September 12, 2011
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This past week signaled the end of two eras: The health related retirement of Steve Jobs as Apple CEO after building the most valuable company in America, and the revelation that the winningest college basketball coach ever, Pat Summitt of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols, is afflicted with early onset Alzheimer’s type dementia.
These two people have affected a huge number of lives. Jobs contributions to Apple have indirectly affected millions worldwide. He has led Apple through a period of unprecedented innovation-based success.
Jobs didn’t do this alone. His successor, CEO Tim Cook was certainly instrumental, guiding Apple for the past several years marked by Jobs health issues. Designer Jonathan Ive was also responsible for creating products that started entire trends in the industry. Only insiders know where the true inspiration came from, and where the perspiration of doing the right things the right way led to these successes. The perception is that it was Jobs relentless pursuit of elegant, yet functional solutions that drove the company.
My personal observation is that Apple has not only innovated, but it also managed product life cycles superbly. It often introduced next generation products before the initial generation was fully mature. This preempted competitors and insulated Apple from a great hidden danger—unnecessary complexity in its product line. The company also stood by its decision in both pricing and product details, even when PC based competitors out numbered it, and under-priced it.
Apple’s ultimate keys to success are instructive. These went far beyond design and styling. Apple’s quality and service continue to rank at the top of its competitive classes. These two factors combined allow Apple to command a premium price. Apple’s operating systems and architecture has been critical to its success, making it truly a “plug and play” fully integrated system.
Pat Summitt created an entirely different kind of innovative system. From the time she took over as head coach over 30 years ago—at age 22—she has personified excellence and determination, combined with a sensitivity (often more private than public) for her players’ lives. I had the pleasure of knowing her, and the Pat Summitt of the intense glare seen at courtside, gives way to a truly caring person in private conversations.
As of last time I checked, the graduation rate of Pat’s basketball players was 100 percent. In today’s college athletic culture, this is both admirable and amazing. Pat always insisted that players put their schoolwork first, but she also never let up on her demands for commitment and hard work on the basketball court. Players who cut classes, would get a spot on the bench. Period—no exceptions. Players who agreed to covenants with their teammates and then broke them risked removal from the team (which happened with a star center several years ago.) Summitt’ teams won over 1,000 games and eight national championships, and she is not yet done coaching—as long as her physical condition permits.
Pat Summitt’s Lady Vols were at the heart of the huge growth in women’s basketball. For a long time, the Lady Vols drew more people to Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville than the Vols men’s basketball games. This is an unimaginable thing in college sports.
In addition to dozens of All-Americans and even more WNBA players, there are many brilliant young coaches who played, worked and learned at Pat’s side. There are tens of thousands of Vol fans who admire her. Her legacy will be felt in college sports, and particularly in women’s college basketball for decades to come.
Pat, with long-time assistants Holly Warlick and Mickie DeMoss at her side, still hopes to lead her Lady Vols to their ninth National Championship before this awful affliction brings her career to an end.
Eras like those of Steve Jobs and Pat Summitt come and go infrequently. I had the good fortune to know two other iconic founders: Sam Walton of Walmart and Charles Lazarus of Toys"R"Us. Once you meet people like these, you realize what makes them special. Part of it is tangible—the outcomes that they achieved by their special talents. The other part, and the one that is so amazing, is not so tangible—it is an “aura” that you feel when you are around them.
Jobs has created an Apple that will succeed after he is gone—as did Walton’s Walmart. Summit has left her legacy in the hearts and minds of thousands of fans and hundreds of players and coaches. It saddens me to see these eras ending, in both cases due to ill health at a “too young age,” as both people are still in their 50s.
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Julie Rains 8 months ago
I enjoyed your observation about Apple's management of life cycles, which seems to be essential to innovation, and to an extent, unique design and exclusivity that command premium prices. Too often, I see organizations try to hold on too long to products that have been at the end of their life cycles for years, and then wonder where their customers have gone.