Jobs Effect 1997-2007: A Retrospective
You know, over the last couple of years, I've developed a huge - and grudging - amount of respect for Steve Jobs.
From my pov, he's gone from simply being one of the very, very few people to understand the value of design and marketing in a valley of the Geeks, to learning from his numerous mistakes - and so becoming one of the world's true commercial visionaries.
Case in point - giving free iPhones to employees. I think it's a lot less trivial than it looks.
Jobs is putting his money where his mouth is - he's saying "look, we really are gonna change the world. Here's the proof. This is what you invested in. This is
us".
Now, this might sound trivial - but it's not. Revolutionaries need passion - something to commit to, and to invest in, and to
belong to. People are an essential part of the DNA for revolutionary organizations.
Put another way: one of the most fundamental reasons most corporates never revolutionize, well, much of anything, is because they don't understand how to ignite this all-consuming spark - or even see the desperate need for it to turn lifeless cubefarms and listless corridors into hives of radical innovation.