Steve Jobs was not always the nicest man, or the most humble, but he achieved great things, was an excellent presenter, slave driver, thinker and visionary. No doubt he wanted to pass that on. It's not easy to shape the way one thinks, especially at an older age. But if you are trained for 3 years to think at every step WWSD? (What would Steve do?) then I think you could certainly maintain a good level of "Apple DNA" after he passed away. I certainly hope so. I have nothing but great admiration for what Steve and Apple have done for personal technology.
However, my belief still stands. Steve managed to put together a fantastic team of like-minded individuals that I hope leads Apple to many more years of innovation.
That being said, I got tired of counting the number of MBA grads coming out of our universities that are frankly dumber than dirt.
However, my belief still stands. Steve managed to put together a fantastic team of like-minded individuals that I hope leads Apple to many more years of innovation.
That being said, I got tired of counting the number of MBA grads coming out of our universities that are frankly dumber than dirt.
What "has worked" at Pixar for 20 years? Pixar University? Can you be more specific? Leaving aside the fact that SJ was Disney/Pixar's largest shareholder (and a board member) and available for counsel until yesterday, can you tell me what they taught at PU that made it work not only at Pixar standalone, but Pixar under Disney?
If you read the article s l o w l y it actually tells you, imagine that.
If you read the article s l o w l y it actually tells you, imagine that.
You mean: "....a professional development program that offers courses in fine arts and filmmaking as well as leadership and management to steep employees in the company's culture, history and values as well as its craft."
R e a l l y ?
Now, read my question again, s l o w l y and see if you can truly understand the question that I asked, including its full context.
It's well known that Steve admired Bill Hewlett and David Packard and for very good reasons. These gentlemen were excellent engineers who were also excellent managers who applied high standards and vision to every aspect of the company.
I still believe that it was a mistake for HP to cleave their scientific instrument group off to become Agilent, for the company lost excellent DNA. (Or at least, Agilent should have been given the HP name.) Hewlett Packard could have owned personal computing, they had the engineering skills, the manufacturing base and experience in compact computing systems. Really, in the 1970's, HP was untouchable in technical computing and systems. It is unbelievably sad that HP appears lost in no man's land. Steve would have learned the lessons that HP's demise taught and would have been determined for Apple to avoid a similar fate. Seems that he has done his best to apply another of those lessons, let's hope that the AU is a resounding success.
You mean: "....a professional development program that offers courses in fine arts and filmmaking as well as leadership and management to steep employees in the company's culture, history and values as well as its craft."
R e a l l y ?
Now, read my question again, s l o w l y and see if you can truly understand the question that I asked, including its full context.
What a piece of work you are. Articles usually are general in nature on many of the things mentioned. if everything was covered in detail like you suggest then the article would never end. Why would Pixar/Disney or Apple even want to let the specifics become public?
A secretive "Apple University" program that the company initiated in 2008 has been clarified to be a way to teach executives to emulate and perpetuate the successful strategies of Steve Jobs.
A university? How corny! Then 'they' have understood exactly NOTHING of Steve's legacy!
A university in his name is an affront to the man whose motto was "THINK DIFFERENT".
This is what Steve Jobs said in his interview to wired magazine in 1996 about Creativity -
"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they've had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.
Unfortunately, that's too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have."
Apple university won't be able to provide people with diverse experiences. It won't be able to give them more "dots" to connect. Unfortunately Steve was right. You only get diverse experiences by living a full life. By making mistakes. I'm afraid Apple University will create exactly what Steve complained about - Linear solutions.
I'm skeptical too. Steve learned his ways from the school of hard knocks, and so did a lot of garage tinkerers. The trash coming out of MBA programs is laughable to say the least.
I enjoyed watching Steve Job's 2005 Stanford speech about not attending college due to not knowing what he wanted to do and did not want to bankrupt his parents. He took a calligraphy class that honestly, the "Biff, Tad, & Muffy" MBA-types would have ridiculed him for and most likely label Job's a lazy-hippie.
He did everything that no self-respecting school of higher education would ever recommend he do.
You can't learn what Steve learned from going to school. School teaches you to get a job, maybe learn how to run a company, but not to actually take the risks, the falls, and the reap the rewards of creating a company such as Steve Jobs did.
However, Steve Jobs did know to surround himself with an army of gifted people that knew how to do those things that frankly, Steve did not want to deal with. His ability to attract those people and those people in return believing in his vision and wanting to improve themselves thanks to Steve were key to all of Apple's successes.
I really, really hope that AU has some secret sauce to tap that potential in people. I really, really hope it does. I want to believe that.
You ain't laying. But in the end, and I hate to say it, Apple is going to end up like all the sh** companies that had that "WOW" factor then ended being nothing but a "BEAT WAL STREET EXPECTATIONS AT ALL COST" companies. And it is that but they still have the "WOW".
You think them bull**** HP printers or calculators have any more "WOW" in them? There ain't even that much ink in those "Need to sell a kidney" ink cartridges.
You mean: "....a professional development program that offers courses in fine arts and filmmaking as well as leadership and management to steep employees in the company's culture, history and values as well as its craft."
