Steve Jobs felt hiring professional management for Apple ‘didn’t work at all, most of them bozos’ — Here's what he did

Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs felt hiring professional management for the consumer tech giant when they wanted to expand and had plans to make it big “didn’t work at all”.

Noting that “most of them (professional managers) were bozos” who only knew about management and not how to do the work, Jobs instead felt the best managers are “great individual contributors who never, ever want to be a manager” but step up due to the need of the hour.

‘Hiring professional management didn’t work at all’

In a clip from 1985, speaking on the early recruitment process amid expansion plans for Apple, Steve Jobs said, “We went through that stage in Apple, where we went out and we thought, ‘oh, we’re going to be a big company, let’s hire professional management'. We went out and hired a bunch of professional management, and it didn’t work at all.”

He explained, “Most of them were bozos. They knew how to manage — but they didn't know how to do anything. And so, if you're a great person why do you want to work for somebody you can't learn anything from?”

Who are the best managers according to Steve Jobs?

Explaining who makes the best managers, Jobs noted, “You know what's interesting? You know who the best managers are? They're the great individual contributors, who never, ever, want to be a manager. But decide they have to be a manager because no one else is going to be able to do as good a job as them.”

Steve Jobs said he changed how he hired for Apple after hiring two professional managers from outside the company and firing them both.

WATCH: Steve Jobs on how he hires managers for Apple

‘Like needle in haystack; recruiting most important job’

According to a Fortune report citing a mid-1980s interview, Jobs said he was very involved with the recruitment at Apple and wanted people who were “insanely great at what they did” but “not necessarily those seasoned professionals”.

What was he looking for? Employees and managers who knew what Apple could do with technology and wanted to bring it to “lots of people.”

“The neatest thing that happens is when you get a core group of 10 great people it becomes self-policing as to who they let into that group. So, I consider the most important job of someone like me (to be) recruiting,” he added.

In other conversations, Jobs also emphasised the need for team leaders who have vision. “The greatest people are self-managing. Once they know what to do, they'll go figure out how to do it. They don't need to be managed at all. What they need is a common vision,” he felt.

How to get such visionary leaders? In an interview with Forbes, Jobs said he looked for smart people, who would fall in love with Apple, and want to do what's best for the company. “If they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself. They'll want to do what's best for Apple, not what's best for them, what's best for Steve, or anybody else. It's just finding the needles in the haystack,” he added.