Steve Jobs and Apple: A Rare Life in Rare Photos

On his last day as CEO, Steve Jobs announced that “Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it.” That may be, but with the passing of the torch to former COO Tim Cook, it’s safe to say that an era is over.

In the following gallery, BNET’s Wired In blogger Erik Sherman looks at the iconic leader and the indelible mark he left on Apple — and the world — over the years.

Please click here to begin the gallery tour. You may also wish to check out the video tour. If so, please click here.

Erik Sherman is a freelance writer, editor, and photographer. His work has appeared in such publications as the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Fortune, Inc, Newsweek Japan, the Financial Times, Chief Executive, Advertising Age, and CIO Insight. Before going into journalism, he was head of product marketing at a publicly-held technology company and later was an independent business consultant.

Follow him on Twitter at @ErikSherman or on Facebook.

For daily updates, follow Erik Sherman on Twitter.

e-Books Have Limited Popularity in Colleges

I have long been a basher of electronic book readers, such as the Kindle and Nook.  I believe in traditional books, and in outlets that sell and distribute books in print.  Books are symbolic, and when anyone stores them on a reader, this facet disappears.  I have developed this argument in a previous blog post, and you can access it by clicking here.

To that end, I was pleased to read this today (August 25, 2011) from the Harvard Business Review Online Daily Stat:

E-readers are not about to kill print books in the college environment: Very few students with e-readers use them for all of their reading, and most students with e-readers use them for one-third of their reading or less, according to a survey of 1,705 students by Nancy M. Foasberg of Queens College in New York City. Only 15.7% of respondents who said they read e-books used dedicated e-readers; the rest used computers or cell phones. 74% of respondents didn’t read e-books at all.

However, the title of the piece is misleading.   It is called:  “E-Readers Gain Ground Slowly in College.”   I think that is true only if we start from zero.   I am unimpressed by a figure of 15.7% . 

There are some professors at colleges and universities who use our 15MinuteBusinessBooks.com  site as a resource for their classes.  To be clear, every entry we have available on that site was from a traditional, in-print book.  Every book that we present at the First Friday Book Synopsis  in Dallas comes from a traditional, in-print book that we read and give away in a drawing.  And, we will continue to do so.  These are both services owned and operated by Creative Communication Network.

And, think about it.  Do you really want an instructor in the classroom to say “please scroll to ____” instead of “please turn to page _____?” 

What do you think about this?

Let’s talk about it really soon!

Here It Is – Steve Jobs’ Business Philosophy In Three Short Sentences

I’m not a techie.  That’s why I have always relied on Apple.  I’ve used nothing but Apple for all the years I have had a computer, and now I’m on my third iMac (and can’t wait for my next one), I use an iPhone and an iPad.  The iPad is the best “thing” I have ever owned in my life.

So this is a sad morning for me.

In the beginning...

Farhad Manjoo weighs in on Steve Jobs this morning on Slate, after the stunning (though clearly expected) announcement that he is stepping down as CEO.  Here is a portion of Manjoo’s article, Who Needs Him? Apple will do amazingly well without Steve Jobs:

I don’t mean to dismiss Jobs’ contributions. He has been as central to Apple’s success as one man has ever been to any firm in the history of business. But Jobs’ achievement wasn’t just to transform Apple from a failing enterprise into a staggeringly successful one. More important was how he turned it around—by remaking it from top to bottom, installing a series of brilliant managers, unbeatable processes, and a few guiding business principles that are now permanently baked into its corporate culture. Apple today operates in the image of Steve Jobs—and it’s going to remain that way long after he’s gone.
Jobs has done something that must be unprecedented in the consumer goods business: He’s turned a luxury brand into a mainstream one while still hanging on to luxury profits.
This last thing—hanging on to profits—is another central tenet of Jobs’ leadership, one that isn’t going go away after he’s gone. Indeed, if you were to sum up Jobs’ entire approach to business in a single pithy line, it would go something like this: Make good stuff. Make it cheap. Sell it for more than you make it.

Here are the three key sentences:

Make good stuff. Make it cheap. Sell it for more than you make it.

