One of the keys—as you already know if you’ve ever read anything about him beyond the medical reports—is his passion, his obsession , for the product. For Steve, “good enough” is never good enough. His depth of knowledge about every product, down to the smallest detail, is breathtaking. His passion for design drives him to spend hours on issues of product materials, appearance, ease-of-use, and overall superiority that most leaders and product managers would probably consider irrational.

Another of the ways Apple stays ahead of its competitors is what’s come to be called “holistic product development.” In the Stevian approach, the phrase means that the hardware and the underlying technology—the software—are the handiwork of the same company. Look at the first-generation iPhone and the first-generation Droid: The iPhone was a work of art, beautiful to look at and to hold, yes, but far more important, it worked —the operation was almost completely intuitive, and right out of the box it operated the way it was intended to.

It’s interesting to me that when analysts comment on the current iPhone/iPad market, they write about Apple products vs. Android. Sorry, but Android is a software, like Windows; it’s not a product. Also take a look at the revenue generation, iPhone is over 40% of the revenue generated in that market, as Android is free to the hardware manufacturers.

Steve’s pride in his products explains why he came back from medical leave to introduce the iPad 2. And why he chose to do the introduction at a separate lunch meeting instead of at the stockholders meeting: not just because he is totally committed to his products, and rightfully proud of them, but because he is focused on pleasing the people who will buy the products, and not, like most corporate leaders, focused on pleasing his stockholders.

Steve and I used to talk about how the challenge of creating innovate products is puny in comparison to the challenge of creating and maintaining a highly effective organization. Today, few people would argue with his stunning success in achieving one of the world’s most effective organizations, and how he has done that is a subject I have recently enjoyed exploring at length.

Jay Elliot is the author, with William L. Simon, of The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation .

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