In a traditional profile, the people who knew the protagonist of the story explain how he was, what he liked , how he treated people. Details of his personal life that in cases of transcendental personalities awaken that curiosity to see beyond the “star”. In the case of Steve Jobs, the biography of Walter Isaacson recounted how the technology icon behind Apple did not follow the rules of social engagement. Along with the chief creative officer, his employees also experienced yelling, insults and disrespect. His role as a father was also in focus: a belated paternity acknowledgment and a strained relationship that has already been addressed in some of the films that have paid tribute to the entrepreneur and founder of Apple. On the other hand, a figure that has marked a before and after for technology companies and whose legacy continues to be more present than ever. 10 years after the death of Steve Jobs, the businessman is far from being forgotten.
But in this profile we will not talk about the private life of Jobs. No one who knew him personally and had a close relationship has been interviewed for this article. But people from different fields who are witnesses of Jobs's footprint have been interviewed. 10 years after the death of Steve Jobs from pancreatic cancer, the computer scientist and businessman has not been forgotten. With Apple at the top, the trajectory of the brain of the first Macintosh is more alive than ever. Not just in Silicon Valley; It seems that the founder of Apple was also the forerunner of a culture within technology companies based on creativity.
“Stay hungry, stay foolish” or “Do what you love” have not been printed on enough t-shirts, but it also continues to be one of the most recurrent messages in business environments, especially for motivational messages. Jobs biographer Isaacson also exposed how being the founder of Apple is an ideal, but beware. Not all are historic releases of the iPod, iPhone, or Mac; behind it there is a toxic work culture – he came to call one of his employees a “piece of shit” . Although his greatest legacy has been, despite everything, his passion. “We all want to lead a passionate life. We want a life of emotional connections. If that's what you get from saying, 'I'll be more like Steve Jobs,' then it's not bad,” he told Wired.
Millennial or Generation Z youth
We want to lead a passionate life, but also a successful one. And we all want to make a mark. “He changed the world. Literally. And he did it to transform it for the better in many aspects,” said Antonio Pastor San Millán, professor of managerial skills at the Distance University of Madrid (UDIMA) and Santiago Hernández, head of studies in Business Management and Marketing at the Center for Financial Studies (CEF).
Experts recalled Jobs' childhood: parents who gave him up for adoption, with few financial resources. The founder of Apple was the son of a Syrian immigrant and an American of Swiss descent, two university students who gave him up for adoption Paul Jobs and Clara Hagopian, a train driver and a housekeeper from home.
'The world changed' It was with his new family that he moved to the city of Mountain View and went to school in Cupertino. The beginnings of the most important places related to technology companies and innovation today that would be a preview of the future of Jobs. “If we look at it, this description today would be more suited to an immigrant boy arriving in Europe than to a young millennial or Generation Z ,” said Pastor San Millán y Hernández.
“He changed the world and he did it by breaking with certain conventions and with a very personal image and way of communicating. Just review his speech at the Stanford graduation ceremony or the presentation of any Apple product to know what we are talking about. Phrases such as 'stay hungry, stay foolish' have transcended the popular sphere creating a 'stevejobesca' way of speaking “.
Antonio Pastor San Millán and Santiago Hernández The famous speech of 2004, 7 years after the death of Steve Jobs, in which the founder of Apple asked himself before all the students: “How can you be fired from the company you founded?” A dismissal that he later admitted was the best thing that could happen to him because it opened the doors of Pixar, the creation of NeXT and to meet the one who later became his wife, Laurene Powell.
This philosophy has been one of his most important legacies. For Antonio Pastor San Millán and Santiago Hernández the effort, talent, perseverance and support capacity are, in this order, their greatest contribution to the world of technology companies. “It has been one of the great drivers of digital transformation worldwide. Today, it is unthinkable to imagine the professional field without relating it to the democratization of smartphones,” they stressed. With his willingness to change, he also promoted new product categories such as tablets and smart watches, which continued, invigorating the sector and forcing the competition to join the race for innovation.
The despotic? Apple founder
Steve Jobs made history, accompanied by the entire team that worked with him every day. It was not a bed of roses. Marketing and business experts pointed out to Hypertextual that Jobs' behavior with his workers ties in well with the 11 rules for high school students attributed to Bill Gates : life is not fair, get used to it. The world will not care about your self-esteem. If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you have a boss. The bosses will have neither a vocation for teaching nor patience. “Jobs is the epitome of the pursuit of the extraordinary and the distinction between the good and the truly excellent.”
