute: Create hype and deliver beyond the hype!

  - Imagine, if he wasn't having those dark elements!!

'Talent Masters' By Ram Charan & Bill Conaty: A Review

Found it to be a great read! Good pointers for business leaders to nurture talent. The case studies mentioned are highly illustrative, the issues brought forward by the authors compel to take action!

Insights derived from talent nurturing practices in GE, PnG, HUL,... are shared.

Bill Conaty had been with GE, Ram Charan has been associated with GE for long. GE's practices and insights are seen both from insiders and outsiders perspectives, incisively. The insights are highly valuable.

I am just going through the chapter on HUL's practices. Contact book concept along with Tutor, Coach and Mentor roles as part of talent nurturing process is a great model in execution.

Reading about PnG's talent management practices. 'Discovered' that Jeffrey Immelt of GE, Steve Ballmer of MicroSoft ... worked with PnG earlier!

Immensely effective talent management and leadership development strategies are peppered with the cases from the best of the best organizations. It has been wonderful reading it. Going through the concise takeaways, mentioned at the end of the book!

After reading Flow and Good Business, the practices of the Talent Masters seem to achieve meaning (complexity) through Flow. The talent masters create a talent for their leaders to achieve flow through arousal by giving challenging jobs. When these leaders reach control stage for the given jobs, they are given more challenging jobs to realize their potential. Such leaders create, sustain and proliferate leadership pipelines in their organizations.

Bill Conaty and Ram Charan, share their wisdom on talent management through numerous case studies. In addition, they end the book (as is the case with most of the books authored by Prof. Ram Charan) with specific and concise executable take-aways for the reader. Highly rewarding book!

The Ten Faces of Innovation - Flavours of Innovation!

Tom Kelly brings 10 persona of innovation to send the 'Devil's Advocate', to hell, where he belongs!

We have capability to don different roles to bring out innovator within us. A few may exhibit predominant bias towards one or a few of the roles. The author talks about such roles and helps us to identify to understand and implement the process of innovation in all spheres of life!

Anthropologist: This persona brings 'Human Factors' perspective to the innovations by observing people's way of getting things done. One of the outstanding observations is about the 'anthropologists' who don't give up until they discover something!

Experimenter: Keeps on working on various experiments to bring out innovations. One of the role models is Thomas Alva Edison, who famously said I didn't fail 1,000 times but found out 1,000 new ways of doing things...' Incidentally, Wright brothers also worked on 200 prototypes before succeeding! Experiments and prototypes need not be elaborate,, they can be as simple as a paper cutout!

Cross Pollinator: I consider Steve Jobs is a great example of this persona. Akio Morita also comes to mind. Tom talks about aerospace field borrowing initially from bicycles and now the roles are reversed! ........... 

Hurdler: The visual representation of the face is 'back flip' in high jump! This technique was never considered to be the appropriate until an innovative high jumper won gold medals (including Olympics) in succession! The best story is about Virgin's Richard Bronson wasn't getting $10Mn. to upgrade his fleet! He turned the problem on its head to get $4Bn. to get fleet of flights at never before and never after best pricing! 

Collaborator: The one who can form and lead the team of right people to solve the right problem, irrespective of boundaries, organizational or otherwise. The best example he quotes is about his own firm: How IDEO was formed out of 3 companies. He also gives an illustrative example of how an employee from Kraft collaborated successfully with a logistics service provider to achieve mutually beneficial objective for both the companies on continuous basis. Thomas Edison figures here too, as a person who leveraged collaborator persona to build his firm!

Director: Apt role model Steven Spielberg, with a quote on top 'I get paid to dream'! The directors go all the distance to deliver results allowing the actors to shine staying in the background. Unforgettable image associated, the great directors are seen only when receiving the Oscars!

Experience Architect: For the 'Experience Economy', 'experience architects' come out with innovative solutions. Kelly talks about "Merit Badges' replacing material possessions. The thrust is on enhanced experiences.

