Jay Elliot, who worked closely with Steve Jobs at Apple Computers, has written an interesting account of the genius who created the world’s most popular phone, which has turned the company into the second largest by market cap in the world

Moneylife Digital Team

Steve Jobs often repeated his admiration for God, who made man, in the following words. "The hand is the most used part of your body that implements what the brain wants. If you could only replicate the hand—that would be a killer product." While Steve Jobs hasn't done that miracle, he has done well to successfully launch such Apple products like the Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad that have become hugely popular. Jay Elliot, who has worked closely with Jobs, has written an appropriate eulogy of Steve as he enters the sunset years.

Elliot describes Jobs' best product to date in this way: "Miraculously, Steve was able to show the team from AT&T a snazzy, beautifully working iPhone with its gleaming glass screen and its bevy of sexy applications. This was way more than a phone, it was just what he had promised—the equivalent of a computer, in the palm of your hand. Steve later said that the senior AT&T official, Ralph de la Vega, described it as "the best device I have ever seen."

"By mid-2010, Apple had sold an incredible 50 million iPhones. Today, new applications are flooding the web and the Apple Store at the rate of 300 a day, with more than 200,000 to choose from. Over three years, iPhone apps became a $3 million dollar industry-Incredible! iPhone apps are coming from Windows developers as well."

Clearly, Steve Jobs is a genius, and Jay Elliot has described him well; it's a good story written by a good story-teller.

Jay Elliot pictures Jobs as a shrewd businessman, who has turned Apple into a company with the second largest market capitalisation in the world. The company's market cap, as of writing the book, was more than $280 billion. Jobs could not have achieved what he did without a passion, a commitment to excellence, great branding, and the openness to learn from mistakes.

The author praises Jobs' approach to leadership through a singular iLeadership style, which encompasses four major principles: product, talent, organisation and marketing. This creative and technological brilliance of iLeadership can be used to drive breakthroughs in any organisation, irrespective of size.

Working with a Boston Consulting firm, Jobs/Apple created a programme called "Work Out" to achieve these goals. Jack Welch of GE said about this: "Work Out is meant to help people stop wrestling with the boundaries, the absurdities that grow in large organisations. We are all familiar with those absurdities: too many approvals, duplication, and pomposity, waste. The programme turned the company upside down, so that the workers told the bosses what to do. That forever changed the way people at the company behaved."

This is a good book, in the non-fiction category, that will be a good read for every businessman and management school student.

"The Steve Jobs Way", by Jay Elliot and William L Simon, is published by Jaico Publishing House. It has 259 pages and is priced at Rs250.