For the third straight year, Apple has topped the list of Fortune Magazine’s Most Admired [Companies] for Innovation. Few people will deny that it’s Steve Jobs’ return to Apple in 1998 that has helped it turn around from a company that needed “donations” from Microsoft to stay alive to a company growing faster than any other company in the PC business and $18.5 billion in the bank. Apple currently has an almost 8% market share in the PC market overall and an almost 20% share of new laptops being sold.

So why do I bring this up on a blog about photography, fashion photography none the less? Fortune Magazine senior editor Betsy Morris spoke with Steve Jobs about Apple, it’s products and the future. I think even in the photography business we can learn from the “Jobs Philosophy” about how to run a business, how to re-invent yourself when your business isn’t doing so well, and how to come out ahead when passing through tough economic times.

In my recent articles here on exposingFashion.com, I’ve talked about storage workflows, on-set workflows, and reasons NOT to fix it in Photoshop. My opinions on all of these areas related to photography suggest that photographers stop and get it right before putting out a bad product or struggling to fix it when you’re way past the point of no return.

In his interview with Betsy Morris, Mr. Jobs said:

“At Pixar when we were making Toy Story, there came a time when we were forced to admit that the story wasn’t great. It just wasn’t great. We stopped production for five months…. We paid them all to twiddle their thumbs while the team perfected the story into what became Toy Story. And if they hadn’t had the courage to stop, there would have never been a Toy Story the way it is, and there probably would have never been a Pixar.

On the topic of focus, Jobs says:

Apple is a $30 billion company, yet we’ve got less than 30 major products… People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.

This relates to our photography businesses also. The short version, “Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Focus on your key areas, develop a style, and work from there.”

In the inteview, Jobs also talks about his “marathon Monday meetings” in which they as a company review their entire business:

We look at what we sold the week before. We look at every single product under development, products we’re having trouble with, products where the demand is larger than we can make. All the stuff in development, we review. And we do it every single week.

Many times in our business we forget about the business, about the marketing, about testing to try out new ideas. Then, when clients decide to move on we start running a marathon to find new business. The weekly Monday meetings at Apple, reinforce the fact that all that “boring” business must be taken care of every week, regularly, or you may be missing important areas where you can improve and stay competitive.

Ok, so our businesses aren’t grossing $20 Billion a year, but there is a lot that many photographers, who are essentially the CEO, COO, Marketing Director, and Bookkeeper of their own businesses, can learn from Top Execs like Mr. Jobs.

Here’s the full interview.

About the author

Kevin Michael Reed
Kevin Michael Reed (Google+, Facebook) is a fashion & beauty photographer and producer/director based in New York City and Los Angeles, CA. He is the President/CEO of RedFOG Visual Media, a production company in New York City, and a partner in Passion of Photography, Inc, a company dedicated to teaching photographers and sharing our passion through charitable causes. Kevin has lectured and hosted workshops throughout the United States and the world teaching photographers the business and creative sides of photography. (Kevin's Fashion & Beauty Photography Portfolio can be seen here).

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