(er: deleted user: I agree with you that innovating around core things product-related is key. I disagree that innovating around anything non-product-related is a luxury most companies have. We probably generally agree more than disagree.)
If you are going to use Apple as an example for anything, there are a couple key points:
1) You are not Steve Jobs, for all values of you.
2) Apple innovated in the Apple I/II days out of necessity -- there weren't really suitable standard options for them back then, at least for components. And even then, Apple was a pretty standard business from a structure and management perspective. Innovation was focused on the product. They didn't try business process innovations like selling direct BTO, they had a reseller/VAR network like everyone else at the time. They paid people like everyone else. Maybe slightly more secretive?
3) From what I've read, Steve's super hands on nature was most prevalent in the 1983-1986 Mac era, not before that. Obviously not in the long horrible winter.
4) Apple after the success of the iPod had essentially limitless resources. Not really relevant in the context of startups.
So, the relevant times to look are during the Mac (which wasn't really a commercial success), and in the comeback between 1997 and iPod. I don't think there was much innovation by Apple in either of those in ways other than direct product development -- the "skunkworks" idea of sending a team to build a product is pretty standard. The 1997-2001 period is still shrouded in Apple secrecy, so it don't really know the details of what Jobs did.
As far as people with backgrounds in growth giving the "only focus on your product, and things like the team and tools which let you make the product, ignore everything else", I'm struggling to think of a single startup founder or CEO with any real success who has ever said anything different. Plenty of those had faster growth for at least some period than Apple during the above two periods.
Yes, I mostly don't consider advice based on Steve Jobs or the success of Apple to be meaningful to anyone, unless it is highly filtered and supported by other case studies (the value of design, sure, and the value of lock in like the App Store, both of which are supported by other examples). Things like "micromanage every detail of your product and launch" are borderline, as they can hurt many people as well as help other people. Negative traits like blowing up at employees or customers are absolutely not things to emulate.
Elon Musk is another interesting case. Aside from the very high level "do the impossible", the big lesson of SpaceX seems to be "do everything in house." This is totally counter to the general trend and most advice in startups, at least in software. It is mostly valid in that the aerospace industry was incredibly pathologically fucked up, whereas the software industry is highly competitive and efficient. I'm not sure what the lessons of Tesla and Solar City are; the lesson of PayPal seems to be "merge with and get pushed out by Peter Thiel; profit", which is nice work if you can get it.
Google and Facebook by the time they made those decisions were huge and not really startups. And Facebook really fucked up their mobile strategy (by using html5 vs standardized mobile apps, which were best practice already by the time they started), Credits, etc.
Dropbox and airbnb have pretty standard HR, accounting, legal, etc., which is what "don't innovate on non product" means. They have nice but fairly standard offices in SF. They use standard banks. They pay people using pretty standard Silicon Valley pay scales and structure. Etc.
If you are going to use Apple as an example for anything, there are a couple key points:
1) You are not Steve Jobs, for all values of you.
2) Apple innovated in the Apple I/II days out of necessity -- there weren't really suitable standard options for them back then, at least for components. And even then, Apple was a pretty standard business from a structure and management perspective. Innovation was focused on the product. They didn't try business process innovations like selling direct BTO, they had a reseller/VAR network like everyone else at the time. They paid people like everyone else. Maybe slightly more secretive?
3) From what I've read, Steve's super hands on nature was most prevalent in the 1983-1986 Mac era, not before that. Obviously not in the long horrible winter.
4) Apple after the success of the iPod had essentially limitless resources. Not really relevant in the context of startups.
So, the relevant times to look are during the Mac (which wasn't really a commercial success), and in the comeback between 1997 and iPod. I don't think there was much innovation by Apple in either of those in ways other than direct product development -- the "skunkworks" idea of sending a team to build a product is pretty standard. The 1997-2001 period is still shrouded in Apple secrecy, so it don't really know the details of what Jobs did.
As far as people with backgrounds in growth giving the "only focus on your product, and things like the team and tools which let you make the product, ignore everything else", I'm struggling to think of a single startup founder or CEO with any real success who has ever said anything different. Plenty of those had faster growth for at least some period than Apple during the above two periods.