Business 101.  It reminds me of the way Fried and Hannson put it in Rework:

The truth is every business, new or old, is governed by the same set of market forces and economic rules.  Revenue in, expenses out.  Turn a profit or wind up gone…  Anyone who takes a “we’ll figure out how to profit in the future” attitude to business is being ridiculous.  A business without a path to profit isn’t a business, it’s a hobby…
Start an actual business… Act like an actual business and you’ll have a much better shot at succeeding. 

But…after acknowledging this, I confess that I am not as optimistic as Mr. Manjoo about the long-term for Apple.  I wrote a blog post a while back, comparing Steve Jobs’ insight to that of the fictional (based on the real Anna Wintour) character Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada:  Steve Jobs, The Market Of One – His Opinion Is The Only One That Matters.  Quoting from the book Little Bets:

The Steve Jobs factor…The person who makes those decisions …is Jobs.  He’s the market – not users.  He’s the market of one, in the case of Apple…”

I hope Apple continues to amaze us with astounding new, useful, innovative, game-changing products.  But Steve Jobs really is without peer.

——–

The best tweet I read included this:

iSad.

Online Impressions Depend Upon Old-Fashioned Courtesy

Holly Finn is  a columnist for the Wall Street Journal.  She wrote a recent impactful article, “Making Nice in the Online World:  In the New Peer-to-Peer Economy, Being Courteous is a Must” (August 13-14, 2011, p. C12).

I pulled this line out for you to think about:  “In this world, you trade wares personally, everyone knows your business and gossip is gold.” 

This line is true because younger professionals today spend more time socializing digitally than face-to-face.  She calls this “clicking not cliquing.”   There are many options available online to everyone  for a vast variety of products and services.  Each day, the Internet features a start-up company that tries to nudge its way into the marketplace.

She states:  “The trick is that you  have to make the bed, say please and thank you and be true to your word.  All these start-ups rely on a rating system.  Buyers and sellers are the same people in this community, and as it grows, you stay only if you behave well.  It’s Emily Post etiquette, digitized.  And it’s effective:  Millenials may not listen to anyone over 35, but they’re rapt with each other.”

The implication of this article is that it is not price, features, or benefits that makes as much of a difference as how you are treated.  “It’s smart to act nicely if you might meet again, particularly if your actions are unceasingly recorded“

Do you agree with this?  Does this fit into your online experiences?

Let’s talk about it really soon?

 

Wild Textbook Format Should Resonate With Young Adult Students

In addition to serving as President of my performance intervention business in Dallas, Creative Communication Network, I also teach part-time in the College of Business MBA program at the University of Dallas, and for two community colleges in the Dallas County Community College District.

I thought the format of one of the books that we have adopted at Brookhaven Community College for the freshman course in Speech Communication is quite revolutionary.  The book is entitled Think Communication, authored by Isa N. Engleberg and Dianna R. Wynn (Allyn & Bacon, 2011).

This is a 4-color, ultra-glossy book, that looks more like an oversized magazine.  The  pages are 8 1/2 x 11″ in portrait format.  It is 386 pages long.  It is “snazzy” with a busy, nontraditional format on each page, with different and striking headers.  The book also links to a web site for interactive exercises and reflections (www.thethinkspot.com).

You are probably thinking this book sounds very expensive.  In fact, I have seen some accounting textbooks that are 4-color run more than $350.  You will be as shocked as I am to find that the book is only $57, and on Amazon.com, sells for just $45.

The book should be a major hit for Generation Y and Z college students.  Each page looks just like they are used to on computer and television screens.  The pages are busy, filled with format that changes as they go through a chapter.

This book is part of a larger series that all have the same format.  There are books for courses in government, psychology, sociology, public relations, human sexuality, and critical thinking.

We are just now starting to use this book in the fall 2011 term.  I am interested to see how students like it, and more importantly, if it results in higher test and course grades.

How do you react to this?

Let’s talk about it really soon

Back to the Future With Physical Paperback Books

In a stunning reversal against the digital book market, the Wall Street Journal reports that a successful author has turned to phyiscal paperbacks through a contract with a traditional publisher.  The article, authored by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, is entitled “E-Book Author Tries New Format:  Real Paperbacks” (August 23, 2011, p. B4).

The  author, John Locke, was the first self-published writer to sell more than one million digital books on Amazon.com.   The contract with CBS Corporation’s Simon & Schuster will distribute eight of Locke’s thrillers that feature Donovan Creed, a former CIA assassin.

