14 DAY TRIAL // A Google executive has a short but touching story about one experience he’s had with Steve Jobs a few years ago, touting the Apple Co-Founder as one of the greatest leaders he’s ever met.
A simple phone call from Steve on a Sunday morning is what spawned Vic Gundotra’s post which sheds light on how folks in the industry regard Jobs, amid Apple's announcement that Jobs has resigned as CEO.
Gundotra is Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google. Like many high-profile execs, Gundotra has had contact with big CEOs, such as Microsoft’s Bill Gates, as well as Apple’s Steve Jobs.
“One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said ‘Caller ID unknown’. I choose to ignore,” he writes.
After services, he checked his messages and found there was a text from Steve Jobs.
"Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss" it said.
Being responsible for all mobile applications at Google, and having regular contact with Jobs, “it was one of the perks of the job” to answer back to Steve before even reaching his car.
Gundotra continues: ‘Hey Steve - this is Vic’, I said. ‘I'm sorry I didn't answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn't pick up’.”
“Steve laughed. He said, ‘Vic, unless the Caller ID said 'GOD', you should never pick up during services’.”
Gundotra says he laughed too, but nervously, as he expected Apple’s CEO to be upset about something, given that he was calling on a Sunday.
“I wondered what was so important?”, Vic relates in his post. However, Steve Jobs was not calling to raise his tone at Vic. Rather, the Apple co-founder was just exercising his obsessive nature of paying attention to the smallest details - in this case, the Google logo on the iPhone.
"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve.
"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"
Gundotra, of course, had no problem with Steve’s request:
“Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject ‘Icon Ambulance’. The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon.”
Google’s SVP of Engineering concludes, saying, “Even when I worked for 15 years for Bill Gates at Microsoft, I had a huge admiration for Steve and what Apple had produced.”
“…when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I'll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.”