Steve Jobs changed the concept that he had of being CEO of a company
It can be said of the founder of Apple that at times he could be unpleasant, although the results he obtained with his way of working are beyond doubt. The experts recalled that, without Steve Jobs, Apple plunged into a crisis that put the company's viability at risk and that, with him at the helm, it became one of the companies benchmark technology with the highest market capitalization.
Actually, it was not a novelty at that time, nor is it now, that there are despotic bosses. One of the questions to ask would be whether we prefer a leader with the character of Jobs and with those results or someone with a different character but mediocre results. “The more valuable the company we work for, the more value we will have as employees” , Pastor San Millán and Hernández concluded.
Steve Jobs, a different CEO
Photo by Konsepta Studio on Unsplash More or less despotic, Steve Jobs changed the concept of being CEO of a company from top to bottom. Tony Jiménez came to Silicon Valley in 2009 and founded his own company. Now he's CEO of his own company, Richmond Partner, and he's still in the valley. He told Hypertextual that in those years, Silicon Valley was very different from the one we know today. “I saw many closed places because there was not that hive yet, the bubble had passed and it had destroyed that philosophy. But I had to see how it would grow back later. ”
Jiménez even saw Steve Jobs in person. It was in the Palo Alto area where Jiménez lived; just 4 blocks from the home of the founder of Apple. “He lived two blocks from the first Apple Store that opened on University Avenue in Palo Alto. He was going to have coffee at a Starbucks there, with his old Porsche. The times we saw him he was already very emaciated from his illness. “he recalled.
Tony Jiménez did not hesitate to confirm that the death of Steve Jobs was a very sad chapter in the technology companies sector but that his figure is still more alive than ever and that his influence was a boost for product managers. In relation to what the experts commented, Jobs was not a CEO like the ones we were used to seeing in Spain at that time.
“Someone more managerial,” Tony Jiménez described, “rather than a CEO who truly understands the product, wants to make his mark, and knows what the market needs and sets trends.”
“For me the most important inheritance is that in the end the CEOs are now involved in all parts of the development of the company: from how a product is designed, to the final point of sale. They are involved in the entire product value chain they are designing. ”
Tony Jiménez Unfortunately, the perception is that all of this has been lost. According to Tony Jiménez, he has gone from an innovative figure to a much more administrative behavior. “We have examples like Elon Musk, who from time to time stick their heads out a bit, but not a shadow of what Jobs could have been in demonstrating that passion, that humility, that knowing how to make products and that people want good products in their hands. “
Neither Zuckerberg, nor Musk, nor Bezos Jobs' ability to convey the motivation he felt for his work and that instinct for improvement is now a recurring discourse. The idea of ”Stay hungry, stay foolish”, as a concept has been a philosophy much more than worked in technology companies. “This speech has become more plastic in that sense after the death of Steve Jobs” , Jiménez pointed out. That passion of the founder of Apple was also one of his great weapons; in the same way that he managed to transfer the emotion he felt to millions of people through his products. For the CEO of Richmond Partner, excitement is now confused with an always positive mindset.
“You have emotion for both good and bad and that is what happened to Jobs,” he pointed out, “compared to other directors like Mark Zuckerberg, who has the same face making a cake as in the most important trial. of his life. Then you have Musk or Jeff Bezos, who have confused being talented with the star system. ”
“Jobs got you to have an iPhone 3 in your hands and make it a wonder of the world”
Despite being great business references, they have not reached the level of Steve Jobs. For Antonio Jiménez, the founder of Apple is still alive because if you are interested in technology you have to go through his business codes. It is difficult for someone to take over. In addition, this leadership has been diluted. “Also the quality of product design and technology companies. Quality matters less and speed is more important, we are in a constant beta”.
Even in Apple's current leadership, the memory is indelible. “Tim Cook sees himself as a much more administrative leader, more focused on sales, but Jobs got you to have an iPhone 3 in your hands and make it a wonder of the world “, recalled Antonio Jiménez .
Everyone wants to be like Apple
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com The design, in the end, is what has made the difference over the years. Julio C. Quintero is a product designer for technology companies such as Apple and Google. Know the sector from within. “Most companies have a technology and are looking for a way to implement it in a product. At Apple it is the other way around. It always based its industry on design, seeing the need in the market or to improve products that were poorly made, “he told Hypertextual.
