In this captivating discussion, Ron Johnson, the former senior VP at Apple and architect of the retail stores and Genius Bar, shares transformative moments with Steve Jobs that shaped his career. He delves into how meaningful conversations can impact personal and professional relationships. Ron reveals the challenges of fostering innovation at Apple and the pivotal shift towards a digital retail strategy. With anecdotes and insights, he highlights the importance of clarity in corporate communication and the art of building lasting connections.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Initial Contact
Steve Jobs reached out to Ron Johnson, a retail expert at Target, to help Apple create its retail stores.
This was counterintuitive as Apple had low market share, and online retail was booming.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Why Johnson?
Ron Johnson's design work at Target, particularly the Michael Graves collaboration, caught Steve Jobs's attention.
Mickey Drexler, on Apple's board, likely recommended reaching out to Johnson.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Unconventional Hiring
Johnson's first meeting with Jobs led to an unusual job offer.
Jobs, impressed by Johnson's design thinking, hired him after their second meeting, despite an unimpressive initial assignment.
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The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader
Brent Schlender
Rick Tetzeli
This book provides a rich and revealing account of Steve Jobs' life, drawing on exclusive access to his family, former inner circle executives, and top people at Apple, Pixar, and Disney. It humanizes Jobs by explaining his behavior and highlighting his growth from a brash founder to a mature and effective leader. The narrative includes stories never told before and offers a fresh perspective on Jobs' career, particularly his time at NeXT and Pixar, and his return to Apple. The authors, who had close relationships with Jobs, detail how he learned to trust his inner circle, became more patient, and developed a more mature management style, ultimately transforming the daily life of billions of people.
Steve Jobs
Walter Isaacson
This biography, based on more than 40 interviews with Steve Jobs and over 100 interviews with family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues, provides a riveting story of Jobs' roller-coaster life and intense personality. It highlights his passion for perfection, his ferocious drive, and how he revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. The book explores Jobs' contradictions, his 'reality distortion field,' and the lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values that can be drawn from his life and career.
Have you ever met someone who made a disproportionate impression upon you? You didn't have conventional conversations with them. Instead, it was something more meaningful, even life-changing? Well, in today's episode, part one of a two-part interview with Ron Johnson, Ron describes specific moments and conversations that he had with Steve Jobs. Ron Johnson was formerly the senior Vice president at Apple. He was responsible for the creation of the retail Apple stores, as well as the Genius Bar. If you've ever been to an Apple store, if you've ever been to the Genius Bar, Ron Johnson has impacted your life. But in this episode, we learn about how Steve Jobs impacted his life. By the end of this episode, you'll have insights into that key relationship, but also insights into how to make conversations memorable and build relationships that matter at work or at home.
The Greg McKeown Podcast 
