who lived only five blocks from Jobs in Palo Alto, “and he said he was going back to Apple and
wanted me on the board. I said, ‘Holy shit, of course I will do that.’”
Campbell had been a football coach at Columbia,
and his great talent, Jobs said, was to “get A
performances out of B players.” At Apple, Jobs told him, he would get to work with A players.
Woolard helped bring in Jerry York, who had been the chief financial officer at Chrysler and
then IBM. Others were considered and then rejected by Jobs, including Meg Whitman, who was
then the manager of Hasbro’s Playskool division and had been a strategic planner at Disney. (In
1998
she became CEO of eBay, and she later ran unsuccessfully for governor of California.) Over
the years Jobs would bring in some strong leaders to serve on the Apple board, including Al Gore,
Eric Schmidt of Google, Art Levinson of Genentech, Mickey Drexler of the Gap and J. Crew, and
Andrea Jung of Avon. But he always made sure they were loyal, sometimes loyal to a fault.
Despite their stature, they seemed at times awed or intimidated by Jobs, and they were eager to
keep him happy.
At one
point he invited Arthur Levitt, the former SEC chairman, to become a board member.
Levitt, who bought his first Macintosh in 1984 and was proudly “addicted” to Apple computers,
was thrilled. He was excited to visit Cupertino, where he discussed the role with Jobs. But then
Jobs read a speech Levitt had given about corporate governance, which argued that boards should
play a strong and independent role, and he telephoned to withdraw the invitation. “Arthur, I don’t
think you’d be happy on our board, and I think
it best if we not invite you,” Levitt said Jobs told
him. “Frankly, I think some of the issues you raised, while appropriate for some companies, really
don’t apply to Apple’s culture.” Levitt later wrote, “I was floored. . . . It’s plain to me that Apple’s
board is not designed to act independently of the CEO.”
Macworld Boston, August 1997
The staff memo announcing the repricing of Apple’s stock options was signed “Steve and the
executive team,” and it soon became public that he was running all of the company’s product
review meetings. These and other indications that Jobs was now deeply engaged at Apple helped
push the stock up from about $13 to $20 during July. It also created a frisson
of excitement as the
Apple faithful gathered for the August 1997 Macworld in Boston. More than five thousand
showed up hours in advance to cram into the Castle convention hall of the Park Plaza hotel for
Jobs’s keynote speech. They came to see their returning hero—and to find out whether he was
really ready to lead them again.
Huge cheers erupted when a picture of Jobs from 1984 was flashed on the overhead screen.
“Steve! Steve! Steve!” the crowd started to chant, even as he was still being introduced. When he
finally strode onstage—wearing a black vest, collarless white shirt, jeans, and an impish smile—
the screams and flashbulbs rivaled those for any rock star. At first he punctured the excitement by
reminding them of where he officially worked. “I’m
Steve Jobs, the chairman and CEO of Pixar,”
he introduced himself, flashing a slide onscreen with that title. Then he explained his role at
Apple. “I, like a lot of other people, are pulling together to help Apple get healthy again.”
But as Jobs paced back and forth across the stage, changing the overhead slides with a clicker
in his hand, it was clear that he was now in charge at Apple—and was likely to remain so. He
delivered a carefully crafted presentation,
using no notes, on why Apple’s sales had fallen by 30%
over the previous two years. “There are a lot of great people at Apple, but they’re doing the wrong
things because the plan has been wrong,” he said. “I’ve found people who can’t wait to fall into
line behind a good strategy, but there just hasn’t been one.” The crowd again erupted in yelps,
whistles, and cheers.
As he spoke, his passion poured forth with increasing intensity, and he began saying “we” and
“I”—rather than “they”—when referring to what Apple would be doing. “I think you still have to
think differently
to buy an Apple computer,” he said. “The people who buy them do think
different. They are the creative spirits in this world, and they’re out to change the world.
We
make
tools for those kinds of people.” When he stressed the word “we” in that sentence, he cupped his
hands and tapped his fingers on his chest. And then, in his final peroration, he continued to stress
the word “we” as he talked about Apple’s future. “We too are going to think differently and serve
