Steve Jobs

The success of Apple in the 21^st century has been well documented. In the fourth quarter of 2011, more iPhones were sold than babies born in the world (Holbrook, 2012). However, the company was in a much different state fifteen years prior when it was ninety days from insolvency. What changes were made at Apple to turn the company around? Lashinsky gives most of the credit to one man, Steve Jobs. His unorthodox business strategies would make most companies fall apart, but at Apple they brought the company together. Lashinsky does not hide the true personality of Jobs from the reader. There are numerous references from past and current employees describing his tyrannical and “a-hole” personality. Steve Jobs was a rule-breaker, but the author details throughout the book how Jobs took the rule-breaking approach and applied it to the whole company (Veverka, 2012).

From the perspective of Apple employees, Lashinsky highlights the love-hate relationship almost everyone had with Jobs.  Employees were often over-worked and felt under-appreciated at times, but they all bought into the core message Jobs engrained into the company: “produce the best-quality products for customers” (Holbrook, 2012). Further, the author suggests to the reader that Jobs “allowed the company to retain the nimble feel of a start-up” even as it grew to be a multi-billion dollar company. I think this shows how forwarding thinking Jobs was about the image of Apple and how he wanted to be portrayed as the face of the company.