Saturday, December 24, 2011

Quotes from Steve Jobs's biography (so I don't forget)

"There are a lot of great people at Apple, but they're doing the wrong things because the plan has been wrong," he said. "I've found people who can't wait to fall into line behind a good strategy, but there just hasn't been one."

"We at Apple had forgotten who we were. One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are..."

One of the first things Jobs did during the product review process was ban PowerPoints. "I hate the way people use slide presentations instead of thinking," Jobs later recalled. "People would confront a problem by creating a presentation. I wanted them to engage, to hash things out at the table, rather than show a bunch of slides. People who know what they're talking about don't need PowerPoint."

"In so many other companies, ideas and great design get lost in the process," [Ive] said. "The ideas that come from me and my team would have been completely irrelevant, nowhere, if Steve hadn't been here to push us, work with us, and drive through all the resistance to turn our ideas into products."

Many companies pride themselves on having few meetings. Jobs had many: an executive staff session every Monday, a marketing strategy session all Wednesday afternoon, and endless product review sessions. Still allergic to PowerPoints and formal presentations, he insisted that the people around the table hash out issues from various vantages and the perspectives of different departments.