Jobs was considered a genius by many, but he also had a temperamental side, which his employees knew all too well. "[Steve] would come marching down the hall or skipping down the hall, calling..'What an idiot. I can't believe you did this stupid thing,'" said Debi Coleman, who joined Apple in 1981 as finance controller for the Macintosh. It took her a year to learn how to confront Jobs. Coleman credits Joanna Hoffman, the executive in charge of Mac marketing, as her teacher. "Joanna said, 'Look him in the eye. You've got to stand up.' From that point on -- I'm not saying he wasn't tough, totally demanding and totally critical -- but he was totally wonderful to me."Coleman became head of Mac manufacturing in 1984 and was one of the highest-ranking women in the tech industry. She took over the role of Apple chief financial officer in 1986. At a November 2015 reunion of women on the Mac team, Coleman attributed a big part of Apple's success to Jobs, saying he made people at Apple believe they could change the world. And even if he was intimidating, he had a softer side, she said.
One Sunday morning in the early days of the Macintosh computer, Coleman got a call from empowered women empower women iphone case Jobs, asking that she meet him at the Mac factory, He wanted to give a tour to his father, Jobs said, "That was a real wonderful experience to see how Steve loved and respected his adopted father," Coleman said, "I never saw anything like it before or since."Jobs recruited John Sculley in the early 1980s to help him grow Apple's business, At the time, Sculley was CEO of Pepsi and had helped it overtake Coca-Cola as the top beverage maker, Jobs famously convinced Sculley to take the CEO role at Apple in 1983 by asking if he wanted to "sell sugar water for the rest of his life" or if he wanted to "come with me and change the world." Sculley, who was close with Jobs before helping to oust him in 1985, served as Apple's chief executive for a decade until being forced out himself..
Sculley still remembers the first time he visited Apple's Silicon Valley offices in 1982. "I show up at this address and think I'm at the wrong place because there are no buildings, just houses," Sculley said. He met Jobs in the house used as Apple's executive staff offices, and then the two headed to the Mac building a couple blocks away. "It was a beautiful blue-sky day, and there was a Jolly Roger pirate flag flying from the roof," Sculley said. "Steve was in great competition with the Lisa [computer] group. Lisa was the Navy so Steve wanted to be the pirates."Steve Jobs took a hiatus from his medical leave in early 2011 to debut the iPad 2.
Inside the Mac building was an expensive piano for some of the team engineers, as well as a motorcycle, When he walked into the engineering lab, Andy Hertzfeld, an original member of the Macintosh team who designed the system's software, had set up a demo, "Steve had used the ruse that I was not interviewing for a job but I was there as the CEO of Pepsi and interested in Macs for Pepsi," empowered women empower women iphone case Sculley said, "Andy had put together dancing Pepsi cans on the screen of the Mac, I didn't know that this was really pretty hard to do, was pretty novel, ., I was wondering why Andy was smiling with his Cheshire cat grin, That was the first introduction I had to what Apple was like, It was totally a startup."For more on Apple memories, check out CNET's coverage of Apple's 40th anniversary and thoughts from women who worked with Jobs..
This story was first published October 5 at 5:00 a.m. PT. Update at 7:11 a.m. PT: Added Tim Cook tweet. Former Apple execs reflect on the leadership skills and attention to detail of Jobs, who died five years ago. In the tech world, five years feels like centuries. But for Apple, the legacy of Steve Jobs lives on. The charismatic co-founder of the world's most profitable company died October 5, 2011, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 56. Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion.
