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APRIL 2012 reprint r1204F
The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs
Six months after Jobs’s death, the author of his best-selling biography identifies the practices that every CEO can try to emulate. by Walter Isaacson
Focus
Simplify
Take Responsibility End to End
When Behind, Leapfrog
Put Products Before Profits
Don’t Be a Slave to Focus Groups
Bend Reality
Impute
Push for Perfection
Tolerate Only “A” Players
Engage Face-to-Face
Know Both the Big Picture and The Details
Combine the Humanities with The Sciences
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
For artIcle reprInts call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500, or vIsIt hbr.Org
The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs
IllustratIon: trevor nelson
Six months after Jobs’s death, the author of his best-selling biography identifies the practices that every CeO can try to emulate. by Walter Isaacson
April 2012 Harvard Business review 3
ThE rEAl lEAdErShip lESSOnS Of STEvE JObS
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” hiS SAgA iS the entrepreneurial creation myth writ large: Steve Jobs cofounded Apple in his parents’ garage in 1976, was ousted in 1985, returned to rescue it from near bankruptcy in 1997, and by the time he died, in October 2011, had built it into the world’s most valuable company. Along the way he helped to transform seven industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, retail stores, and digital publishing. He thus belongs in the pantheon of America’s great innovators, along with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Walt Disney. None of these men was a saint, but long after their personalities are forgotten, history will remember how they applied imagination to technology and business. In the months since my biography of Jobs came out, countless commentators have tried to draw management lessons from it. Some of those readers have been insightful, but I think that many
APRIL 2012 reprint r1204F
The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs
Six months after Jobs’s death, the author of his best-selling biography identifies the practices that every CEO can try to emulate. by Walter Isaacson
Focus
Simplify
Take Responsibility End to End
When Behind, Leapfrog
Put Products Before Profits
Don’t Be a Slave to Focus Groups
Bend Reality
Impute
Push for Perfection
Tolerate Only “A” Players
Engage Face-to-Face
Know Both the Big Picture and The Details
Combine the Humanities with The Sciences
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
For artIcle reprInts call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500, or vIsIt hbr.Org
The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs
IllustratIon: trevor nelson
Six months after Jobs’s death, the author of his best-selling biography identifies the practices that every CeO can try to emulate. by Walter Isaacson
April 2012 Harvard Business review 3
ThE rEAl lEAdErShip lESSOnS Of STEvE JObS
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” hiS SAgA iS the entrepreneurial creation myth writ large: Steve Jobs cofounded Apple in his parents’ garage in 1976, was ousted in 1985, returned to rescue it from near bankruptcy in 1997, and by the time he died, in October 2011, had built it into the world’s most valuable company. Along the way he helped to transform seven industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, retail stores, and digital publishing. He thus belongs in the pantheon of America’s great innovators, along with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Walt Disney. None of these men was a saint, but long after their personalities are forgotten, history will remember how they applied imagination to technology and business. In the months since my biography of Jobs came out, countless commentators have tried to draw management lessons from it. Some of those readers have been insightful, but I think that many