Crew asks, “How does Apple do it? Can anyone else do it? Can you?”
Think strategically, think simply, and as Apple said in its infamous advertising campaign, “think differently” with these considerations:
1. Connect the Dots (and Dashes)
2. Ask, What If?
3. Go Smaller or Bigger
4. Risk Failure
5. Go Younger or Older
6. Elegance is in Simplicity
“Leadership and cultural personality matters as well,” Crew writes. “Steve Jobs is a fierce competitor, a savvy marketer, and a man on a mission to dominate the world of gadgetry. The first two characterizations are undeniable, the last point is my personal observation. Regardless, there is no denying that innovation is driven by people who are also driven. He has created a company that attracts and fosters experimentation and daring inquiry into the fusion of the known and what could be.”
Full article here.
How about the RDF? Does that not account for 50% of the package?
I wasn’t hired, but did interview for a hardware engineering position there a couple of years ago. The people are just as driven as the boss is. I was impressed.
Uh…
Apple’s ads said “Think Different” not “think differently”…
Dummy.
‘Less is more’ e.g. no more floppy, ADB, ADC, SCSI kick-starts USB industry.
‘Cannibalise your own products, or else someone else will.’ e.g. iPad kills MBA.
Wow, the Steve Jobs RDF again. With Apple’s products, Steve doesn’t need an RDF. These products sell themselves. Can anyone explain why business and DoD are so enamored of the hopelessly inferior, craptastic, and TCO-expensive Windows products? Now, THERE’s an RDF.
“and a man on a mission to dominate the world of gadgetry.”
No,no,no. Steve is driven by a MUCH higher goal than this. His desire is to leave this world a better place than he found it. Pure and simple.
Inivate is probably not the right word but we know what you mean. I would use the term refine when is the last time apple actually made something completely new. What they do best is take a idea and turn it into something better. The real story is how do they keep skating to where the puck is going to be rather than where the puck is.
auren has it right: Jobs/Apple is NOT driven by a mission to dominate – they’re driven by quality and user experience.
Companies that are “driven to dominate” flood the market with cheap crap or endless variations of the same thing (Coke, Coke Light, Coke Zero, Clear Coke, etc. etc.).
Jobs is not “on a mission to dominate the world of gadgetry,” he is on a mission “to put a dent in the universe.”
I understood that the RDF applied to Jobs’ ability to motivate his coworkers to achieve the impossible. The pundits, as usual, got it wrong and apply it to customers buying while in a trance.
Don’t you love it when someone tries to be smart by “correcting” Apple’s grammar (“Think differently”)? Let me get that straight again: Think different (and, if you really feel the unstoppable urge to correct that phrase, more adequate correction would be “Think: different”), as in ‘Think: green’, or ‘Think: open space’, or ‘Think: Campbel soup cans’ (Andy Warhol reference there).
Some people need to use a bit of their imagination.
Long term? Put an end to the Computer. Once and for all.
I think Apple is overrated.
I think R2’s opinion is under-mocked.
Uh…how about they work at it? Too many microelectronics companies have a “cheaper is better” attitude. Apple works very hard at product design, then charges more if they have to and less when they can. M$ and their hardware cronies will tell you how cheap their solutions are compared to Apple….My answer yes they are very cheap on many levels.
just my $0.02
@Auren
Well said.
When he spent some time at Reed College and audited a Calligraphy class the process was really set in motion. He understands the human factor in dealing with technology so much better than anyone else in almost any industry. That’s really what is at the heart of the matter.
He knows
We like things to work
We like color
We like beautiful things
We like to talk and exchange things with friends
We like to be liked
We like to be intrigued
We like to be pleasantly surprised
Nearly every Apple product embodies these qualities and always has. Yes, that’s a certain percentage of genius but mostly it’s just thinking about these ideas first and then doing your absolute passionate best to make them real in the next thing you do.
“Think differently” defines how a person thinks while “Think Different” speaks more of a destination, goal, or state of being. Such as, I want this communication device to be Different (than a phone) as opposed to iI want to assemble it differently (same stuff with a varied format.)
If you don’t understand how and why Apple succeeds as it does, or how it separates itself from its competitors (like Shawn White did last night in the Olympic half pipe event), I suggest that you read Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin (http://www.amazon.com/Linchpin-Are-Indispensable-Seth-Godin/dp/1591843162). He challenges to reader to ask, “Am I indispensable? Could I be replaced by someone or something?”
Most pundits, business/tech journalists and the general public will never understand Steve Jobs. That’s because they don’t and cannot think nor see the world as he does. Some people hate Apple precisely because the company embodies what they aren’t, and will never be. It’s much easier and safer to conform, to think and act like everybody else. That’s why choosing Windows is the “safe” decision for too many unfortunate people. This way, you won’t be seen as being different. It’s safer or more comforting to conform rather than to think.
What Seth Godin (and Steve Jobs) challenge you to do is to create your own identity, to be a linchpin, to be indispensable. That isn’t easy. Steve Jobs, like many geniuses, is challenging, sets impossibly high standards, and is frustratingly difficult. He does not want to be like you or me, or accept the status quo.
These are precisely the reasons why he would not be able to work for anyone else but himself, and why Apple isn’t like any other company. Instead of a colorless and bland CEO, or someone who has no taste (insert CEO and related company here), having high aesthetic standards and a unique view of the world is essential to Apple’s DNA.
As a brilliant ad headline once said (depicting a powerful man’s flexed bicep with a Harley-Davidson tattoo on it), “If you have to ask, you’ll never understand.”
That’s Apple. That’s Steve Jobs. That’s being a linchpin. Either you’re a hammer, or you’re a nail. Which would you rather be?
“How does Apple keep innovating over and over?”
Easy, it’s in their DNA. Class is Class.
Tech is like music. You produce what you like to hear. If others happen to like what you produce then you get the distinct honor of making a living doing what you love to do.
The phrase “Skating to where the puck is going to be” has become a cliché, and should be avoided like the plague.
How about by being proactive rather than reactive
I honestly don’t think Apple isn’t as innovative as it seems. Most of what they do is just plain common sense, like choosing a touchscreen interface for devices that are too small for a mechanical keyboard to make any sense, and realizing it’s a bad idea to cram the GUI for a desktop OS into a 3.5 inch display.
The thing is the rest of the industry are a bunch of by clueless incompetents who couldn’t innovate their way out of a paper bag, so Apple looks like inconceivably awesome super genuises by comparison.
The truth is more like they’re just conceivably awesome regular genuises. They CAN be competed with, but it requires not being stupid. Which is obviously all too much for Microsoft/Dell/HP/Palm/Google/Nokia et. al. to manage.
Hmm… Is that fortunate or unfortanate?
Innovation Apple-style is really not that difficult.
You hire smart people, including some very creative types.
You push them to excel at levels they never thought they could.
You accept failure when it happens.
You always look at the horizon, not the short term results.
Why is Apple the only US company that has figured that out?
Err… that should be “I honestly don’t think Apple IS as innovative as it seems”.
Damnit.