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11.11
Steve Jobs — Not
an "in-the-box" Person
By Terrance Malkinson
Since the death of Steven Jobs
on 5 October from pancreatic cancer at the age
of 56, much has been written on his legacy as an
innovative boundary-breaking thinker and his
business skills. Many leading publications such
as Bloomberg Businessweek, Time
and Fortune among others have published
special issues. Books have been written. Many
business, political and academic leaders
including President Barack Obama have paid
tribute to him. Common to many of these
commentaries is how his out-of-the-box character
and counterculture ideas contributed to success
that TIME describes as “the genius who
changed our world.”
Adopted at birth, his life was always
non-conventional. Always something of a rebel,
Jobs often thought the usual rules did not apply
to him. Dropping out of post-secondary
education after one semester, existing near
poverty during his early years, and pursuing
with passion without any formal training his
belief that computers should be integrated
seamlessly into every aspect of our lives he
achieved extraordinary success.
Jobs was a demanding and
opinionated perfectionist who managed his
businesses and products as technology leaders by
foreseeing and setting trends. At the conclusion
of his keynote speech at the Macworld Conference
and Expo in January 2007, he quoted ice hockey
player Wayne Gretzky — “I skate to where the
puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
From an innovation perspective
what is most interesting is that he accomplished
this not as a “suit and tie” organizational or
societal-conforming, formally educated
individual, but rather as a “T-shirt, jeans and
sneaker” self-taught manager and innovator
following his instincts. This causes us to
re-think our identification and encouragement of
innovative people at an early age, their
education and later the business practices used
to facilitate their intrinsic creativity and
innovation.
The history of innovation and
career success has many examples of people who
had the strength of character to pursue their
own path with little support and encouragement.
The recent awarding of the 2011 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry to the Israeli scientist Daniel
Shechtman for his discovery 29 years ago of
new form of matter,
quasicrystals is a sterling example. At
the time of his discovery he was ridiculed by
his peers and was a classic “victim
of "closed-minded science",
where valid research is suppressed if it goes
against the conventional grain”
[www.news.in.msn.com/exclusives/it/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5534156
].
Barbara McClintock the
1983 Nobel Laureate in
Physiology or Medicine, is yet
another example. Encountering skepticism of her
out-of-the-box research in genetics and its
implications she based her views upon her
research and following the scientific method
rather than upon peer prejudice.
Outstanding contributors
to the betterment of our world have overcome
criticism, employment loss, and abandonment by
their peers. They believed in themselves and
their vision. This is how they achieved success
— not giving up, overcoming criticism and
obstacles, and enduring hardships.
Organizations today are often
preoccupied with policy, regulations, political
correctness, stockholders, dress codes,
conformity, timesheets, predetermined time
sensitive performance goals, and many other
constraints proven to be detrimental to genuine
creativity and innovation.
It is frightening to think about
how many creative and innovative ideas have
never been realized because their proponent was
suppressed for out-of-the-box thinking and an
unconventional lifestyle. The world is a better
place because individuals such as Steve Jobs had
the courage to think “out-of-the-box and pursue
what they believed in.
“Remembering that
you are going to die
is the best way I know to avoid the trap
of thinking you have something to lose.
You are already naked
There is no reason not to follow your heart”
—
Steve Jobs
Other Bytes
Here are some of the things
going on in and around the community:
-
It’s not easy growing up in
today’s world; one filled both with
incredible opportunities and non-productive
distractions. The cover story of the October
2011 issue of National Geographic
focuses on the New Science of the Teenage
Brain [“Beautiful Brains”. 220(4):
36-59.
www.ngn.com ]. Adolescents are “works in
progress” as their brains mature and as they
discover their identity and place in the
world. David Dobbs discusses how some of
their “most exasperating traits may be the
key to success as adults”.
-
The annual Princeton Review
of the best undergraduate and graduate
entrepreneurship programs is provided in
Entrepreneur [pp. 82-95. October, 2011.
www.entrepreneur.com ]. Leading
undergraduate programs include the
University of Houston, followed by Babson
College and Baylor University. Leading
graduate programs include Babson College
followed by Brigham Young University and the
University of Virginia. The Economist
provides its annual listing of the thirty
best international MBA programs with
Dartmouth, Chicago and IMD leading the
ranking. [401 #8755. pg 73. October 15,
2011.
www.economist.com ].
-
Braden Allenby and Daniel
Sarewitz provide their insights on “the
Accelerating Techno-Human future” in The
Futurist. [45(5):30-33. October, 2011.
www.wfs.org ]. They discuss how
technology and humanity are co-evolving and
how this creates new societal tensions and
cultural clashes that we are challenged to
adapt to.
-
Former President Bill
Clinton offers his opinion on the economy
and how to create jobs in an interview with
Andy Serwer, published in FORTUNE
[“Clinton on the Economy,” pp. 51-52. 17
October 2011,
fortune.com].
-
Today’s employment
marketplace often requires that you convince
your employer that you are indispensable.
John Zenger Joseph Folkman and Scott Edinger
in their article “Making Yourself
Indispensible” [Harvard Business Review.
[89(10):85-92. October 2011.
www.hbr.org ] provide important
strategies on that you can do to promote
your value to the organization. A
step-by-step process to identify your
strengths, selection of appropriate
complementary skills and development of
those skills is described.
-
A special report in
Railway Age “Rebuilding America’s
Railroads” [pp. 39-93, September 2011
www.railwayage.com] provides a series of
articles focusing on the nation’s railway
infrastructure and the importance of
railways to America. The articles are
written by leaders of the industry who
provide an insider’s knowledge of this
important transportation sector.
-
Exploring New Energy
Alternatives is the title of an article by
David LePoire [The Futurist.
45(5):34-38 October, 2011]. The author
discusses the current situation and then
launches into a discussion of
non-conventional renewable energy sources.
Terrance Malkinson is a
communications specialist, business analyst and
futurist. He is currently an international
correspondent for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer, an
associate editor for IEEE Canadian Review, and a
member of the editorial advisory board of IEEE
The Institute. He was Vice-Chair of the IEEE-USA
Communications Committee (2004-2010), and
editor-in-chief of IEEE-USA Today's Engineer
Digest (2004-2008). He was an elected Senator of
the University of Calgary and an elected
Governor of the IEEE Engineering Management
Society as well as an elected Administrative
Committee member of the IEEE Professional
Communication Society. He has been the editor of
several IEEE conference proceedings, and past
editor of IEEE Engineering Management. He is the
author of more than 420 publications, and is an
accomplished triathlete. His career path
includes being an accomplished technical
supervisor and medical researcher at the
University of Calgary a business proposal
manager for the General Electric Company, an
associate for Sears Canada Inc. and research
administrator with the School of Health and
Public Safety/Applied Research and Innovation
Services at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary Canada.
The author is grateful to the
professional support of the Haskayne School of
Business Library at the University of Calgary.
He can be reached at
todaysengineer@ieee.org.
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