Since the death of Steve Jobs, there has been a great deal of articles of the advice Fortune 100 companies can learn from Steve Jobs. I recently finished reading Walter Isaacson's book on Steve Jobs and thought there were also lessons that small enterprises can take away from Steve Jobs.

While there are many to choose from, some the ideas that appealed to me were i) Ask for what you want, ii) demand the impossible, iii) don't try to be all things to all people, iv) make decisions quickly and, v) advertise customer benefits not product features.

Ask for What You Want

One of the anecdotes from the book that does not get much attention is when Jobs was twelve years old and he called Bill Hewlett, the founder of Hewlett Packard. Jobs was constructing a frequency counter for a school assignment and needed parts. Jobs looked up Bill Hewlett's phone number in the telephone directory, explained his assignment and asked for the components. A few days later he walked away with a bag full of parts and a summer position at HP. The lesson here is that the only way to get what you want is to ask for it.

Demand the Impossible

Throughout the book, Isaacson spends a good deal of time on how Steve Jobs would alter reality by changing the facts or circumstances in his head and then believing this is what is objectively true. One example comes early on when he plants a flag in the sand with an entirely unrealistic release date for the Macintosh. The lesson is that while his team is initially convinced it is impossible, they end up delivering the completed product far quicker than they had imagined because of Jobs' faith in and support of his team. The lesson is that demanding the impossible is the only way to achieve it.

Don't Try to Be All Things to All People

When Jobs returned to Apple after the departure of John Sculley, he quickly recognizes that product development had gone out of control and the company was spending resources on huge variety of products without any vision. Jobs cut through the bureaucracy by deciding they should narrow their focus to four users, and drew a 2 x 2 grid to illustrate it. On the lower axis he had €professional€ and €consumer€ users and on the y axis he had €desktop€ and €portable€ computers. This simple grid was able to focus resources on offering features for specific users, rather than target a product at the entire market.

Make Decisions Quickly

As a small business, it can be intimidating competing against competitors with greater resources or wider product lines. To compete, it is important to take advantage of the tasks and traits that differentiate a small business. One of the distinctions small businesses have is not having as much bureaucracy blocking them from making changes quickly.

While Apple is by no means a small company, Jobs exemplified this quick, fact based decision making when he made the decision to purchase the initial hard drives for the IPod. Jon Rubinstein was on a routine supplier visit to Toshiba, Rubinstein saw a tiny, 1.8 inch hard drive that became a essential component of the iPod. Rubinstein needed a $10 million purchase order to purchase the drive and move ahead. Rubinstein met with Jobs at a Tokyo hotel later that evening, and together they made the decision to go forward on the spot. Few large companies are nimble enough to make major product decisions this quickly, and this is an area where smaller companies can best their larger rivals.

Advertise Customer Benefits Not Product Features

When they launched the iPod, they reviewed a number of alternative tag lines for the benefit of the iPod. It is hard to remember now because of the success of the iPod, but when the iPod launched portable music players were by no means pervasive and most users did not see any need for the product. With the tag line, €1,000 Songs in Your Pocket€, the iPod revolution was launched. Rather than advertising the features such as a gigabit hard drive or the dimensions, they developed a simple catch phrase that immediately communicated to the consumer why the product was revolutionary.

Jobs was a one of a kind entrepreneur and these are just a few of the lessons that small businesses can draw from his life.

©2012 HangingPanels.com.

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