What Would Steve Jobs Do? How the Steve Jobs Way Can Inspire Anyone to Think Differently and Win by Peter Sander Page A
Authors: Peter Sander
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Time and time again, they came up with the “wow” solution that leapfrogged customer expectations and created a new customer experience.
What we do know is that not only was Steve Jobs introducing a new product, but he was also articulating a
vision
. What does that mean? That’s what this chapter is all about.
N OT I NVENTED H ERE —J UST M ADE P ERFECT
Did Apple invent the smartphone? The tablet? The MP3 player? Did Apple invent touchscreen technology or miniaturized storage or music downloads or the computer mouse or the graphical user interface?
As we all know, the answer is
no
. Apple didn’t invent these things; they had all been on the market in some form, or well underway in a lab, before Steve Jobs and Apple did their thing.
Steve Jobs and Apple didn’t invent these technologies. Instead, they perfected them. And in perfecting them, they combined them and packaged them beautifully. They combined and packaged and bundled them beautifully to meet or exceed a known customer desire—to listen to music, to make mobile calls, and to have access to the Internet.
They combined them beautifully to
create
customer needs—
future needs
, needs that we mortal customers didn’t even know we had. Needs such as using computers to produce graphic newsletters and presentations,storing music libraries, and using simple “apps” to accomplish everyday tasks.
Steve Jobs and Apple put existing technologies to work. They put them together. They put them into a really cool, well-designed package—not only a beautiful physical plastic or aluminum or titanium case, but also bundled with the right services—to deliver a game-changing customer experience.
So how do you turn a bunch of stuff that’s already out there into a game changer? What’s the secret sauce that takes a solid customer sense, applies existing technologies to it, and sets the world on its ear?
It can all be summed up in one word:
vision
.
Vision is the ability to see the world ahead. Vision is the ability to see how ideas and technologies can be integrated to solve problems. Vision is the ability to see how ideas, technologies, and design can be redirected to create customer surprise and delight.
When it’s done really well, vision is the ability to see how to make customers’ lives better.
T HE D IFFERENCE BETWEEN I NVENTION AND I NNOVATION
Did Apple invent the iPhone? Yes, in the purest sense, Apple created it. But really, the company
innovated
it. What do we mean?
Lots of people invent things. Patent offices worldwide are stuffed with new, original ideas for things, or ways to make things, or how to show things to people. But the number of patents that turn into game-changing products (or marketable products at all) is amazingly tiny.
For years, tech giants such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM bragged about how many patents had been issued for technologies they had developed in-house. They bragged in their colorful annual reports, and they bragged to the media. But how many of the 3,000 or more patents that these companies churned out each year ever got to market? Very few, if any. The last game-changing technology brought to market by HP was the inkjet printer, and that was back in 1984. The last IBM breakthrough doesn’t even come to mind.
What’s the difference? Both of these companies and many others spend big bucks on R&D. They have labs, and they have scientists and engineers hunkered down, usually in separate R&D facilities, to do basic research. They have lots of ideas, and they obviously know how to push them forward through the patent process. But they remain detached from the business and detached from the customer; there is no vision to accompany them.
In fact, this is the reason why Xerox doesn’t rule the computer space today. It had the technology for the graphical user interface, the mouse, the laser printer, and basic networking at its Palo Alto PARC laboratories.But there was no vision to guide these inventions to
What we do know is that not only was Steve Jobs introducing a new product, but he was also articulating a
vision
. What does that mean? That’s what this chapter is all about.
N OT I NVENTED H ERE —J UST M ADE P ERFECT
Did Apple invent the smartphone? The tablet? The MP3 player? Did Apple invent touchscreen technology or miniaturized storage or music downloads or the computer mouse or the graphical user interface?
As we all know, the answer is
no
. Apple didn’t invent these things; they had all been on the market in some form, or well underway in a lab, before Steve Jobs and Apple did their thing.
Steve Jobs and Apple didn’t invent these technologies. Instead, they perfected them. And in perfecting them, they combined them and packaged them beautifully. They combined and packaged and bundled them beautifully to meet or exceed a known customer desire—to listen to music, to make mobile calls, and to have access to the Internet.
They combined them beautifully to
create
customer needs—
future needs
, needs that we mortal customers didn’t even know we had. Needs such as using computers to produce graphic newsletters and presentations,storing music libraries, and using simple “apps” to accomplish everyday tasks.
Steve Jobs and Apple put existing technologies to work. They put them together. They put them into a really cool, well-designed package—not only a beautiful physical plastic or aluminum or titanium case, but also bundled with the right services—to deliver a game-changing customer experience.
So how do you turn a bunch of stuff that’s already out there into a game changer? What’s the secret sauce that takes a solid customer sense, applies existing technologies to it, and sets the world on its ear?
It can all be summed up in one word:
vision
.
Vision is the ability to see the world ahead. Vision is the ability to see how ideas and technologies can be integrated to solve problems. Vision is the ability to see how ideas, technologies, and design can be redirected to create customer surprise and delight.
When it’s done really well, vision is the ability to see how to make customers’ lives better.
T HE D IFFERENCE BETWEEN I NVENTION AND I NNOVATION
Did Apple invent the iPhone? Yes, in the purest sense, Apple created it. But really, the company
innovated
it. What do we mean?
Lots of people invent things. Patent offices worldwide are stuffed with new, original ideas for things, or ways to make things, or how to show things to people. But the number of patents that turn into game-changing products (or marketable products at all) is amazingly tiny.
For years, tech giants such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM bragged about how many patents had been issued for technologies they had developed in-house. They bragged in their colorful annual reports, and they bragged to the media. But how many of the 3,000 or more patents that these companies churned out each year ever got to market? Very few, if any. The last game-changing technology brought to market by HP was the inkjet printer, and that was back in 1984. The last IBM breakthrough doesn’t even come to mind.
What’s the difference? Both of these companies and many others spend big bucks on R&D. They have labs, and they have scientists and engineers hunkered down, usually in separate R&D facilities, to do basic research. They have lots of ideas, and they obviously know how to push them forward through the patent process. But they remain detached from the business and detached from the customer; there is no vision to accompany them.
In fact, this is the reason why Xerox doesn’t rule the computer space today. It had the technology for the graphical user interface, the mouse, the laser printer, and basic networking at its Palo Alto PARC laboratories.But there was no vision to guide these inventions to
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