The world changed on January 11, 1992. On that day, the album Nevermind by Nirvana
replaced Michael Jackson’s Dangerous as the number 1 album on the Billboard
album chart.
Symbolically this was the end
of the era of manufactured pop music, which MJ came to represent. A new age of real music began, some even called it the coming of age for
American punk. Kids started buying
guitars again, and a new generation fell in love with the glory of punk
rock. I was one of them.
Hit songs were once again
written in garages and basements, rather than being engineered in clinical
Hollywood hit factories. Thanks Kurt…
That’s the same context in which
I see the legacy Steve Jobs leaves behind.
He was the greatest storyteller of his generation. He also happened to be businessman. His success also in many way marks the
emergence of a new era; perhaps a new era of business.
Before Apple became the most
valuable company in the world, the model of success that everyone agreed on was
different.
Sam Walton turned a local
variety store in to the world’s biggest retailer by taking a clinical view of
his supply chain, and with laser focus squeezing out as much efficiency as he
could find. The relationships people
used to have with their local store owner were forgotten, but it worked. And it worked very, very well.
Jack Welch took a scalpel to
the cost structure at GE and turned around one of the world’s oldest companies,
by making them profitable again. Sadly
this came at the price of massive layoffs, and a huge hit to the corporate
culture at GE. Employees were just cogs
in an assembly line, and a job was never guaranteed.
Steve took a different
approach. He believed that you could
think differently. His focus wasn’t on a
spreadsheet, it was on his customers. He
created a passion at Apple for elegant design, and a perfect customer
experience. From the packaging, through
the retail experience, to the products themselves; the customer experience of
Apple was and still remains different than every other brand. Apple cares about its customers; that
superior experience, has made them not just a computer company, but for some
almost a religion.
Perhaps with his passing,
this will mark an era in business where Apple isn’t the outlier, rather the model
of success for others. Take a customer
focus, invest rather than cut, and innovate rather than stand still. You might end up being the biggest company in
the world. Thanks Steve…
0 comments:
Post a Comment