Editor’s note: This article was first published in December 2014; its description of Apple as the most valuable company in the world reflects that time.
Leaving aside the money involved, the truth is that most companies waste a great deal of time in unproductive meetings (and lose money along the way). Yet time is a very valuable asset, and great business leaders know it.
Steve Jobs wanted to be sure he would not waste his own time, or that of Apple’s employees, on dull, useless meetings. His method may be debatable, but it worked for him. Here is how, as Drake Baer describes for Business Insider, Steve Jobs made sure his meetings were, in his view, highly productive.
See also: What is the best day and time for a company meeting?
1. Keep meetings as small as possible, both in time and in people
Get straight to the point with the people directly involved in the matter at hand. In his book Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success, Ken Segall describes what it was like to work with Jobs and tells this story about one meeting:
Jobs was about to start a weekly meeting with Apple’s advertising agency when he noticed a new face and stopped dead. His eyes fixed on this person he did not know, and, pointing, he asked: “Who are you?”
The newcomer explained that they had been asked to attend because they were part of related marketing projects.
Jobs asked the newcomer to leave: “I don’t think we need you in this meeting. Thanks.”
In the same way, when US President Barack Obama met with the CEOs of the big technology companies, Jobs declined the invitation because he felt the President had invited too many people for his taste.
That was Jobs in this respect: a madman, but one with very clear ideas.
See also: The dark side of Steve Jobs: the CEO inside the genius
2. Make sure the person responsible for each agenda item is in the room
You have probably seen it in company meetings: the person who could give the right answers is not there, and in their place sits someone who does not have all the answers and, in many cases, even feels a little lost.
Jobs did not allow that. In fact, various publications have said that Apple managed to become the most valuable company in the world because it made sure that, across the company and in its meetings, everyone knew exactly what they were responsible for.
Every effective meeting at Apple had a list of actions and a person directly responsible for carrying out each one. If, for example, a design problem is costing the company money, they will not call in the head of sales but the person in charge of the design team responsible for that product.
This way of running meetings is enormously useful in a new company that is just getting started.
3. Steve Jobs hated PowerPoint
Walter Isaacson, author of the superb biography Steve Jobs, said that Jobs did not let anyone hide behind a PowerPoint presentation. In fact, he hated PowerPoint.
Steve Jobs, who held one meeting a week (on Wednesday afternoons), went as far as banning videos and PowerPoint presentations, because he wanted his team to debate passionately and think critically without leaning on technology.
“I hate the way people use slide presentations instead of thinking,” Jobs told Isaacson. “People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint.”
Further reading
- 7 strange stories in which Steve Jobs behaved like a real jerk
- 11 Steve Jobs quotes that will go down in business history
- 5 things that kill productive time at work
Featured image: Yusuke Kawasaki, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
