USNA News Article

Leadership Conference Opens with Guy Kawasaki

Jan 30, 2012

By Jessica Clark

Entrepreneur and author Guy Kawasaki opened the Naval Academy Leadership Conference Jan. 30 with a speech about the leadership skills he learned from Steve Jobs while working for Apple.

Currently the co-founder of Alltop.com, an online magazine rack of popular topics on the web and a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures, Kawasaki was formerly the “chief evangelist” at Apple, responsible for convincing companies to buy Apple products.

Steve Jobs is one of only two men Kawasaki recognizes as true business visionaries. Walt Disney is the second, he said.

“The world is not as interesting a place without Steve Jobs,” said Kawasaki. “We were on a mission from Steve to change the world.”

One of the lessons Kawasaki learned from his work at Apple was to not take the word of experts as gospel, he said.

“For you young people wanting to be leaders . you need to discover for yourself. You need to investigate. You should have a very skeptical attitude. Do not default to people who claim they are experts.”

He also learned that customers define what they want based on what they already know . it.s up to the innovator to develop something new. And even organizations often “define themselves by what they do rather than what they provide,” said Kawasaki.

He encouraged young leaders instead to be innovative, to think big.

“The biggest challenges beget the best work,” he said.

Steve Jobs set out to change the world, and he did it about five times, said Kawasaki. “Most people are lucky to change the world once.”

The annual leadership conference at the Naval Academy is designed to explore relevant leadership to explore relevant challenges and issues that leaders and organizations face both in the military and the civilian sector. This year.s theme is “Visionary Leadership: Navigating Through Uncharted Waters.”