Monday, October 10, 2011

What if Steve Jobs ran your school?

Or your place of work no matter what it is. What would the difference be?

Would it impact upon your role as a teacher? Could you be more innovative? Would there be an expectation for you to be an innovative educator?

A few thoughts from me.

Yes, Apple under Jobs designed amazing products that have seriously impacted upon people's lives. So much so that in using them one can take the view that Don Ihde's philosophy on the negative impacts of all technology inventions is complete twaddle. After all, whilst using my iPhone I can take a photograph of my son and send it to his grandparents instantly. I can't see the negative in that, Don!

But for Apple, and Apple shareholders there was always a bottom line. It's no good coming up with innovative designs and products if they don't sell (see the Lisa, Mac Cube, Pippin, Apple Quick Take camera, which my school had!). Apple's success has been built upon great, intuitive designs which sell well.

So, what's the bottom line in schools?

It's examinations.

The number of times I've heard that something cannot be done in a a school I've worked in because of exams, or tests, or assessments is extraordinary. This is nowhere as apparent as in the international school system, where schools are constantly being compared using examination data and where school leaders are obsessed to the point of paranoia regarding these tests, even for students in the primary age category.

So would Jobs have been concerned about exam results? Of course he would. The Apple shareholders would have insisted upon it!

There are various stories about Jobs, many of which have become legends (or myths) over the years, from sacking people in elevators to blunt assessments of projects; "that's a D". From an innovation point of view some of the more interesting ones focus upon when he had a viewpoint but was persuaded by his team that he was wrong... although they may have used a different word.

Apparently he was very keen on keeping iTunes as a Mac only project, not allowing it's use on Windows. However, the team around him persuaded him otherwise and iTunes on the PC platform is now very popular and drives much revenue to Apple through the iTunes store.

So, despite being a visionary leader he had the sense to surround himself with experts who sometimes questioned his vision and influenced his thinking. This is a key aspect of innovation as many "visionary" leaders simply surround themselves with those who think in the same way, so there is no questioning, no contrary view, so things are always accepted, and, in my opinion, innovation is dampened.



4 comments:

  1. This is a money-oriented world. Apple has many creative and innovative products such like you mention above. However, money-driven is the main purpose to the company, organization and enterprise. The profit-making is the bottom line to determine this innovative product is success or not. The boss always want get 'instant-money'. They need the revenue immediately. However, they want to cut the budget, cut the research and development (R&D) time for their product life-cycle. This can affect the quality of innovation also! Because the innovated product and invention need time, idea and capital. Reduce time and money can direct influence the innovation.

    Also, in school, the bottom line should be the assessment result of the students. Because it can represent the teacher's role is success or not, just like the above innovative product is profit-making or not. Result-driven is a common point occurs in company and school!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The most outstanding innovators like Steve Jobs did make a great amount of money. But I don't think money is the only or even main motivation of his efforts. It is his passion to do something different and to change the way we live that creates the legend of Apple.
    Also, in schools, teachers are limited by the annoying assessment system: examinations. But the most successful teacher may not always focus their attention on the results, instead, they know how to encourage students to learn in an innovative and meaningful way.
    All in all, a lot of money and the satisfactory results of examinations should be the results rather than the targets.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree that the assessment system is a barrier to the innovative practice. I am thinking what will happen if Steve ran to HK school, where the curriculum is bound by rigid assessment system......

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh yes! But in fact, many Apple's product due to 'no market' share has become end-of-product life, the famous is the Apple Newton. Also, in a period of time, Apple's computer market has a great decline when facing microsoft and ibm. However, their products are always creative and innovative but market-share is a critical point to determine their success or not! Moreover, Steve Jobs's success legend is not only by himself. I think should give credit to the Apple team. I always think the beginning of Apple's most success innovator should be Steve Wozniak. Moreover, the NEXT OS (a Steve Job's own company) is not quite success! I realize his success is how to integration the existing resources into a new product become innovation. Such like music player, it is an old-idea but get 'add-on' that it becomes a new product 'ipod'. Then, the tablet and the touchscreen smartphone is not a new product, however he can make it success is depended on getting new idea into the existing thing. Then, on MAC or IOS, it's really get existing unix system into their own Darwin OS. But he is a good example of incremental innovation!

    Also, in school, the target should be 'learning'. However, a unsatisfactory result may let the student quit! Result-driven still occurs clearly in Hong Kong this financial culture! Parents always put their children to the elite school and class. The purpose is 'learning' but also wanna get 'high-mark'!

    Definitely, Steve Jobs has passion to innovate new product and student has passion to learn new knowledge. However, it is still a real fact that cannot change: the world is the result-driven society! The typical result-driven example has many in IT industry, just like HP discontinue their WebOS tablet; IBM quit from the personal PC market; Apple changes its paid-service MobieMe to iCloud; Nokia closed some their factory and fired employee...etc, a lot of examples.

    But I do not think assessment system is a innovative barrier, because company recruitment or student performance still need an assessment method! I think the main barrier to innovative practice should be the result-driven! Because it let the students and parents are put the whole concentration on the 'marking' and 'grading'!

    ReplyDelete