Diplomacy: The Indispensability of Relationships
The events surrounding Steve Jobs establishing NeXT illustrate the degree to which he considered certain relationships essential. At the September 13, 1985 meeting of Apple’s board, Steve Jobs, who was then the chairman of Apple’s board, with John Scully serving as CEO, described his plans to start a new company to create a computer for the higher education market. Steve Jobs indicated to the Apple board that the new company would in no way compete with Apple, expressing his hope that the two companies could work together.
Steve Jobs proposed two ways for Apple and NeXT to collaborate. One way was for Apple to buy distribution rights to NeXT’s computer for the higher education market. Another way was for NeXT to license McIntosh software, which was an Apple property. Furthermore, Steve Jobs promised that he would bring with him a few non-key personnel. After a confidential conversation, the directors suggested that Apple make a 10% share in the new company and asked that Steve Jobs stay on Apple’s board.
While Steve Jobs was in favor of taking the Apple investment, at a meeting that weekend, Rich Page, Bud Tribble, George Crow, Susan Barnes, and Dan’l Lewin convinced him that it would be unwise to take this investment. Bud Tribble and George Crow were members of the original Macintosh team. To make a clean break, they decided that all six of them would resign at the same time at once.
Steve Jobs wrote and hand delivered a formal letter prior to a 7:30AM staff meeting, telling John Scully that Rich Page, Bud Tribble, George Crow, Susan Barnes, and Dan’l Lewin would be leaving Apple. When John Scully indicated that each of these were key personnel, Steve Jobs pointed out that these people were neither division managers nor members of John Scully’s top team. John Scully countered that Rich Page was an Apple fellow and Dan’l Lewin was a key person for Apple in the higher education market and that they had proprietary information regarding an Apple computer for the higher education market. Apple created the Apple Fellows program to recognize individuals who make extraordinary technical or leadership contributions to personal computing while at the company. Dan’l Lewin was credited for single-handedly creating the Apple University Consortium, an effort to sell Macintosh computers to Ivy League universities at discount prices.
On September 17, 1985. Steve Jobs hand delivered a letter to Mike Markkula, a co-founder of Apple. In 1981, Mike Markkula had ceded the title of chairman to Steve Jobs and had become Apple's president until a permanent chief executive could be hired. In 1983, when Steve Jobs hired John Scully, Mike Markkula stepped aside, but remained on Apple’s board.
Susan Barnes had convinced Steve Jobs that mailing this letter would be too disrespectful. When Steve Jobs drove this letter to Mike Markkula’s house, he found Apple’s chief counsel, Al Eisenstat, there. A tense 15-minute conversation ensued. Susan Barnes, controller of the McIntosh Division at Apple, who had been waiting outside, came to the door to retrieve Steve Jobs, fearing he would say something he would later regret.
When someone from facilities went to pack up Steve Jobs belongings at Apple, he saw a glass-shattered picture frame on the floor. Steve Jobs had hurled it across the room before leaving, never again to speak to John Scully. Steve Jobs’s outburst about John Scully shows how Steve Jobs sensed and discovered evolving truths about relationships through dialogue. Steve Jobs recognized that John Scully had failed to appreciate how deeply set his values were as a founder, pursuing a noble cause, passionately believing that he was going to shape history and change the world through technology.
Members of Apple’s board felt that Steve Jobs had misled them when he pledged he would take only non-key personnel to NeXT. Arthur Rock, a venture capitalist and member of Apple’s board, was angry, because the week before the Apple board meeting, he had dinner with Steve Jobs who had made no mention of the new company he was forming. Therefore, he felt betrayed when he heard about this from John Sculley, taking the position that Steve Jobs had lied to the Apple board. Arthur Rock’s view was that Steve Jobs had indicated he was thinking about forming a new company when in fact he had already formed it.
Mike Markulla was also offended, because Steve Jobs had secretly lined up five senior-level executives, before he left the company. Steve Jobs had said he was going to take only non-key personnel.
It appears that Steve Jobs’s interaction with John Sculley, Arthur Rock, and Mark Markulla resulted in feelings of distrust. On the other hand, Steve Jobs engaged in ongoing dialoge with with Rich Page, Bud Tribble and George Crow, Susan Barnes, and Dan’l Lewin. These discussions resulted in clarity, consensus, commitment, and trust, serving the needs of key people who would become part of NeXT, and giving them spirit as employees. This discourse also resulted in transparency, harmony and devotion among this key group of lead people at NeXT.
In addition to the distrust he created with John Sculley, Arthur Rock, and Mark Markulla, Steve Jobs’s quarrelsome behavior irritated other people. For example, Alvy Ray Smith, an accomplished technologist, departed from Pixar during its early years after several conflicts with Steve Jobs. Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak stated that, during Apple’s formative years, many people who worked with Steve Jobs at that time scorned him.
“Some of my very best friends in Apple, the most creative people in Apple who worked on the Macintosh, almost all of them said they would never, ever work for Steve Jobs again.”
Steve Wozniak went on to say that, in his first years at Apple, Steve Jobs pressed people to produce products before they were complete, producing disagreement and immense anxiety among employees. However, Steve Wozniak pointed out that even though Steve Jobs would directly confront people, when they were able to tell him why they were right in understandable terms, Steve Jobs would respect those people and provide them with many privileges at Apple.
The indispensability of relationships is evident in Steve Jobs’s leadership in his growing willingess to make relationships more central. For Steve Jobs, this took the form of intentional emphasis in connecting with application developers and customers.
