Unleashing Innovation's Mavericks: Steve Jobs' Radical Rules to Live By.

Few leaders have spurred as much disruptive innovation as Apple's iconic founder Steve Jobs. Throughout his corporate reign, Jobs defied conventional management wisdom at every turn, departing wildly from industry norms and best practices. In doing so, he catalyzed some of the most genre-redefining products of the modern tech era - the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Jobs' polarizing philosophies flew in the face of traditional business doctrine, but his counterintuitive principles eventually grew Apple into one of the world's most valuable and creative companies. Through an unwavering commitment to craftsmanship over profits, a beginner's mindset, and unapologetic nonconformity, his radical rules for innovation unleashed global disruptions time and again. This article looks at the 7 rules providing examples and then how an institution can apply the rules.

While mere platitudes at most corporations, Jobs made these ideals actionable behaviors that were institutionally embedded into Apple's culture and processes. His iconoclastic philosophies forced employees to relentlessly question assumptions, forge entirely new markets, obsess over details, and reimagine the company's own products before others could.

1) Question Everything

The Principle: Don't blindly accept the conventional wisdom. Challenge assumptions and keep asking "Why?" until you arrive at fundamental truths.

The Explanation: Jobs embodied an insatiable curiosity and contrarian mindset. Rather than following the herd mentality, he pushed his team to reexamine even basic premises about how products should work.

The Example: When developing the original iPhone, Jobs obsessed over fundamentally rethinking the smartphone interface. He scrapped the physical keyboard in favor of a multi-touch screen, despite skeptics calling the design "crazy."

2) Forge Your Own Path

The Principle: Disregard industry conventions and "rules." Blaze new trails aligned with your unique vision rather than imitating others.

The Explanation: Jobs actively defied the status quo rather than desperately trying to copy competitors. Apple intentionally zigs when others zag, redefining entirely new product categories.

The Example: Tablets existed before the iPad, but they were clunky, stylus-based devices. The iPad reimagined the tablet as a simple, multi-touch slate, igniting a mobile computing revolution.

3) Never Stop Reinventing

The Principle: Don't rest on past successes. Keep reinventing your own creations before others disrupt you. Evolve relentlessly.

The Explanation: Complacency is the enemy of innovation. Jobs instilled a restless reinvention ethic, ensuring Apple wouldn't become stagnant by actively cannibalizing its own products.

The Example: The original iPhone upended the mobile industry in 2007. But Jobs pushed untiringly to improve it each year, evolving processors, cameras, iOS software, and more.

4) Pour Your Heart Into It

The Principle: Don't chase profits directly. Instead, prioritize craft and pour your passion into creating insanely great products.

The Explanation: For Jobs, money was a welcome side effect - never the driving purpose. Apple innovates through an artist's obsessive pursuit of excellence.

The Example: From meticulously shaping the iMac's curves to fussing over minute software interface details, Jobs' maniacal perfectionism elevated technology to a bespoke art form.

5) Embrace the "Crazy Ones"

The Principle: Foster a culture of creative risk-taking. Surround yourself with bold thinkers proposing ideas that initially seem insane.

The Explanation: The most innovative ideas are often rejected as "crazy" and impractical at first. Jobs shielded his team from conventional groupthink, encouraging wild creativity.

The Example: Before launching in 2001, Apple's team derided the primera iPod as a costly distraction for a computer company. But Jobs defiantly greenlit the "crazy" idea.

6) Sweat the Small Stuff

The Principle: Obsess over every minute detail to elevate design through perfectionism and craft. Demand excellence in execution.

The Explanation: While others cut corners, Jobs insisted on sweating the smallest details through an unwavering commitment to quality and purposeful design.

The Example: From the vacuumed fine-lays adorning the iPhone's stainless steel to painstakingly designed product packaging, no detail was too small to perfect.

7) Stay Hungry and Foolish

The Principle: Never be satisfied. Preserve a permanent beginner's mindset, staying hungry and humble for the next innovation.

The Explanation: Even after revolutionary breakthroughs, Jobs approached every new problem with a childlike curiosity and endless runway mentality.

The Example: Even as the visionary behind iPod, iPhone and iPad, Jobs continued pushing his team as if they were eager upstarts, pursuing an "insanely great" product vision yet to be achieved.

These counterintuitive principles flew in the face of traditional business practices, but fueled some of the most groundbreaking innovations and success stories of our time. Jobs challenged us all to unleash our inner "crazy ones."

How can you apply these principles

This section provides guidance for how organizations can pursue a similarly ambitious and transformative innovation mindset:

"Institutionalizing an Innovator's Mindset"

While Steve Jobs' contrarian philosophies bred revolutionary products at Apple, his radical principles have broader applicability for any organization seeking to embed a deep-rooted culture of innovation. Here are some key steps companies can take:

Actively Question the Status Quo

Don't let assumptions and industry conventions go unquestioned. Establish safe spaces where people can freely challenge "the way we've always done it." Probe every process, policy, and product with a beginner's mind.

Give Permission to Defy Norms

Top-down mandate the importance of forging new paths over benchmarking competitors. Celebrate when teams depart from best practices in favor of counterintuitive, forward-looking approaches. Provide air cover for bold risk-taking.

Structured Entrepreneurship

Create formalized innovation programs and incubators, ring-fencing resources for teams to operate with startup mentalities. Grant internal "startups" independence from rigid corporate processes to move with speed and agility.

Rotate for Fresh Perspectives

Prevent insular thinking by periodically rotating personnel across teams, functions, and international locations. Establish job swaps and cross-pollination to inject new perspectives into every division.

Study Unexpected Successes

Don't just study best practices of leaders in your industry - also scrutinize the surprising wins from unlikely corners and unrelated fields. Search for unexpected sparks of ingenuity to inform your own reinvention.

Reward a Beginner's Mindset

Go beyond just celebrating successful innovation outcomes. Recognize and incentivize those who tenaciously exemplify a curious, beginners' mindset in pursuing new ideas through all setbacks and obstacles.

Obsess Over the Smallest Details

Establish companywide processes and design philosophies for scrutinizing even minor details in pursuing multi-disciplinary craft and quality excellence. Leave no aspect unconsidered in the pursuit of perfection.

Ultimately, turning Jobs' ideals into organizational behaviors requires leaders to habitually evangelize, enable, empower, and exemplify these unconventional principles day-to-day. Only then can innovation orientation be truly transformed from an abstract vision into strategically operationalized capabilities across an entire enterprise.