When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, in 1997, it had a basic structure for a company of its size and scope.
It was divided into business units, each with its own Profit & Loss responsibilities.
Believing that old school management had put innovation on hold, jobs laid off the general managers of all the business units (in a single day) and put the entire company under one P&L which led to a similar day-to-day routine and no uniqueness.
Although such a structure is common for small entrepreneurial firms, Apple—remarkably—retains it today, even though the company is nearly 40 times as large in terms of revenue and far more complex than it was in 1997.
Three Leadership Characteristics that have been adopted by Steve Jobs in Apple are:
1. Deep expertise:
- Apple is not a company where general managers oversee managers; rather, it is a company where experts lead experts.
- The assumption is that it’s easier to train an expert to manage well than to train a manager to be an expert.
2. Focus on the detailing of everything:
- One principle that defines Apple is “Leaders should know the details of their organization three levels down,” because that is essential for speedy and effective decision-making at the highest levels.
- Their attention to detail has been globally appreciated and inspired a lot of global organizations.
- For eg., Apple phones are slightly rounded on the edges of their body for reduced light reflection.
3. Willingness to debate together as a company:
- Behind any successful product/service, there is always a team working relentlessly to provide the best experience.
- Apple workers debate on this together and solve major problem statements for projects.
- This is also a great team-building exercise as if the debate is tied by a larger team, the decision is made by an expert team of CEO and senior VPs working in the company.
In this article, the authors discuss the innovation benefits and leadership challenges of Apple’s unique and ever-evolving organizational model that can help your company achieve its goals.
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