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Tonight I attempted to create a blog post that served as a reflection of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, which I have been reading over the past month or so. I made a couple of lists: things that stuck out to me within the book, things that surprised me, lessons that I will always remember, etc. At the end of my list making, however, I realized that after reading this book I have a much clearer understanding of what it is like to be in a pivotal leadership position like Steve Jobs. In no way do I want to play down his peculiarities-- as many have said, Jobs had his demons. This was evident in the way that he interacted with those that he hired and fired, as well as the overall tone of how he went about his daily routines. In one sense Jobs was a crazy leader who had extreme expectations and was disliked by much of his workforce. In another sense he was one of the greatest visionaries and creative people of our time. Regardless of which you think is the dominant trait, the persona of Steve Jobs was multifaceted and one of a kind. As a result, it is a bit hard to write about. I didn't want to sit down and give you a simple recap of his life-- if you want that you can turn to Wikipedia. What I do want to talk about, however, is the way that Jobs kept recurring throughout the semester. ![]() In January I set out on my independent study quest, starting with Steven Levy's In the Plex. I spent the following month in a haze of Google, preparing for interview after interview and becoming very interested in the company's history, particularly that of Sergey Brin and Larry Page. I loved reading about their individual stories, which prompted me to begin my Innovation Leaders series. Throughout the semester I talked with a range of people about their path to an innovative career and how they value their current technological capabilities. One of the recurring themes was Steve Jobs himself-- many people included him in their descriptions of what inspired them at a young age and what they wish to be when crafting their corporation. Yes, Jobs was an incredible businessman, but this stemmed from a concentrated dream and tunnel-vision that made enemies quicker than it made friends. One of my favorite things about Issacson's book was the honest depiction of Job's as a person and as a family member and friend. He took an honest approach in describing Job's personality, but was also sure to highlight his greatness as a leader and as an innovator. For example, when Jobs gave his team an assignment with the Lisa computer and a strict deadline, many thought the feat would be impossible. When asked if they could have an extension, Jobs simply told them that that was not an option. ![]() After reading a couple of hundred pages, I certainly feel that I better know the man behind the myth of Apple Computer. He was no kind soul, however he accomplished in a lifetime what most only dream they could do. Throughout the semester I have talked with many local and national innovation leaders, our conversations always centering around the current state of America's technological innovation, as well as how and why we are where we are. Although many of these professionals come from different places and work in different fields, mot of them brought up Job's name at least once during our discussion. He made a mark on Kimberly Jenkins and Ajaz Ahmed at a young age, giving them a spark that lasted throughout their lifetime. Not only did Jobs inspire people, but he has been a visionary for some of the most revolutionary products of the century. I wrote an entire post on my first spring break as an iPhone owner, a device that I could barely comprehend when I was a Blackberry user. Although Jobs is no longer alive, I feel that his name will continue to come up in the realm of professionals with which I identify. I will be spending my summer at Google (I start work in less than three weeks!), where I look forward to applying the entrepreneurial and professional lessons that I have uncovered while researching for this class. Doing this independent study was an extremely valuable use of my semester because it gave me time to step back from my assigned homework and readings and realize what kind of company I admire and what kind of corporate world I would fit best in. However, the biggest takeaway was likely how to be a great leader, which is a skill that I am spending time developing while here at UNC. I have loved interviewing people, reading and writing for this class because all of the subject matter was exactly what I wanted to learn, which forced me to delve deeper into most topics and to conduct much additional research. Although I could talk for hours about what I did throughout the course of the semester and how much of it [surprisingly/unintentionally] relates back to Steve Jobs, in his honor I want to keep this relatively minimalistic. I plan to continue my Tech Thoughts blogging from the Googleplex this summer-- stay tuned! I look forward to see if I hear Steve Job's name has frequently there as I did at school this semester. Cheers!
