Steve Jobs and strategy: Sometimes the important thing is what he didn't do

Richard Rumelt, an expert on business strategy
whose book I am reading, on his website provides an
interesting list of what Steve Jobs did not
do at Apple:

Many people and companies want to emulate Apple
and study what the company has done. I believe that in trying to learn from
Steve Jobs and Apple it is very useful to pay attention to what he did not do.
In compiling this short list, I have used ideas and phrases in common use by
managers and business consultants:

He did not "drive business
success by a relentless focus on performance metrics." Success came to
Apple by having successful products and strategies, not by chasing
metrics.
He did not "motivate high
performance by tying incentives to key strategic success factors." Apple
did not run a decentralized system based on pressuring individuals to
deliver targeted business results.
He did not have a strategy "built
through participation by all levels to achieve a consensus which resolves
key differences in perspectives and values." Strategy at Apple is
essentially driven from the top.
He did not waste time on the
delicate distinctions among "missions," "visions," and "strategies."
He did not use acquisitions
to hit "strategic growth goals." Growth was the outcome of successful
product development and accompanying business strategies.
He did not seek to engineer
higher margins by chasing rust-belt concepts of "economies of scale." He
left such antics to HP

In his book,
by contrast, Rumelt offers on page 259 a handy list of what Jobs did do:

(1) imagine a product that is 'insanely great,'

(2) assemble a small team of the very best
engineers and designers in the world,

(3) make
the product visually stunning and easy to use, pouring innovation into the user
interface,

(4) tell the world how cool and trendy the
product is with innovative advertising.

Tom again: Meanwhile,
I was struck by another observer's less astute supposed
example of Jobs' toxic leadership. In fact, what Jobs did strikes me as
simply enforcing accountability -- which is what leaders should do:

"Can anyone tell me what
MobileMe is supposed to do?" Having received a satisfactory answer, he
continued, "So why the fuck doesn't it do that?"

"You've
tarnished Apple's reputation," he told them. "You should hate each
other for having let each other down."

Jobs
ended by replacing the head of the group, on the spot.