Jobs, Well Done

What we can learn from Steve Jobs, in life and in death.

For anyone doubting the power of consumer IT, the reaction to the death of Steve Jobs should have served as a wake-up call. The worldwide outpouring of tributes, devotion--even grief--was remarkable, proving beyond any doubt that users' attitudes toward their tech devices have become, in many ways, intensely personal.

At the same time, I thought that the news coverage of his death completely missed the point. The media acted as if Jobs alone was responsible for the remarkable products that Apple has launched in its 35-year history. Certainly, there's no doubt that Jobs was a gifted visionary, who revolutionized--maybe even created--the consumer tech industry. But based on the media narrative, you would have thought that Apple's approximately 46,000 employees spent most of their time getting him coffee and doughnuts.

No, the true genius of Steve Jobs lay in his ability to create and lead a huge organization that could develop and sell these products. His core contributions were a non-negotiable demand for excellence and a crystal-clear vision. In an interview with NPR's Fresh Air, Jobs once said that he wanted to bring a liberal arts sensibility to a previously all-geek industry. That vision lay at the heart of every Apple product and what made the company such a massive success. Jobs humanized computing.

But he never claimed to have invented the mouse or any of the other cool Apple features. Those ideas came from elsewhere or from within the ranks of Apple employees. In the same interview with NPR, Jobs made his executive philosophy very clear: Whereas most companies hire people so that they can tell those people what to do, he said, Apple hires people so they can tell Apple what to do. A corporate hierarchy is necessary for all kinds of reasons, but Jobs realized that good ideas know no rank. They're simply good ideas. And by creating a corporate culture that allowed these ideas to bubble to the surface, he positioned Apple to succeed beyond its wildest dreams.

His approach can--and should--serve as an example to CIOs on campuses nationwide. As Jobs did, it is their responsibility to establish a strong, compelling vision, and to act as uncompromising guardians of that vision. And, like Jobs, they should demand nothing less than excellence--of themselves, their staff, and their vendors. Beyond that, though, their role is to cultivate a culture of creativity and freedom among their staff. It's an approach that's good for employees, good for IT, and, ultimately, it's good for the institution.

It will be very interesting to see how Apple fares in the wake of Jobs' death. A WWSD (What Would Steve Do) approach isn't going to cut it. Instead, the company has to trust in its vision, trust in its employees, and never lower the bar. Because that is Jobs' finest legacy.

About the Author

Andrew Barbour is the former executive editor of Campus Technology.

Featured

  • AI robot with cybersecurity symbol on its chest

    Microsoft Adds New Agentic AI Tools to Security Copilot

    Microsoft has announced a major expansion of its AI-powered cybersecurity platform, introducing a suite of autonomous agents to help organizations counter rising threats and manage the growing complexity of cloud and AI security.

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Launches Claude for Education

    Anthropic has announced a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.

  • central cloud platform connected to various AI icons—including a brain, robot, and network nodes

    Linux Foundation to Host Protocol for AI Agent Interoperability

    The Linux Foundation has announced it will host the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol project, an open standard originally developed by Google to support secure communication and interoperability among AI agents.

  • open laptop in a college classroom with holographic AI icons like a brain and data charts rising from the screen

    4 Ways Universities Are Using Google AI Tools for Learning and Administration

    In a recent blog post, Google shared an array of education customer stories, showcasing ways institutions are using AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM to transform both learning and administrative tasks.