Set Designer: Make the ambiance vibrant and funky to get great results. Though difficult to prove, can't deny effectiveness in delivering innovation!

Caregiver: Caring doctors or nurses are the representation of this persona.

Story Teller: For me Abraham Lincoln is the great epitome of such a persona.

Overall, a very good reference book! I could see the influence of this book and Tom Kelly on Business Model generation too! 

Inside the Tornado - Geoffrey Moore Coaches on How2Ride One!

Inside the Tornado, takes off from Crossing the Chasm' as noted by Apple's Steve Jobs. High tech entrepreneurs made money by riding the tornado while lost in crossing the chasm. Moore introduces 'Bowling Alleys', Tornadoes, Main-streets, one comes across on the journey into technology adoption cycle after entering into early mainstream. He derives heavily from the successes of Oracle, Intel, HP, MicroSoft ... and failures of Ingres, MicroPro of WordStar,....

At the beginning of the tech cycle adoption, in the early markets, the start-up needs to woo the economic users in niche markets to get considerable market share. The start up needs to gain tremendous (upto 40%) market share (right at the bowling alleys) and preferably clear market leadership in some of the niche markets (being #2 in many niche markets is not as good as having #1 position in at least a couple of markets Remember, the Pragmatists and Conservatives prefer #1!) to leverage the tornado (gaining all the way to 50% market-share or more to achieve Gorilla status to get to eat and  digest the raining bananas in the tornado!) through bowling alleys. Bowling, the pins (here the niche markets) to be hit needs to be chosen based on how under-served and overshot markets are they. And further, the start-up needs to figure out smartly the sequence of the other niche markets in such a way as to brew the tornado and ride it smartly. All these maneuvers in the market need street smartness, better understanding of technology and market shifts on continuous basis. The managements needs to cohesively understand the dynamics and implement the necessary practices.

Bowling alley situation is more in line with, what Ram Charan explains in profitable growth strategies and tactics in 'Every Business is Growth Business'. The high tech industry has an interesting characteristic of phenomenal paradigm shifts due to 'Moore's Law' (attributed to James Moore of Intel) and 'Network Effect's. So, continually, the market will be shifting from Bowling alleys to Tornadoes repeatedly at decreasing time space thus leading to Sea horse shaped stairs to heaven thus creating 'Tornado Alleys'! 

At the same time, the Bowling Alley and Tornado periods need diametrically different approaches to markets. So, only a consummate player can keep the leadership. That's where premium for street smartness combined with wisdom comes into play. In fact, Moore congratulates Intel for coming out with great strategies and tactics to ride the successive tornadoes smartly. And he says that the companies like Intel need not read books about 'Inside the Tornado'; they are writing their own books with the underlying motto being Only the Paranoid Survive!, the name of the book written by Andy Grove!

The book makes lot of sense even today, when read in conjunction with Christensen's 'Innovator's...' series and Seizing the White Space in addition to 'Blue Ocean Strategy'.

Provides very valuable insights for high-tech entrepreneurs keen to ride the tornadoes. Provides the vocabulary, an 'easy to visualize' framework and also very helpful strategies and tactics to navigate the bowling alleys, tornadoes and main streets. As the entrepreneurs move from early days of early majority to mainstream into (main streets) the products (offerings) assume the nature of FMCGs. In such a scenarios, the entrepreneurs need to get into the skin of successful FMCG products removing their inhibitions regarding mass marketing, especially line extensions and cannibalizing the own products. 

Due to the emergence of dispersed decision support tools possible because of SaaS offerings, the buying center navigation into large organizations may become unnecessary. This fact needs to be considered while adopting the strategies suggested in the book. 

One of the good things about the book is that Moore provides practical advices regarding the winning strategies and  tactics to be adopted while going through different milestones of the Technology Adoption Life Cycle (TALC). The advice is specific to different roles ie. for Gorillas, Chimps and Monkeys... BTW, though lot has changed, the underlying principles outlined in the book are always applicable! 