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I will begin this post by stating that I am extremely annoyed that Picnik has officially switched over to G+ and that it can no longer be accessed independently. I had gotten into a nice habit of editing pictures to go along with my blog posts, but until I sort out its integration with G+ I think I will hold off. Moving on.. Yesterday I watched Clay Shirkey's TED Talk titled "How Cognitive Surplus Will Change the World." My professor recommended it to me a few months ago and I am glad that I [finally] got around to viewing it. I feel that most people would find this talk interesting because of the time in which it takes place. Shirkey talks about the Internet as if it is a place of great opportunity and potential, which I enjoy. The way he talks also makes it clear that this talk is a few years old, seeing as he seems amazed by the idea of viral media. When discussing Ushahidi, Shirkey points out that the site went from a simple idea to a worldwide phenomenon in less than three years. The current state of the Internet makes three years seem like an eternity- especially since things have the ability to go viral almost instantly. He discusses how Ushahidi is of civic nature while LOLcats tends to be more social. This differentiation makes me curious about the future of the internet and which side will become more dominant. My vote is that social content is going to eternally trump the web, but things change so quickly that we never know for sure. ![]() A cool aspect of Ushahidi is that it is crowdsourced, meaning that a lot of its content comes from the general public. I love hearing about successful crowdsourced ventures because I feel that it is a capability that has infinite potential and that will become more popular as the use of smart phones increases. When Stefan Olander was discussing the Nike Fuel band at Innovation Uncensored he talked about how he looked at consumer trends and realized how much time people are currently spending on their phones, which prompted him to search for a way to make devices better integrated into the world of athleticism. The last takeaway that I got was when Shirkey pointed out that "free cultures get what they celebrate." Although this related to many points, I would like to tie it back to his discussion about creativity and how he doesn't see anything as too stupid to be creative. By applying this to LOLcats he makes a decent point, stressing that although we love to consume information we also like to create and share information. Like it or not, LOLcats is a great way to create content and share it easily amongst internet users. Similar to Ushahidi's crowdsourcing traits, LOLcats are created around the world and brought together with the capabilities of new technologies, particularly social media. I enjoyed watching Shirkey's talk because it shed a new light on many things that I have spent hours interacting with, particularly LOLcats and the way that we perceive our online content creation. The idea of cognitive surplus lies within many of the topics that I have already typed here- specifically with the quick and easy creation of online content. I highly recommend you watch this TED Talk, it provides some great insight and a very unique. modern and intellectual lexicon. ![]() Another talk that I thought was particularly insightful at Innovation Uncensored was when Ajaz Ahmed and Stefan Olander discussed their book Velocity: The Seven New Laws for a World Gone Digital. I chose to combine them on this post because their talk stemmed from the book and they fed off of each other really well. Aside from the book they are both very successful professionals- Ajaz Ahmed started the digital agency AKQA, which is one of my favorite agencies and somewhere that I would love to eventually work. Stefan Olander was previously the head of advertising at Nike and is now the Vice President of Digital Sport. The two started their discussion by making the bold statement that "the most powerful force in the world isn't technology, it is imagination." This claim got me very interested in what else they would have to say. Throughout the talk they gave many different tidbits of knowledge that stemmed from their work at AKQA and Nike, and surprisingly the two companies had a lot in common as far as leadership and company goals. ![]() Ajaz Ahmed, founder of AKQA, gave an intro about how he started his company and what he kept in mind while doing so. Although the agency is now 1200 people, he has managed to keep it a product focused company by acting like a tech start up at each stage of growth. Like many successful entrepreneurs, Ajaz got unique opportunities at a young age which gave him insight into the business world. When he was 17 he got the chance to work for Apple, giving him entrepreneurial knowledge that stayed with him throughout his life. He learned to be inspired by the future and to value the power of digital media, both of which sparked the inspiration to start AKQA. By keeping his firm constantly evolving and growing, Ahmed has the ability to produce innovative solutions and grow a diverse brand. His collaboration with Olander is interesting to me because although they are both in the digital realm they deal with very different subject matter. Olander, the VP of Digital Sport at Nike, had a lot of interesting talking points that made me appreciate the flexibility that some corporations give their employees. For example, Olander discussed how anyone can go to Nike's CEO, Mark Parker, and explain their idea. In many companies there is an embedded hierarchy that seems to deter growth, but Olander said that he went to Knight and explained that he thought they should make a wristband that helps people keep track of their