Friday, July 15, 2011

"The Steve Jobs Way (iLeadership for a New Generation)" by Jay Elliot and William L Simon

The author Jay Elliot had the opportunity to work in close co-ordination with Steve Jobs as the Senior Vice President of Apple Computer. The favorable combination of circumstances helped Elliot understand the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Apple Inc. namely Steven Paul Jobs from a very close and professional angle.

In this new business/leadership category type book "The Steve Jobs Way (iLeadership for a New Generation)" by JAICO Publishing House the author Jay Elliot along with William L. Simon shares his understanding on the lessons of leadership he experienced by working in close association with Steve Jobs.

Elliot's articles and interviews have been published earlier in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Time Magazine and Fortune whereas William L. Simon holds the credit for being the award winning author of more than twenty books.

By dividing the book into five sections the author cites examples giving a detailed insight on the following aspects of leadership: Product, Talent, Organization and Marketing. Having shared these principles the author goes a step ahead in the last section and make us understand what should individuals do for doing business better and creating new products the same way Steve Jobs did.

Steve firmly believed that where there is passion and pride in one's work success can't be left far behind. In fact both of them (passion and pride) continued to be the assets of a creative mind. And, creativity according to him has never been a 9 to 5 job.

The author shows how Steve is very particular getting into granular level of product details along with his project team. There were occasions when the product had to be redesigned and delivered in the market place five months late as per the planned launched date. But, with passage of time Steve realized that its worth to launch one's product in the market place at the right time rather than eyeing for details. Experience enriched his life and helped Steve learn from these mistakes.

Here is what one-time Apple executive Jean - Louis Gasse has endorsed in this book regards Steve's Management style with a memorable phrase: "Democracies don't make great products - you need competent tyrant". People who worked for Steve forgave him, or at least tolerated his style, in part because more than anything else, he was a product tyrant, totally dedicated to delivering the products he envisioned.

One of Steve's core principles is always to hire the best - "A people," as he calls them. One of his mottoes was: "As soon as you hire a B, they start bringing in Bs and Cs." For Steve an individual's talent, passion and flair were of more prominence even if one was seen lagging a bit on technology or educational front.

Author cites the example of Steve hiring Randy Wiggington, who wrote the code for MacWord, the first real Mac application, when he was still in high school.

If you're looking to keep yourself motivated on your roads to achievements this new collection from business books category is a must read as it is well supplemented with Steve's real life experiences and examples. The book would help the readers relate their own experiences and understand Steve Jobs approach towards Leadership.

One must admit that when your product is launched the stakes are high and the pressure tremendous. Learning the principles The Steve Jobs Way it would help not only ease your pressure but also teach you Steve Jobs creative approach of iLeadership as if they were part of your own.

Author Jay Elliot with William L. Simon
Publisher JAICO Publishing House
Category Business/Leadership
Pages 256
Price Rs 250/-
ISBN 978-81-7992-768-7


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