Go on – take a bite!
There is a lot of hype around Apple these days, and for good reason. Their stock is performing uniquely well and the products they produce are “cool”– even if they are designed to be replaced rapidly.
(If you look at the product life-cycle of Apple devices, it is very short. iPods, iPhones, iPads all have a shelf life of about a year before a newer better model emerges. This is called “planned obsolescence” and it is great for revenue growth and stock appreciation).
There is no denying that Steve Jobs is perhaps one of the great innovators of recent memory. In fact Walter Isaacson, Jobs biographer, goes so far as to state: “Steve Jobs thus became the greatest business executive of our era, the one most certain to be remembered a century from now. History will place him in the pantheon right next to Edison and Ford”.
But how did Jobs grow his company? Despite his genius, he could not have achieved such success on his own. In Fast Company’s recent magazine there is an article entitled “Steve jobs: If you want Change Agents, Hire Pirates”. This provides yet another glimpse into the vision and drive of the late Jobs.
“It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy”. This was a quote that Jobs had made many years ago and it summed up his HR philosophy. According to the article, “A pirate can function without a bureaucracy. Pirates support one another and support their leader in the accomplishment of a goal. A pirate can stay creative and on task in a difficult or hostile environment. A pirate can act independently and take intelligent risks, but always within the scope of the greater vision and the needs of the greater team.
Jobs sought out people who were ambitious, non-conformists and passionate about what they were doing. The characteristics of a pirate were required in all functions of his business, whether it was accounting, administration or product development. As one of Apples older advertising slogans proclaimed “think different”, and this is what he looked for in all his people.
Jobs looked for people with diverse experiences and rounded backgrounds. His hiring was often made by gut instinct but he looked for people that could augment his team in non-traditional ways. A lifetime ago I was selected for a position with Microsoft, it was not because I had an innate understanding of IT but because I had an entrepreneurial passion and a liberal arts education; these were the rounded qualities that were driving Silicon Valley (and Redmond Washington). It is often these balances that are not considered in a traditional hiring process.
In our own organizations we should be careful not to be limited to the narrow requirements of a job position. Look more broadly at rounded experiences and how these may enable your organization to diversify and grow. Look for the “pirates” who will challenge the conventional ways of doing things but are also focused and committed to a team objective.
As we enter the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese calendar – Happy New Year and perhaps our resolution can be to be more creative in our hiring practices.