athletic growth and inspires them to do more. At most companies you would have to create a presentation and be prepared with ROI statistics, but at Nike he said Parker looked at the mock-up for about three seconds and then said to go for it. If I am ever a CEO I hope that I can lead my company in this manner, similar to how Gate's lead Microsoft when Kimberly Jenkins pitched her idea for the education branch. ![]() Olander structured his talk around the process of creating the Nike Fuel band, a recent addition to Nike's product offerings. I am intrigued by his job as VP of Digital Sport because he essentially monitors how consumers are interacting with their electronics and then applies it to the world of sports. Working for a big corporation such as Nike would make this fun because he likely has a large budget to conduct research and create product mock-ups. “We take our passion from people, what are people doing, what are athletes doing? Everyone has a phone in their hand, what does that mean? What does it mean that sensors are cheaper than ever? What does that mean? And from that they start a new branch called digital sport” -OlanderWhen discussing the creation of the digital sport branch at Nike, Olander brought up many interesting points about the state of the technology industry. In particular, he said that Nike noticed that materials to make such devices were now more affordable and that athletes had the apparent need for a simple tracking device (to ditch the cumbersome hardware of cell phones, etc while working out). Although I am no athlete, I enjoyed hearing Olander's perspectives because he had a passion for what he was doing. He and Ahmed have both spent time monitoring digital trends, giving them great insight into the future of our device dependability. They both focused on the necessity for passion- that one must love what they do in order to rise to the top of their industry. This has been a recurring theme in my Innovation Leaders series and something that I definitely believe in. Olander applied this to the Nike Fuel Band, explaining that "what you put in front of people you have to love. If you aren't willing to work long hours to get there you will never succeed." I think that that quote essentially wraps up what draws me to emerging technologies- I feel that they have so much potential and that the people who create them are usually very passion-driven. I definitely plan on reading Velocity: The Seven New Laws for a World Gone Digital this summer! Last week I got the opportunity to attend Fast Company’s Innovation Uncensored Conference in New York City, thanks to a generous grant from the UNC Student Government’s Student Enrichment Fund. There were many aspects of the conference that I had been looking forward to, especially the eccentric lineup of speakers. They came from diverse companies and backgrounds, ranging from massive corporations like Pepsi to smaller start ups like Reddit. Throughout the day I heard many lectures and got to talk to some really interesting people- a few of which I will post about on my Tech Thoughts page. The first person I would like to highlight is Millard Drexler, CEO of J.Crew.
It's ok to be a micro-manager.Granted, being an extreme micro-manager will probably make you a few enemies. Millard Drexler says that he has always been accused of being a micro-manager, but that in the retail world he does not think this is a bad thing. He said that if most companies took a step back and really paid attention to their consumers and how they were interacting with them that we would have better companies around. The current corporate world is very fixated on quarterly sales results which often gives leaders money fueled tunnel vision, causing them to neglect their vision for the brand. The most important thing is when the product touches the consumer.While working on my Innovation Leaders series I have realized that regardless of what industry they work in, most people have learned a thing or two from Steve Jobs. Drexler spoke about how J.Crew strives to create a great interaction between the customer and the product from the moment the two meet. This reminded me of when I was talking with Kimberly Jenkins and she told a story about how Jobs wanted the inside of Apple computers to be designed with the same precision as the outside, although the user would likely never see the inside. It seems that most successful companies have probably focused on similar standards of quality, creating a sound brand. A story that Drexler told that resonated with me had to do with tracking competitors. He said that while leading J.Crew he has often stepped back and asked himself "what can we do better and how are we screwing up?" This question made him realize that J.Crew had a massive flaw in their online ordering system, which was a huge part of their business. He ordered items from all of their competitors and realized that J.Crew's products were often delivered with terrible presentation, forcing his team to reevaluate their shipping process. This was a great story to hear because I feel that oftentimes it is easy for companies to focus on just the product or just the store, neglecting many aspects of the rest of the company. The CEO sets the tone.This was one of my favorite things to hear Drexler talk about because I initially disagreed with him. Yes, the CEO is obviously a vital part of the company, but with the noise of so many employees is it really possible for one person to set the tone? Once I heard what Drexler had to say I started to agree, especially thinking back on some of the readings I have done for this independent study. I had just finished up Steve Jobs and had previously read In the Plex, both of which focused on the ways the CEOs can shape corporations.
