Saturday, October 8, 2011

Steve Jobs



It might sound strange, especially when someone has died that the one thing that struck me as odd in all flurry of articles on Steve Jobs was his net worth.  According to Forbes, Steve jobs’ net worth is $8.9 bn, I found that strange for the man who created and re-created the world’s third largest company Apple (by market cap). Bill Gates’s net worth is almost seven-times, while his company Microsoft is only the 10th largest company by market share. Even more astounding is the fact that most of Steve jobs wealth came from Disney where he is the largest shareholder ($4.47bn of stocks) not Apple!

 
Source: Forbes The World’s Billionaires, as of March 2011

I saw a similar pattern in all the other rich fellows excluding Steve Jobs; they all had better individual ranks then their main or key companies. But the difference in the individual ranking and company ranking is most startling in Steve Jobs case- 110 individual rank and third company rank. I guess he was too busy doing what he loved than be bothered about making money. Too busy making products that make you smile before you even put them on.




Rank by individual net worth
Name
Net worth (Bn$)
Age
Source of income
Key company
Market value of company (Bn$)
Rank by mkt value
1
Carlos Slim Helu & family
74
71
Telecom
América Móvil
110
47*
2
Bill Gates
56
55
Microsoft
Microsoft
213.34
10
3
Warren Buffett
50
81
Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway
206.67
12
4
Bernard Arnault
41
62
LVMH
LVMH
77.61
84
5
Larry Ellison
39.5
67
Oracle
Oracle
169.19
22
6
Lakshmi Mittal
31.1
61
Steel
ArcelorMittal
56.54
124
7
Amancio Ortega
31
75
Zara
Inditex
50.08
153
8
Eike Batista
30
54
Mining, oil
Ogx Petroleo
39.06
210
9
Mukesh Ambani
27
54
Petrochemicals, oil & gas
Reliance Industries
76.91
86
10
Christy Walton & family
26.5
56
Walmart
Walmart
181.72
19
24
Larry Page
19.8
38
Google
Google
147.20
28
24
Sergey Brin
19.8
38
Google
Google
147.20
28
52
Mark Zuckerberg
13.5
27
Facebook
Facebook
50
155*
110
Steve Jobs
8.3
56
Apple, Pixar
Apple
321.07
3
Individual ranking and net worth according to Forbes
Company ranking and market value according to FT Global 100
* Ranking of companies proxy rank of companies with similar market share in FT Global 500
Market value of face book from Bloomberg and of América Móvil from Forbes


The numbers don’t tell you everything, just like a person’s grades don’t tell you everything (I hope).  Its how you do what you do, that needs to be measured. Mr. Jobs got that, he focused less on the numbers more on the reactions, making people emotional about a computer sounds insane, irrational, but it works. In the end of the day its not really the RAM, or the hard-drive or the processor, that was important, it was important that the person who is going to spend a considerable amount of his or her time using that product, felt it was worth the while.  

I love the way Apple markets its products, its always has simple ads, with main focus on the product, no pretty girl standing in the frame, wondering what she is doing here. Despite the size of Apple, they made a large company feel like a small open source company, making new stuff. It didn’t seem to have the big corporate feel they kept it simple. Even the keyboard of an IMAC embodies that, no odd buttons like num-lock, scroll lock, which you end up pressing by mistake only. No clutter, no stupid extra button. They even took away the backspace key, which I must admit I want it put back. Despite the simplicity, you ended-up looking forward to the new product, they made it an experience. Tell me, has anybody gone and told people around they got a Microsoft, if it’s a vista you may not want to tell other people. Obviously there are drawbacks; products that invest a lot in simplicity end-up being inflexible they give you a few readymade range of options, just like Steve Jobs. Either his way or the iway, but then its his dream that we bought into.

Here’s to the crazy ones.



“You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.”
--- Steve Jobs (1955 – 2011)

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