Apple’s Tribute to Steve Jobs – and Some Lesssons

"…keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Apple's Tribute to Steve Jobs — today marks the one year anniversary of Steve Jobs passing. As a tribute, Apple has produced this short video (thank you Bill Becker for pointing this out to me).

Inside Apple — and if you've not read it yet, take the weekend and read Adam Lashinsky's book Inside Apple. It chronicles the key business practices, like no other book has, that led to the most valuable company on the planet. I specifically like how Lashinsky shares details down to Steve's specific day-to-day routines.

Daily Luncheon — one of those routines was having lunch almost every day with his chief designer, Jonathan Ive. Design is what drove Apple's success; in turn, Steve's calendar reflected what mattered most. Like John D. Rockefeller's daily luncheon with his directors, their lunch gave Jobs and Ive the critical talk time they needed to drive this critical function of the business. "If you want to move faster, pulse faster."

Weekly Marketing Meeting — Hermann Simon's research on "hidden champions" found that the CEO stays laser focused on two functions: innovation and marketing. Steve, himself, chaired the 3 hour Wednesday afternoon marketing meeting – not surprising.

3-Hours per Day Focused on #1 Priority — and to support innovation, Steve literally spent three hours each day working on whatever was the key focus – launching the iPod, designing the new retail store, etc. He learned in his "wilderness years" the power of having a single focus i.e. Pixar's "Toy Story." As such, he would pick one major initiative, and like an Olympic athlete, give it three hours per day of is undivided attention. That's how you get big things accomplished!