One of my first assignments when I shifted from academia to consulting was to serve in 1982 as the project manager for the development of Apple’s national accounts sales training programs. They were attempting to sell Apple 2s and 3s into the corporate market. I still have some of the materials we developed. Next, I got to look at Lisa a few months before it hit the market to do some of the sales training for its launch. I had never seen an interface like it and felt I was seeing the future. After working with some of the BUNCH (IBM’s competitors of the time) this stuff was innovation. At the time there was also an inverse relationship with the formality of an employee’s attire and their role in the company.
Apple has continued to reinvent itself. I am now an iTunes addict. It has transformed how I play music. Here is a nice article from the Economist that looks at the growth and success of Apple. Thanks to the IF team for pointing this out. The article lists at least four important wider lessons to teach other companies.
Not invented here, and very welcome - The first lesson is that innovation can come from without as well as within. Many of Apple’s breakthroughs came from other R&D efforts.
Look at the needs of the user - Apple has designed new products around the needs of the user, not the demands of the technology. Apple has consistently combined clever technology with simplicity and ease of use.
Stay hungry, stay foolish - Listening to customers is generally a good idea, but it is not the whole story. For all the talk of “user-centric innovation” and allowing feedback from customers to dictate new product designs, a third lesson from Apple is that smart companies should sometimes ignore what the market says it wants today since that limits your options.
Fail Wisely- The Macintosh was born from the wreckage of the Lisa flopped. Now the iPhone is a response to the failure of Apple's original music phone. Will it be like the Mac? I was not one of those to line up to get my iPhone. I hardly use my mobile now but they got a lot of people going with their status thing.
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