No-nonsense meetings à la Steve Jobs

Jan 2, 2015 • Marc

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I had the great good fortune to work at the headquarters of Apple Inc. in Cupertino, California, in the early 1990’s, as part of Apple’s Advanced Technology Group. The period when I was there happened to coincide with the period during which Steve Jobs had been ousted from his own company, before his game-changing return in 1997. Even in his absence, however, it was obvious that his ‘fingerprints’, ‘vibe’ and ‘ethos’ were everywhere, but the ‘vibe’ was slipping and the ship was floundering in his absence. Jobs’ style and influence are well-documented and easy to find, so I’m adding this little note just to point out a handy article I came across recently that highlights the ‘Steve Jobs approach’ to efficient meetings, which will be of interest to many Meetomatic users and more generally to our blog readers.

The article is by Drake Baer of Business Insider UK, who writes that

American businesses lose an estimated $37 billion a year due to meeting mistakes. Steve Jobs made sure that Apple wasn’t one of those companies.

Jobs’ techniques involved keeping meetings small, making sure that there was a specific named person driving each agenda item, and refusing to let people use PowerPoint as a veil to bluff their way through poorly-thought-out ideas.

Read Drake Baer’s article to see these points expanded and to get a feel for the ‘Steve Jobs approach’, via the following link: 3 Ways Steve Jobs Made Meetings Insanely Productive — And Often Terrifying