A thorough reference guide for High tech entrepreneurs with innovative products with a plan to dominate the market as gorilla!

Helps a lot in riding the tornadoes emerging now!

A very useful book for the high tech entrepreneurs!

Dealing with Darwin - Geoffrey Moore's Insights to Jumpstart Evolution!

Geoffrey Moore has done commendable work on the high technology adoption by the market. He has come out with brilliant executable strategies to help the companies to navigate highly uncertain yet interesting times to thrive on!

Geoffrey Moore has built good number of comprehensive models covering Technology Adoption & Category Maturity Lifecycles, appropriate strategic and tactical responses at different stages of these lifecycles. For the organizations with multiple products/offerings at different stages the innovation management can be chaotic. The author succeeds in coming out with a single super-model (pun intended!) to apply seemingly different approaches within the same organization. Brilliant!

A great thing about Geoffrey is, he comes out with very convincing models from the other disciplines. Here, in addition to Darwinism for the market evolution applied to Tech adoption & product life-cycle, he brings fractals (Based on advanced maths) concept to mature industry dynamics. The beauty of such models is that it suddenly gives the reader new dimensions to explore, in addition to the model's memorability! No wonder, I look forward to his next title! Interestingly, Infosys also features as one of the organizations assiduously following Operational Excellence through value engineering.

His depth of understanding of high tech industry at ground level execution is truly amazing. He fortifies his theories with the breadth of knowledge to make the management models vividly striking & memorable. In addition, these constructs facilitate the reader to get newer insights from different perspective!

Moore comes out with the framework to reinvest in 'Core' - the key competitive differentiators and 'Context' - standardization & productivity enhancing processes & resources. He urges the managements to keep on investing on core taking away from context. Core, here is different from core competency; Core is a set of the key competitive differentiators in the market, which keeps on shifting with the changes in the market. 'Core' should not be confused with 'Core Competency'.

In this book, Moore offers us a framework on innovations through out Technology Adoption Cycle and also Category Maturity Cycle along with the most appropriate innovation strategies to be adopted. And he advises the reader to evolve strategic response (many a time, combination of multiple innovation strategies) in consultation with the team, without blindly following the prescription. Because, in real life, the response should be based on what is practically more effective and optimal.

The author also provides insight on how to keep the innovation engine through Core & Context concepts and how to leverage 'innovations' and 'inertia' within the firms.

Highly recommended!

Business Model Generation - The Right Tool for the New Age Entrepreneurs!

Un-put-downable!

One of the best tools for capturing the essence of a business idea and to develop the business model collaboratively. Fills the long standing gap for such a tool.

The time is ripe for more business models to emerge. This is the hand book where Tom Kelly meets Michael Porter! As the opportunities emerge for 'dreamers' to turn into 'doers' effortlessly. Thanks to the technological advances; the tools also are available to share the dreams to effective execution!

Canvas: Covers elements of Business Model representation. The elements are KP (Key Partners), KA (Key Activities), KR (Key Resources), VP (Value Proposition), CR (Customer/Client Relationship) CH (CHannel), CS (Customer/Client Segments), C$ (Cost Structure) and R$ (Revenue Streams). The canvas makes it so easy to communicate the whole business model in a page!

Patterns: Predominant Business models: Unbundling (attributed to Airtel!), Long Tail, Freemium, Multi-sided Platform, Open Platform (for IP Assets) ....

Design: Customer Viewpoint (through Empathy Map), Ideating, Visualizing, Prototyping, Story Telling,....

Strategy: Compttv Advantage, STEEPLED, SWOT, Blue Ocean Strategy, Scenarios....

Mind Map married to the Business Model Canvas!

Simply amazing!

The greatest achievement of the book is to bring all the right stuff in a single book and create toolbox for a 'Business Model Generator'. This is the best tribute to the age, where we are heading towards Business Model Adoption Cycles' graduating from 'Product and Technology Adoption Cycles' ... and these cycles are appearing at faster frequencies!

Not2B missed reference for the new age breakthrough wizpreneurs!