Despite the trend of books moving to the digital format, and despite the trend of traditional bookstores such as Borders closing, the good news is that “there are still lots of retail outlets for books,” according to a quote in the article from Adam Rothberg, a spokesperson for Simon & Schuster.

Are you surprised by this?

Let’s talk about it really soon! 

 

3 Ways to Spot a Liar

 

 

Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here.

In today’s business world, there is no shortage of lies.

People tell them all the time—sometimes to seek a payoff or avoid responsibility. But these untruths can be hard to detect, especially in complex situations.

Look out for these three signs that you’re being lied to:

1. Discomfort. People who lie often demonstrate visible anxiety. This may be because they’re afraid of getting caught or they feel guilty. Be on the look-out for a fake smile, frozen body language, or lack of eye contact.

2. Evasiveness. Someone who withholds information or keeps the conversation vague may not be telling the truth.

3. Manipulation. When you ask a question, people lying may answer with more detail than necessary. They may also use overly explicit language for emphasis. Watch out for this kind of manipulation.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “To Catch a Liar” by Bill Rosenthal and Carolyn M. Anderson.

To read that article and join the discussion, please click here.

 

The Four Stages of Highly Effective Crisis Management: A book review by Bob Morris

The Four Stages of Highly Effective Crisis Management: How to Manage the Media in the Digital Age
Jane Jordan-Meier
CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group (2011)

“Truth, well-told” and carefully managed

Decades ago, one of the co-founders of the firm we now know as Hill & Knowlton, John Hill, explained that public relations should be “truth, well-told.” That has not always been the case but Hill’s description remains valid. Jane Jordan-Meier obviously agrees. The subtitle of her book, “How to Manage the Media in the Digital Sage,” correctly suggests that when a crisis occurs, effective reputation management is imperative. Hence the importance of having a cohesive and comprehensive plan in place when a crisis occurs.  Regrettably, many organizations do not have such a plan. That is why Jordan-Meier wrote this book: To provide a single source just about everything a C-level executive needs to know about crisis media management.

The material is carefully organized within Five Sections, followed by (count ‘em) ten appendices that provide invaluable support material on subjects ranging from a “Guideline for Briefing Spokespeople” to advice about “Social Media Embracing the Opportunities, Averting the Risks.” Jordan-Meier provides a “Summary” section at the conclusion of each chapter. This material will facilitate, indeed accelerate frequent review of key points. I also appreciate Jordan-Meier’s focus on how to help her reader achieve these learning objectives:

• What is a crisis, what triggers it, and what is its probable impact?
• What is the proper role of the media?
• What are the stages of a crisis situation and what must each accomplish? How?
• Who should – and should nit – be spokespersons? Why?
• By what criteria should the CEO’s role be determined?
• How best to formulate and then manage policy guidelines?
• How best to prepare for a media interview?
• What are the most important do’s and don’ts when being interviewed?
• What are unique challenges – and opportunities – associated with different types of interviews?

In Section V: Communication – Rules and Tools, Jordan-Meier consolidates the most important information, insights, and advice; also, she includes some boilerplate material and specific recommendations concerning relations with social media.

In my opinion, the material that will be of greatest value to two groups: C-level executives who authorize and must approve a crisis media plan (or revisions thereof) and those who are charged with formulating such a plan and then updating it as needed. There is another book that I strongly recommend be read in combination with this one, if possible: Peter Meyers and Shann Nix’s As We Speak: How to Make Your Point and Have It Stick.

Managing Yourself: How to Cultivate Engaged Employees

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Charalambos A. Vlachoutsicos that appears in the September (2011) issue of Harvard Business Review. To read the cmplete article, please click here.

*     *     *

Successful managers depend on the capabilities of their subordinates: George’s marketing skills, Maria’s ability to run the numbers, Michael’s local knowledge, Dimitra’s IT expertise. Shelves and shelves of books offer managers’ advice on how to mobilize their people to achieve overall performance targets.

Although most upwardly mobile managers know that an empowered team enhances their performance, the everyday reality of corporate hierarchy and a compulsion to control their own fate can cloud that awareness. Many companies, particularly in the U.S. and western Europe, are abandoning the top-down, command–and-control model. Nevertheless, lots of managers still apply it, triggering a vicious cycle. When confronted with such a boss, employees respond by jealously guarding their only source of power—their distinctive experience—and the team is driven apart. The members may remain functionally interdependent, but that interdependence is ineffective, which means that a lot of value is squandered.

