Operations

Issue 6:

This memo, written by Steve Jobs (when he was at NeXT), highlights his view on balancing company size with productivity. He wanted to ensure the "do-ers" could do what they do best.

Your brand - the opinion people have of your company - is built on the quality of your product or service (the thing you "do"). Making sure you have the right people involved is fundamental in building your brand.

Here's the transcript in full.

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17 March 1986

Our company is founded on the principal that a few good people can produce a tremendous product if they are not fettered by:

a) having to convince a larger organization of what they know is right, and
b) if they can devote their personal time to designing, marketing or what have you, rather than managing others to do these tasks less well.

To stay true to this principal, I propose the following two ideas:

1) We all need time for uninterrupted individual work. Meetings (vendors, interviews,..) are eating into our individual time, and the productivity of our engineers is suffering. I propose we set aside every Thursday as a day with no meetings of any kind. Thursday is our day, a day when we metaphorically lock the doors to the outside world and quietly work individually.

2) In revising our headcount requirements (and subsequently budgets) downwards, I encourage you to remember that there is a very subtle line, which, when crossed in increased headcount, causes you to be a manager instead of a contributor/team leader. I believe that if we turn ourselves into managers instead of "do-ers", both our schedule and the "greatness" of our product will suffer. Let's not let this happen! It is better to have fewer people, even if it means doing less. Let's build our company slowly and carefully.

Let's discuss these two ideas at our Staff meeting tommorrow. Thanks.

SJ

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If you want to know more about how to create a great product or service for your customers, take a look at page 53 of Brand in the Boardroom. You can find a copy here.

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If you would like to have a chat about what we have discussed in this post, please do get in touch.