Everybody Wants To Be Apple: 10 Lessons From the Coolest Company Anywhere
Fast Company's cover story this month was all about Apple. The recent success of the iPad (Apple sold one every 3 seconds since it first introduced it), and equal success of the iPhone 4 left the rest of us dreaming on how we can become "the Apple" in our industry.
Here are the 10 lessons we can learn from Apple:
1. Go into the cave - become a true fanatic when it comes to secrecy. The more secret, the more wanted. And don't listen to the industry. Create your own path.
2. It's OK to be king - It is OK to have a small group of people dictating direction, which the rest of the company implement. However, it only works when that group of people knows exactly what they want.
3. Transcend orthodoxy - close vs. open. While the world of hi-tech prides itself by going "open", Apple managed to not only survive, but thrive using a "closed" approach. They don't say "no" to open; lots of applications in the App Store were developed using a closed approach. They only dictate the rules by which developers play.
4. Just say NO - Jobs' default answer to new ideas or products is NO. His reasoning: "They great thing about omitting a feature that people want is that then they start clamoring for it. When you give it to them in the next version, they're even happier".
5. Serve your customer - Apple doesn't charge for the Geniuses (at the Genius Bar, that is). That division is a loss leader. It provides an incredible for Apple's customers, in a concierge-type setting, and most often than not, it leads to sales of new products, upgrades, and accessories.
6. Everything is marketing - Turn your true fans into fanatics and cultivate a cult-like relationship between you and them. Give them unique things that can differentiate them from the masses: the iPod's white earbuds, the Mac's startup sound, or the unmistakable shape of the MacBook's back panel.
7. Kill the past - by abandoning the past (read old features that keep being updated), Apple ended up with much better products.
8. Turn feedback into inspiration - use your customers' suggestions as inspiration for new products. Don't build products based on what they want. Most of the time they don't know what they want, so you end up with a product nobody likes or wants.
9. Don't invent, reinvent - reinvent and remix and you get revolutionary products.
10. Play by your own clock - don't get caught up in a competition frenzy. (This is how you are guaranteed to loose). Play by your own clock and you will always be the one who will force the competition out.
Have you been or plan on using any of these lessons?
(To read the entire article, click here) .
Posted by Terra3.0 at 6/26/2010 1:00 AM 
Categories: Technology, Entrepreneurship, Business - Marketing
Tags: Apple Steve Jobs iPad iPhone
Categories: Technology, Entrepreneurship, Business - Marketing
Tags: Apple Steve Jobs iPad iPhone
I partularly like number 10 where it says " Play by your own clock - don't get caught up in a competition frenzy. (This is how you are guaranteed to loose). Play by your own clock and you will always be the one who will force the competition out. "
That is so true, timing is everything.
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