What an overwhelming response to Steve Jobs. Especially nice is to see competitors – Bill Gates, the Google executives - and even many of his detractors pay their tributes.
I paid my tribute to the man in various sections of my last book, The New Polymath but I felt a particular affinity to him over the last few months.
We all admire his products, but my research for my next book The New Technology Elite exposed me to so much of the amazing operational engine he built at Apple. The Apple supply chain, the world class retail operation, the booming ecosystem in the App Store, the wide range of business models he crafted depending on the industry (lowered the music purchase to bite size, changed eBook pricing to create a chasm between Amazon and book publishers, turned the tables on the mobile industry from the model where the device is not just a cheap loss leader for the carriers to lock you into their multi-year contracts).
While he was ruthless and secretive, I must say I admired his loyalty to AT&T through all their network issues and outrageous roaming and other charges and to Foxconn through all their labor issues and China bashing it exposed Apple to. In my book, I have a chapter on Apple which compares it to the Maverick Tom Cruise character in Top Gun. His Stay Foolish advice in his famous Stanford commencement speech applied to amazing risks he took over and over again.
On a personal note, soon after I blogged about the White House released photograph of him next to the President along with other tech leaders during his Silicon Valley visit , I sent Steve an email saying as I went through my own health recovery I was inspired to see him continue at such a high-function rate. Last night listening to Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN describing the various invasive treatments Steve went through I admire him even more for his fight for life and the precious extra time with his family. That more than his products likely influenced thousands more like me to Stay Hungry.
Photo Credit: Ray Wang of Apple HQ with flags at half-mast last night
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