I have spent much of my career in companies and countries where this cycle of control and disengagement was especially vicious. For more than 30 years I worked for and then managed a family enterprise, founded by my grandfather in 1880, that traded extensively in Russia, eastern Europe, the Black Sea states, and elsewhere. After selling the business in the mid-1980s and for decades thereafter, I became an investor, researcher, and consultant for companies that were looking to enter those regions, as well as an educator.

In these roles, my biggest challenge was teaching bosses how to glean contributions from, and thereby promote engagement by, their local employees. Their job, I explained, was to ensure that every interaction with a subordinate fostered a sense of mutual dependence, or what I call “mutuality.” To help in that effort, I developed a set of lessons, which I share in this article.

The events I shall recount took place mostly in central and eastern Europe, but they can be applied universally, particularly at companies that still cling to top-down leadership and rigid hierarchy. Indeed, many of the managers I helped came from the U.S. and western Europe, and despite their formal management training they cultivated little more from their employees than their Soviet predecessors had done.

The lessons I share will seem familiar in the abstract, but the real value, as always, is in the details (although names have been changed to protect the innocent—and the guilty). Those details will help you compare what you and others in your organization are doing with what you know you ought to be doing.

[Here are two of the six that Vlachoutsicos discusses. To read the cmplete article, please click here.]

1: Be Modest

Modesty, virtue though it is, often clashes with basic fears. Many new managers are nervous about proving themselves, so they end up discouraging their subordinates from speaking up and thereby fail to benefit from their experience. Consider Kurt, the German CEO of a privatized Albanian canned-fish packing plant that I consulted for in the 1990s.

I sat in on one of the daily management meetings led by Kurt and attended by the heads of sales, production, finance, procurement, and government relations. The reporting part of the meeting went well. But then Kurt started talking. Both his words and his manner said, “Given that I know everything and you know nothing, here’s what you should do.” Condescending, absurdly detailed instructions were supplemented by irrelevant stories about how he had succeeded in solving problems. When he finished, an hour later, and asked for questions, the room seemed ready to ignite with one lit match. No one spoke, and the senior managers left silently and sullenly.

If you find yourself telling a self-referential story like Kurt’s, stop and apologize for blathering. You’re just showcasing your own insecurities. Recount your experiences briefly—and only if you can relate them to those of your subordinates. Prove to your people not that you have a record as a problem solver but that your ideas and advice can help them now.

Also remember to share both your mistakes and your successes. Trying to achieve that balance brings you down to earth in the eyes of subordinates, and it makes you reflect on why you are telling stories in the first place.

2: Listen Seriously and Show It

In general, managers are getting better at listening to employees. But their teams don’t always see it, or even recognize that it matters. I remember leading a turnaround at a Georgian flour mill that had been taken over by Western investors. Local supervisors were resisting the changes I had proposed, despite my best efforts to engage them in decision making. I sat down with one of the most disaffected managers, who said I had never listened to his reservations. “But I’ve been taking careful notes at all our meetings,” I told him. “Surely you must have seen that?”

“I saw you writing, yes,” he replied. “But you used loose sheets that I’m pretty sure you threw away afterward. If you were taking our input seriously, you’d be using a bound notebook, as you see me do.”

I assured this manager that I was keeping the notes, but I could tell he didn’t believe me. So the next day I brought in my ringed binder, and he saw for himself how I had meticulously recorded and commented on what I had heard. The change in attitude was remarkable. He and his colleagues recognized that I had carefully considered their advice before going against it, which made it easier for them to accept my decision. It all turned on the way I had taken notes!

This experience taught me that communication is multifaceted. People tune in to your body language, where you look, what you do with your hands. It can be hard to remember this when you’re in a meeting, but managing such signals is essential. (Whatever you do, don’t look at your watch or check the time on your mobile device while someone else is talking.)

*     *     *

Charalambos A. Vlachoutsicos, a former businessman and frequent HBR contributor, is an adjunct professor in the International MBA Program at Athens University of Economics and Business. He is also a coauthor, with Paul R.Lawrence, of Behind the Factory Walls: Decision Making in Soviet and U.S. Enterprises (Harvard Business Review Press, 1990).