Another way the indispensability of relationships became evident in Steve Jobs’s leadership is in the form of empowerment. Steve Jobs championed an externally focused approach in product development, centering meetings and discussions on the unmet needs of customers. In his dealings with employees, Steve Jobs intentionally shared his thoughts and needs. In many ways, he seemed to be thinking about the technology needs that others were yet unable to envision. In his meetings with Apple employees, he shared with them this approach to product development, encompassing his vision of unmet needs.
Evidence of the indispensability of relationships in Steve Jobs’s leadership can also be seen in his collaboration with people he respected and trusted. While, throughout his career, Steve Jobs’s character destroyed a myriad of working interactions, he also established an extraordinary assortment of constructive associations with some of the most respected leaders in their fields. Due to a certain mixture of wholesome results and reciprocal respect, including his readiness to listen to people he respected and reassess his visions, Steve Jobs drew gifted collaborators and partners. Among these collaborators were Pixar’s Ed Catmull and John Lasseter.
Although Steve Jobs was the chairman and a key provider of funds during Pixar’s fledgling years and acted as principal business strategist, he was almost completely detached from the creative functions and development of Pixar films. Ed Catmull points out that Steve Jobs at no time even once became involved in story review sessions for Pixar films.
Instead, Steve Jobs trusted John Lasseter, Pixar’s creative head, Ed Catmull, Pixar’s lead technologist and president, and a small team of animators, including Pete Docter (who would go on to direct Monsters, Inc. and UP) and Andrew Stanton (who would go on to direct wall-e and Finding Nemo), to develop Pixar’s processes and ways of working. John Lasseter directed Toy Story, the first feature-length computer-animated film and first theatrical film Pixar produced. John Lasseter, Ed Catmull, Pete Docter, and Andrew Stanton had complete flexibility to institute Pixar’s method for cultivating new ideas, including extensive storyboarding and the company’s everyday gatherings where animators conversed about their works in progress to advance and build on each others’ ideas.
Debates between Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs never once became shouting disagreements, because that would depart from Ed Catmull’s personal nature, which Steve Jobs respected. There were times when Ed Catmull said something to Steve Jobs he would dismiss. Ed Catmul, however, tolerated this behavor from Steve Jobs, because he felt Steve Jobs could think faster than he could. Ed Catmull would wait a week, give Steve Jobs a counterargument—possibly again to be dismissed, repeating this pattern—sometimes for months—until the two reached a resolution.
At Apple, Steve Jobs built a mass of enormously operational, long-lasting partnerships, particularly with the senior vice president of design, Jonathan Ive, who had directed Apple’s design team since 1996. Other strong associations included Scott Forstall, the mobile software chief, with whom Steve Jobs collaborated to design and commercialize the iPhone, as well as retail chief Ron Johnson, with whom he worked closely to design and introduce Apple’s stores.
Apple’s long-time Chief Operations Officer Tim Cook became the operational balance to Steve Jobs’s creative, marketing, and product genius. Before becoming Apple’s CEO after Steve Jobs’s death, Tim Cook led huge operational improvements and efficiencies throughout Apple’s supply chain, including reducing inventories from 60 to 30 days. The partnership between Tim Cook and Steve Jobs can be compared to that between Bill Hewlett and David Packard with an effective balance of innovation (Bill Hewlett) and operations (David Packard). Steve Jobs’s constructive associations with some of the most respected leaders in their fields allow his visions and principles to live on through these collaborators.
Source Notes
At the September 13, 1985 meeting of Apple’s board, Steve Jobs, who was then the chairman of Apple’s board, with John Scully serving as CEO, described his plans to start a new company to create a computer for the higher education market: Isaacson, W. (2011) Steve Jobs. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster Dan’l Lewin was credited for single-handedly creating the Apple University Consortium, an effort to sell Macintosh computers to Ivy League universities at discount prices: All About Steve Timeline. Retrieved from http://allaboutstevejobs.com/bio/timeline.php
On September 17, 1985. Steve Jobs hand delivered a letter to Mike Markkula, a co-founder of Apple: Isaacson, W. (2011) Steve Jobs. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster Steve Jobs’s quarrelsome behavior irritated a lot of people: Sims, Peter (August 1, 2014). The Hero Returns: Steve Jobs’ real genius. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@petersimsie/the-hero-returns-steve-jobs-real-genius-54f17709077
Steve Wozniak went on to say that, in his first years at Apple, Steve Jobs pressed people to produce products before they were complete, producing disagreement and immense anxiety among employees: Gibbs, S. (2014). Steve Wozniak: No one wanted to work under Steve Jobs ever again. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/08/steve-wozniakr-steve-jobs-apple
While, throughout his career, Steve Jobs’s character destroyed a myriad of working interactions, he also established an extraordinary assortment of constructive associations with some of the most respected leaders in their fields: Sims, Peter (August 1, 2014). The Hero Returns: Steve Jobs’ real genius. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@petersimsie/the-hero-returns-steve-jobs-real-genius-54f17709077
Ed Catmull and Larry Ellison point out that Steve Jobs at no time even once became involved in story review sessions for Pixar films: CNET (2012). Pixar, Oracle, and the Steve Jobs Connection at D10 [blog]. Retrieved from http://live.cnet.com/Event/Pixar_Oracle_and_the_Steve_Jobs_connection_at_D10?Page=1
Steve Jobs could be persuaded to change his views when he respected, valued, and trusted the people involved: Sims, Peter (August 1, 2014). The Hero Returns Steve Jobs’ real genius. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@petersimsie/the-hero-returns-steve-jobs-real-genius-54f17709077
Excerpt from: Universal Characteristics in The Leadership of Steve Jobs
Available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B081J113NT