Although it was entering a well established market. While many of the most important companies today were pioneers in their field – Google was the first search engine and Airbnb the first to rent houses – Apple was competing in a very well positioned sector. “In '90s everyone wanted a Nokia, “Quintero recalled.
With inspirations such as the designs of Braun appliances in the 80s, it began to make a difference with the iPhone 3G. The rest is history. Just as the designs were different, so was the person who was behind. Julio C. Quintero described him as someone with a different mentality from what was breathed in Silicon Valley. “ He went to India to do a meditation course to find himself , he did many different things”.
Be the founder of Apple … and be unique He was also a person for whom marketing was not a mystery. It was these qualities and the creation of a team that aspired to be near perfect that created the foundation for one of the most profitable companies in the world.
It is not for nothing that many technology companies have ended up copying some aspect of Apple after Steve Jobs' death: either its design or the way it works. The difference, however, is in how they apply it .
“They say they don't want to be Apple, but all their products are compared to Apple when launching or designing them,” Quintero pointed out, “because to be Apple you have to be unique.” If the product designer had to choose someone, he would surely choose Elon Musk for his work at Tesla.
“He is the only person today who is really going down paths that have never been explored before. He does what he thinks is the right thing to do and gambles on everything until he finally succeeds. Tesla has been 2 or 3 times a week. Going bankrupt and now look. Those two are Iron Men from Silicon Valley. ”
Julio C. Quintero The well-being of workers Photo by Startup Stock Photos on Pexels.com Steve Jobs made working at Apple a dream for many people. Despite the fact that more work is done than anywhere else. To compensate, the benefits received by employees were and are among the most highly valued. Google was perhaps the pioneer in creating a campus with nap rooms, game rooms and all the facilities for employees to spend all day at their workplace.
Instead, Jobs understood the importance of betting on well-being. “Apple has the best benefits, dental, acupuncture … Jobs cared in an exquisite and detailed way,” Lucrecia Iruela, who works for the largest technology companies in Silicon Valley and contributes to Forbes, told Hypertextual. Even with food he was very involved, he said. “There was vegan food, an Italian chef was brought from Italy. Anchovies from Spain were brought. There are many companies that food is free, not Apple, but it was the best you could find.”
When it comes to leadership, Lucrecia Iruela does not doubt that many company bosses copy the founder of Apple. It is, defined, the leader par excellence and a benchmark.
“He was a master conveying that passion he had for the product, for doing things well, for doing the perfect thing at that time. (…) The empathy he had with the consumer through the product made him the best leader in the story. He wasn't talking about Apple or himself, he was talking about what he was building: that design that took his life. ”
Lucrecia Iruela
Museum pieces
His passion, talent, way of working and leadership have not been forgotten 10 years after the death of Steve Jobs. Even less their products. Those interviewed said that having an iPhone 3G was a treasure a few years ago. To date, up to a museum piece. In Sydney, Australia, the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, called Powerhouse, has included in an exhibition several products of the company with which they made history.
The Interface exhibition was developed in 2014 by Campbell Bickerstaff, who studied technology product design. Bickerstaff explained to Hypertextual that the objective of the exhibition is to show how Apple brought its designs closer to the public , from the industrial part to the more emotional. “The exhibition is now 7 years old and the ideals that are being explored maintain their relevance from generation to generation,” said the curator.
Interface is proof of the influences of Apple in its early days. When they “understood the way manufacturers like Olivetti, Braun and Sony, among others, were executing great industrial design,” noted Bickerstaff, “and they continued the tradition of understanding what was good, how to invest in finding great designers and integrate design in the development of a product and not just as a finish “.
The footprint of the founder of Apple
Steve Jobs was the person behind these achievements and also, the curator opined, helped many people create the tools that later enabled great change. It is not easy, therefore, to meet people like that again. Although Campbell Bickerstaff is waiting for the next big change after the death of Steve Jobs. “We need industry leaders who think of people and tools to make their lives easier and more fun. Leaders who are not motivated by profit but by the ideals of democracy creating things that enrich our lives and empowers people. “
Jobs was undoubtedly one of these leaders. 10 years after his death, his ideals and passion are still more alive than ever. Those who were close to the founder of Apple have not managed to forget him. Neither are those who have worked and continue to work on their dream. Not even consumers. Not for nothing, the interviewees in this piece who live in Silicon Valley have agreed that, since the death of Steve Jobs, the valley is no longer the same.