Drexler spoke about his first CEO position, which was at Ann Taylor, and how he focused on doing what was right and what made sense. He said that throughout the years and after being CEO at Gap, and now at J.Crew, he has realized that in order to become a better CEO you must make mistakes and must take risks, although many don't want to do this because they want stock options. His talk covered many bases and made continuous references to Apple, which surprised me coming from the CEO of a fashion house. Steve Jobs asked him to join the board of Apple, which Drexler resisted for a year. At the time Drexler was CEO at Gap and was focusing the company on vertical, controlled distribution, something that Jobs wanted to implement at Apple. Drexler joined the Apple board in exchange for Jobs joining the Gap board, and he emphasized that he always felt dumb when leaving an Apple board meeting. I loved hearing Drexler talk about his work with Apple and Jobs because it made me realize that leaders in all industries share similar goals and obstacles. He said that Jobs always thought about whatever he said to people, he just rarely let you know that he was thinking about it. The accomplishments of Steve Jobs have been a recurring theme in my year,which I will expand on later when I post about Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs. I met Kimberly Jenkins a few weeks ago and then subsequently lost my Moleskine that contained all of my notes, making it a bit difficult to write this post. I have recovered my beloved notebook and can now tell you about what an inspiring innovator Kimberly is. She has made a substantial impact on the world of technology in an "intrapreneurial" fashion, and hearing her speak taught me a great deal about alternative ways to approach entrepreneurship.
In order to fully appreciate what Kimberly has done I must back up a bit to the point in her life when she had just moved to Seattle after graduate school due to her love of mountain climbing. She took a job at a small company called Microsoft, and although she hated her job there she realized that "technology is a tool for teaching and learning." This realization made Kimberly reevaluate how she was spending her time in the tech world. Convinced that she could combine her love for education (she received her PhD in Education from Duke) with her appreciation for technology, Jenkins wrote up a business plan to create a higher-education branch at Microsoft. Upon seeing her plan, Steve Balmer simply laughed and shrugged her away, claiming that there was no money in education. Bill Gates did the same, until he realized that Jenkins was ready to resign if she were not given the chance to carry out her plan. Gates granted Jenkins the opportunity, appreciating her chutzpah. At the time Jenkins was 26 and Microsoft was around 300 employees. From this story Kimberly elaborated on significant lessons learned during following 20 years of her career, three of which I will highlight below. (1) Pay attention to the bottom lineJenkins emphasized that it was important for her to pay attention to the bottom line while asking to create the higher-education program at Microsoft. She realized that Bill Gates appreciated working around people who were passionate, and when she said she was resigning from the company if denied this opportunity, his ears perked up. He granted her the money to fly wherever she wanted across the country to work on her project and within a year her education program was 10% of Microsoft. It took off so quickly because Jenkins had recognized a need and was solving it. She had identified a need that people would pay money for, creating a huge influx of revenue in a short period of time. In this sense Jenkins is being an intrapreneur, meaning that she is starting something of her own within an established company. I love this idea because one day I would like to work for a tech company such as Google or Twitter, but hopefully I will be able to create my own niche that aligns with my passions. (2) “I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”After further developing the education branch at Microsoft, Jenkins became a part of NeXT computer with Steve Jobs. I loved hearing her talk about Jobs because I am currently reading his biography by Walter Isaacson (a post on that coming soon) and am genuinely fascinated by many of the first hand stories I hear about him. NeXT went through a phase in which they focused on the higher education market. This company in itself was not very successful, but Kimberly pointed out that it set precedent for a lot of the future Apple products. She talked about many lessons that she learned from Jobs while working for him, a few of which exemplified his peculiarities and a few of which emphasized his extreme attention to detail. His obsession with perfection has been heavily analyzed since his death, and one of my favorite examples of it has to do with the Apple computer. Kimberly spoke a bit about this, detailing how he insisted that the insides of Apple computers where just as aesthetically pleasing as the outsides. I believe there is a lot that can be learned from this simple measure of perfection and that it can be applied to any industry. As I said earlier, I am currently reading Steve Jobs and will have another post up that details more about his particular oddities that I have learned from. During her talk Kimberly mainly focused on Job's resilient nature and unshakable desire to stick to his vision, making him one of the most perseverant entrepreneurs she has worked with. Kimberly said that one of the most important lessons that Jobs taught her was that great innovation happens when you have diversity on your team. She said that he constantly stressed having different backgrounds and experiences so that the team can see needs differently and come up with different solutions. As an entrepreneurial-minded student who is interested in entering the tech field, I think that this is a vital lesson to keep in mind. Although we often cling to those who are like-minded, I hope that I can force myself to absorb the diversity in my future workplace. This is a lesson that I will surely keep in mind while at Google this summer. (3) Hit the ground listeningThe idea of "hitting the ground listening" is something that Kimberly focused on when discussing how to guarantee a successful future. This was one of my key takeaways because I feel that it incapsulates many of the themes I have been studying while absorbing information (through books, videos and speakers) for this independent study. I have learned through my talks with Nation Hahn that it is important to identify an alternative opportunity to grow a market- in his case the need to create a third hub of innovation in the United States. While reading The Opposable Mind and In The Plex, two very different books, I learned similar lessons about taking ideas from a diverse group of people and applying varying leadership qualities to dilemmas. What Kimberly stressed when talking about listening was that in order to be a successful entrepreneur- or intrapreneur- was to be a good listener. She meant this in an obvious way, in that we should listen to what our peers are saying, but also in that we should absorb as much information around us as possible. I believe that this is a skill that I could learn a lot from because often I get fixated on one idea and am unable to fully digest the ideas of those around me. Nixing this tunnel vision approach, as Kimberly recommends, is something that I am going to try to do this summer. It will be much harder than it sounds, but come May 22nd I am going to hit the ground listening.