R e a l l y ?
Now, read my question again, s l o w l y and see if you can truly understand the question that I asked, including its full context.
When you get a 'bee in your bonnet' you do go on far too much. Majority of the MBA graduates at present time, will not be great, since not just theory of business you need to understand, but also have that drive, focus and ruthlessness to push your ideas/products forward. It is something that is not taught vary a book and I do agree with one of your points, It will be difficult to replicate 'Jobs Way' via this University.
Warren Buffet and all the others you mentioned have that uniqueness/drive/focus about them and MBA program just added to their nature skills.
And if anyone thinks that Jobs held distain for higher or hired education, think again. He surrounded himself with such. But also like brilliant minds, he didn't believe that it just started or stop in a 'school' building. If anything, he just extended the campus grounds to life.
HP's failure as a company reached epic proportions this year when the company announced it would spin off its PC division and kill its brand new webOS hardware group to become something else entirely, before flopping back on those decisions by removing its less than a year old chief executive and replacing him with a board member.
What a piece of work you are. Articles usually are general in nature on many of the things mentioned. if everything was covered in detail like you suggest then the article would never end. Why would Pixar/Disney or Apple even want to let the specifics become public?
You're conflating things, since you had no answer to a question I asked of you (not the article).
You're the one that made the bland, confident assertion that "it's worked at Pixar for the past 20 years".
My question was, how do you know? Because the article made some non-specific claims to that effect?
I was asking a serious question as to whether you knew, and you started to get bent out of shape about it (as though I was attacking you, which I was not).
i like it, i agree with those who say genius isn't repeated to masses, but what this process helps to do is identify a gem (another genius in the making) which is what apple will need in 10-20 years time, the path for now it mapped..... the rest is covered, but the extra special genius quality is the key driving factor, if you will X-Factor!
Is LSD included with the tuition or do they have to buy it at the campus bookstore? Do they have field trips to Asia to visit Zen Buddhists? Like it or not, these are things that Steve jobs credited with helping him "think different."
On a somewhat more serious note, are they really teaching people to think like Steve Jobs, or to imitate Steve Jobs? Teaching people to think like Steve Jobs must include critical thinking of Steve Jobs, and finding the flaws and shortcomings in his approach to make the next one better. Is that really going to happen?
Many people have tried to codify what it takes to be a successful CEO but a lot of it is judgment calls, and you can't teach that. Jobs didn't invent much of what Apple is about; his role was a bit like someone watching a sculptor chipping away the rock that doesn't look like the desired statue, and yelling stop when it looks right. Or start again, if it goes way wrong. I don't agree with a fair number of things Apple has done but they are closer to right than much of the competition. Putting design at centre is one important aspect of culture that I hope will live on, but a company can keep going on momentum long after what made it successful at the start has gone. Look at HP, for example.
Comments
Steve Jobs was not always the nicest man, or the most humble, but he achieved great things, was an excellent presenter, slave driver, thinker and visionary. No doubt he wanted to pass that on. It's not easy to shape the way one thinks, especially at an older age. But if you are trained for 3 years to think at every step WWSD? (What would Steve do?) then I think you could certainly maintain a good level of "Apple DNA" after he passed away. I certainly hope so. I have nothing but great admiration for what Steve and Apple have done for personal technology.
Nicely worded post. My feelings exactly.
He meant everybody else OTHER than those guys.
You beat me to it.
However, my belief still stands. Steve managed to put together a fantastic team of like-minded individuals that I hope leads Apple to many more years of innovation.
That being said, I got tired of counting the number of MBA grads coming out of our universities that are frankly dumber than dirt.
You beat me to it.
However, my belief still stands. Steve managed to put together a fantastic team of like-minded individuals that I hope leads Apple to many more years of innovation.
That being said, I got tired of counting the number of MBA grads coming out of our universities that are frankly dumber than dirt.
Which university is this?
He meant everybody else OTHER than those guys.
I assume you're being sarcastic.
OK, let's add more to the 'MBA trash' group: Warren Buffett, Phil, Knight, Michael Bloomberg.
What "has worked" at Pixar for 20 years? Pixar University? Can you be more specific? Leaving aside the fact that SJ was Disney/Pixar's largest shareholder (and a board member) and available for counsel until yesterday, can you tell me what they taught at PU that made it work not only at Pixar standalone, but Pixar under Disney?
If you read the article s l o w l y it actually tells you, imagine that.
If you read the article s l o w l y it actually tells you, imagine that.
You mean: "....a professional development program that offers courses in fine arts and filmmaking as well as leadership and management to steep employees in the company's culture, history and values as well as its craft."
R e a l l y ?
Now, read my question again, s l o w l y and see if you can truly understand the question that I asked, including its full context.
I still believe that it was a mistake for HP to cleave their scientific instrument group off to become Agilent, for the company lost excellent DNA. (Or at least, Agilent should have been given the HP name.) Hewlett Packard could have owned personal computing, they had the engineering skills, the manufacturing base and experience in compact computing systems. Really, in the 1970's, HP was untouchable in technical computing and systems. It is unbelievably sad that HP appears lost in no man's land. Steve would have learned the lessons that HP's demise taught and would have been determined for Apple to avoid a similar fate. Seems that he has done his best to apply another of those lessons, let's hope that the AU is a resounding success.
