Steve Jobs y la importancia de enfocarse

Encontré una perlita que se me había pasado. Un artículo escrito por Walter Isaacson llamado The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs.

Es, obviamente, para amantes de anécdotas de Steve Jobs, pero tiene varias lecciones importantes. Yo me quedo con una, que es tener foco, y dejo tres extractos:

"When Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, it was producing a random array of computers and peripherals, including a dozen different versions of the Macintosh. After a few weeks of product review sessions, he’d finally had enough. “Stop!” he shouted. “This is crazy.” He grabbed a Magic Marker, padded in his bare feet to a whiteboard, and drew a two-by-two grid. “Here’s what we need,” he declared. Atop the two columns, he wrote “Consumer” and “Pro.” He labeled the two rows “Desktop” and “Portable.” Their job, he told his team members, was to focus on four great products, one for each quadrant. All other products should be canceled. There was a stunned silence. But by getting Apple to focus on making just four computers, he saved the company. “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do,” he told me. “That’s true for companies, and it’s true for products.”"

He visto muchas empresas queriendo ser demasiadas cosas a la vez. Intentando mantener una oferta demasiado diversificada, pero a la vez buscando mantener los costos bajos y la rentabilidad alta. No es posible librar todas las batallas, debemos elegir cuales nos importan más y pelear esa con nuestras mejores armas.

"After he righted the company, Jobs began taking his “top 100” people on a retreat each year. On the last day, he would stand in front of a whiteboard (he loved whiteboards, because they gave him complete control of a situation and they engendered focus) and ask, “What are the 10 things we should be doing next?” People would fight to get their suggestions on the list. Jobs would write them down—and then cross off the ones he decreed dumb. After much jockeying, the group would come up with a list of 10. Then Jobs would slash the bottom seven and announce, “We can only do three.”"

Un poco duro el método de filtrado pero pensar estratégicamente es eso, decidir lo que no haremos. Por suerte para Apple, Jobs tenía el olfato para saber para donde ir. Otras empresas tienen un problema anterior que es llenar el pizarrón y saber cuales tachar.

"Near the end of his life, Jobs was visited at home by Larry Page, who was about to resume control of Google, the company he had cofounded. Even though their companies were feuding, Jobs was willing to give some advice. “The main thing I stressed was focus,” he recalled. Figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up, he told Page. “It’s now all over the map. What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.” Page followed the advice. In January 2012 he told employees to focus on just a few priorities, such as Android and Google+, and to make them “beautiful,” the way Jobs would have done." 

No sólo foco en lo que hay que hacer, sino también foco en definir a qué nos dedicamos o qué queremos ser. "No se puede ser todo para todos" dicen por ahí.

Seguimos pensando..