Up next: Last week I had the pleasure to attend Fast Company's Innovation Uncensored Conference, where I met many influential innovators. I took a load of notes and look forward to continuing my Innovation Leaders series over the next week! Freshman year of college I found myself having an extremely difficult time trying to focus on long reading assignments- often spending 20 minutes scrolling my Twitter feed before realizing that I was no longer doing my homework. Many of my friends had similar issues, blaming A.D.D. (attention deficit disorder), as if we all suddenly had a medical issue that was causing us to divert from our studies. Whenever I mentioned my focusing problems to my mom she blamed social media, arguing that I had become so comfortable darting around the Internet that it was now difficult for me to sit back and focus on one thing. Three years later I believe that this is definitely the case, which made Nicholas Carr's The Shallows even more interesting. When blaming social media for my reduced attention span, I believe there are other factors that must be taken into consideration. Carr wrote a famous article in The Atlantic titled "Google is Making Us Dumber," in which he argues that because we are able to find information so quickly and easily, we have grown to expect everything to be instantly accessible. I believe that this relates to my thoughts on social media. For example, if I am curious about what is going on amongst my friends, I simply spend a few minutes scrolling through my Facebook Newsfeed or Twitter feed. Here, within a few minutes, I can find a satisfying amount of information on a large group of people (with little to no effort). If I want to research the life of Jack Dorsey I can run a simple Google search and have basic facts in seconds. In Carr's opinion, this is why I see it as tedious to read long books. For example, I was absolutely itching to get Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs the second that it went on pre-order. I have now had the book for four months and am still having difficulties getting past the second chapter, despite my excitement for the subject matter. This presents an interesting point- even if I have an interest in the subject matter I am likely to still have difficulty reading a long piece of work. Since reading The Shallows, I have again begun Steve Jobs and am going to chronicle my reading efforts in comparison to Nicholas Carr's behavioral predictions (I will have a post about my successes/failures in the next few weeks). While Carr cited many scientific sources throughout his book, I found the overall implications to be most useful. I found that I could easily apply them to my personal life as well as what I am studying in school. For example, I am an advertising major and we are required to take classes that detail this history of advertising techniques and mediums. These courses are fascinating, but the way that new media is approached in them is particularly interesting. For example, we will learn about "traditional" advertising techniques such as longer TV spots and print ads, but social media and new media techniques are usually taught in an entirely separate way. These courses reinforce the lessons in Carr's book by teaching us to make the TV spots shorter (and perhaps put them on YouTube instead of cable) and make body copy less complex (shorter sentences that keep the viewer's attention). The courses also emphasize the need for something to go viral, for an element of the campaign to gain traction on social media sites and to develop an online presence. It is no longer enough to rely on traditional advertising- that won't interest the modern consumer enough. I think that this infographic speaks volumes to what I am trying to explain (I also need to insert another form of media so that I keep your attention.. if you're still reading) As for the scientific side of things, this video touches on the impact that the Internet has on our neural circuitry and the evolution of our brain's functionality. It is less than five minutes long and provides a great overview of Carr's views. I highly recommend this book, especially if you have found your reading capabilities impacted by heavy internet usage. The next book that I plan on reading is Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, which goes along with my current independent study on the crossroads of the Internet, entrepreneurship and innovation. Tomorrow I am meeting with Kimberly Jenkins, Senior Advisor to the President and Provost for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Duke University and will have the second part of my Innovation Leaders Series up shortly! |
Started restructuring this site on 12/24/2011 by adding this page. It will mainly consist of technology ramble and things that you probably won't read.
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