You mean: "....a professional development program that offers courses in fine arts and filmmaking as well as leadership and management to steep employees in the company's culture, history and values as well as its craft."
R e a l l y ?
Now, read my question again, s l o w l y and see if you can truly understand the question that I asked, including its full context.
What a piece of work you are. Articles usually are general in nature on many of the things mentioned. if everything was covered in detail like you suggest then the article would never end. Why would Pixar/Disney or Apple even want to let the specifics become public?
A secretive "Apple University" program that the company initiated in 2008 has been clarified to be a way to teach executives to emulate and perpetuate the successful strategies of Steve Jobs.
A university? How corny! Then 'they' have understood exactly NOTHING of Steve's legacy!
A university in his name is an affront to the man whose motto was "THINK DIFFERENT".
"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they've had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.
Unfortunately, that's too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have."
Apple university won't be able to provide people with diverse experiences. It won't be able to give them more "dots" to connect. Unfortunately Steve was right. You only get diverse experiences by living a full life. By making mistakes. I'm afraid Apple University will create exactly what Steve complained about - Linear solutions.
I'm skeptical too. Steve learned his ways from the school of hard knocks, and so did a lot of garage tinkerers. The trash coming out of MBA programs is laughable to say the least.
I enjoyed watching Steve Job's 2005 Stanford speech about not attending college due to not knowing what he wanted to do and did not want to bankrupt his parents. He took a calligraphy class that honestly, the "Biff, Tad, & Muffy" MBA-types would have ridiculed him for and most likely label Job's a lazy-hippie.
He did everything that no self-respecting school of higher education would ever recommend he do.
You can't learn what Steve learned from going to school. School teaches you to get a job, maybe learn how to run a company, but not to actually take the risks, the falls, and the reap the rewards of creating a company such as Steve Jobs did.
However, Steve Jobs did know to surround himself with an army of gifted people that knew how to do those things that frankly, Steve did not want to deal with. His ability to attract those people and those people in return believing in his vision and wanting to improve themselves thanks to Steve were key to all of Apple's successes.
I really, really hope that AU has some secret sauce to tap that potential in people. I really, really hope it does. I want to believe that.
You ain't laying. But in the end, and I hate to say it, Apple is going to end up like all the sh** companies that had that "WOW" factor then ended being nothing but a "BEAT WAL STREET EXPECTATIONS AT ALL COST" companies. And it is that but they still have the "WOW".
You think them bull**** HP printers or calculators have any more "WOW" in them? There ain't even that much ink in those "Need to sell a kidney" ink cartridges.
You mean: "....a professional development program that offers courses in fine arts and filmmaking as well as leadership and management to steep employees in the company's culture, history and values as well as its craft."
R e a l l y ?
Now, read my question again, s l o w l y and see if you can truly understand the question that I asked, including its full context.
When you get a 'bee in your bonnet' you do go on far too much. Majority of the MBA graduates at present time, will not be great, since not just theory of business you need to understand, but also have that drive, focus and ruthlessness to push your ideas/products forward. It is something that is not taught vary a book and I do agree with one of your points, It will be difficult to replicate 'Jobs Way' via this University.
Warren Buffet and all the others you mentioned have that uniqueness/drive/focus about them and MBA program just added to their nature skills.
A university? How corny! Then 'they' have understood exactly NOTHING of Steve's legacy!
A university in his name is an affront to the man whose motto was "THINK DIFFERENT".
If you think that Steve Jobs was not an integrally involved in the development of Apple University, well…
Apple University was formerly initiated in October 2008
Apple Launches Internal University
http://www.pcworld.com/article/15397...niversity.html
Yale MBA dean to found Apple University http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10073097-37.html
And if anyone thinks that Jobs held distain for higher or hired education, think again. He surrounded himself with such. But also like brilliant minds, he didn't believe that it just started or stop in a 'school' building. If anything, he just extended the campus grounds to life.
HP's failure as a company reached epic proportions this year when the company announced it would spin off its PC division and kill its brand new webOS hardware group to become something else entirely, before flopping back on those decisions by removing its less than a year old chief executive and replacing him with a board member.
"and replacing him with a board member"
A bit disrespectful shall we say.
What a piece of work you are. Articles usually are general in nature on many of the things mentioned. if everything was covered in detail like you suggest then the article would never end. Why would Pixar/Disney or Apple even want to let the specifics become public?
You're conflating things, since you had no answer to a question I asked of you (not the article).
You're the one that made the bland, confident assertion that "it's worked at Pixar for the past 20 years".
My question was, how do you know? Because the article made some non-specific claims to that effect?
I was asking a serious question as to whether you knew, and you started to get bent out of shape about it (as though I was attacking you, which I was not).
On a somewhat more serious note, are they really teaching people to think like Steve Jobs, or to imitate Steve Jobs? Teaching people to think like Steve Jobs must include critical thinking of Steve Jobs, and finding the flaws and shortcomings in his approach to make the next one better. Is that really going to happen?