The New iPad Teaches 5 Lessons

Big events are always great times to remind ourselves of the realities of success and life.

It’s easy to forget some of even the biggest and most important laws that govern success. Here are a few of the principles on display now as Apple releases the new iPad.

1. It’s a race to stay on top.
Apple has exploded to a net worth of $500 billion. Their products dominate their categories. Why should they worry? Because the competition is coming fast. If Apple slows down they’ll be caught. They competition has studied Apple with a microscope and are learning how they are getting beat. They are making adjustments, copying Apple's successful strategies and products. Plus they have their own ideas on how to “do it better.” If Apple wants to stay on top they have to stay on the attack with newer and better products to hold the public’s interest or they will be come old news fast.

2. In the free enterprise system you have to prove yourself every day.
The critics won’t give you a break because you’ve been great in the past. Everyone is looking for signs of weakness. Every new statement, decision and product is going to be analyzed by every industry-insider, guru, and product reviewer. Each feature will be held up to the light and examined for any flaw. If you don’t deliver they will catch it and trumpet their discovery to the world. Your reputation rises and falls on how well your new product performs.

3. There’s no sympathy for Goliath.
No one is shedding tears for former dominator Microsoft. It wasn’t long ago that Steve Jobs was going hat in hand to competitor Bill Gates asking for a $150 million loan to keep Apple solvent. Microsoft was under government pressure for being a monopoly so Gates thought why not? At least it would keep Apple in the game and keep up the pretense that Microsoft had a competitor, which Gates clearly not consider Apple to be.

But now, the tables have turned. Apple is the dominator. Apple is the hot, hot, hot company and where is Microsoft...lagging behind. And who cares? Microsoft's stockholders. But competition is good...watch Microsoft..don’t count them out.

4. The importance of the Leader.
Apple is a global, monstrous, huge company! It’s full of dynamic, creative powerful people, each pushing their own ideas, products and innovations. Who is the one who pulls them together and sets priorities? Who is it who has to make the final call on which new product? Who makes the ultimate decision on what features, what design and when will it be released? It comes down to a person. Someone makes the call.

It’s a huge gamble every time. With the right leader making the right calls...incredible success! The wrong leader....disaster. It’s interesting to notice what’s happened to Microsoft over the years that Gates became less involved and finally left to work at his foundation full time. Put your own analysis on it, but it’s not impressive. Now compare that to how Apple has turned around from near bankruptcy to world dominator once Steve Jobs returned as CEO. It makes a huge difference who is in charge...don’t you think?

5. The consumer gets the final say.
Everything hinges on the public. Will they buy it? What do they think? How much do they like it? Do they spread the word to their friends? Do they come up with new and innovative uses for it? The critics may love it or hate it. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is what do you think? What do your friends think?

When the original iPad came out, many of the critics were lukewarm. They didn’t get it. They didn’t think it was necessary, not that unique, thought the name was odd, etc. Steve Jobs was initially depressed and confused by their response. It didn’t matter. The public LOVED it! They sold, and still sell like hotcakes. The public found all kinds of new ways to use it. The App store exploded with apps. It all proves the point...the public gets the final say.

These 5 Lessons never change and if you want to win, don't let yourself forget them!

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Related Post: Do Simpletons Run Apple and Google?

Do Simpletons Run Apple and Google?

What’s the common thread between Apple and Google?  

Why is it that these two companies have exploded over the last decade?  

The obvious answers are leadership, timing, superiors products, but there’s something more.  

Their tenacious determination to keep things simple for their consumers has been a big part of making them popular and keeping them popular.  

Steve Jobs became famous for insisting that his devices have only one button.  

Google went so far as to create a high level executive position so they would have one person in charge of making their search page simple.  

At Google you have to fight and win many heroic battles to get your new feature, word, or idea added to their main search page. It’s no accident their search page is so clean and simple.  

It’s designed to be that way and stay way no matter how many other things they offer they’re not going to clutter up their primary function.   

The leaders at these companies are simply recognizing reality.  

• They know the world is a complicated place.  
• They know that their customers want results.  
• They don’t need to read a manual.  
• They don’t want to look up instructions.  
• They want to be able to get what they want as quickly and simply as possible so they can get on with their lives.  

Other companies are not that smart. 
They think the public wants features, extras, those are wonderful to have but not if it clutters up and confuses and complicates using the product.  

No one needs more hassle. 
As the great philosopher Chuck Berry once sang “too much monkey business.” People have complicated lives that seem to get more cluttered and complicated every day. Things to do, things to learn, things to get, it never ends. The last thing they need is more confusion and a product that is a frustrating hassle to use. They want to get the main thing done as quickly and simply as possible. It’s great to have the ability to do extra but minor things but it’s not great if it frustrates and confuses getting the main thing done. A simple clean page—one button. These companies get it and they have exploded with success.  

How about your product?  
Your training programs, your system, your service. Are you making the main thing you offer simple and easy to understand, easy to use? The simpler you make it, the more powerful your impact will be. That’s the underlying approach these companies have used with so much success. I wonder if that kind of thinking would pay off for you. Like the leaders at Apple and Google focusing on simplicity doesn’t make you a simpleton it makes you simply brilliant. 

This determination helped make them popular and kept them popular.

They don’t shift the focus off what each products primary, most beneficial, best feature is right in the spotlight.  

Winner's Book Club Selection of the Week: The Steve Jobs Way

WINNERS CREDENTIALS

Steve Jobs is the man who brought us the Macintosh computer, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad and led Apple to become the Number 1 Company in the world. His journey began as a teenager with a lot of passion and ideas and very little money working out of his parent’s garage. It has resulted in a company that has grown bigger than even MobileExxon with market capitalization of over $350 Billion.

Book Description

In The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation, Jay Elliot gives the reader the opportunity of seeing Steve Jobs as only his closest associates have ever seen him, and to learn what has made him—and the mystique of his management style—capable of creating tools so extraordinary that they have remade three industries and have transformed the way we create, consume, and communicate with each other.

Jay Elliot worked side by side with Steve as Senior Vice President of Apple and brings us his deep insider perspective of Steve's singular iLeadership style—which encompasses four major principles: product, talent, organization, marketing.

Jay shares the lessons that come out of Steve's intuitive approach to show how the creative and technological brilliance of iLeadership can be utilized to drive breakthroughs in any organization, irrespective of size.

About the Author

Jay Elliot served as the Senior Vice President of Apple Computer, responsible for all corporate operations, including HR, Facilities, Real Estate, IT, Education, and Pacific Rim Sales, plus corporate business planning, reporting directly to Steve Jobs, Chairman of the Board. Also, as a member of the Macintosh organization he helped Jobs develop the Macintosh computer from development to introduction. Elliot's articles and interviews have been published in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Time Magazine, and Fortune. He lives in California.

Reader Review

OK, I'll admit it. I am a sucker for anyone who can decipher or decode Steve Jobs. After all, the guy is a repeat Icarus. He has flown too close to the sun not once, not twice, but at least three times and every time has come out better than before. The effect he's had on Apple upon his return has been nothing short of a resurrection followed by a seating at the right hand of the Father. 

Jobs is an interesting, mercurial creature, and I often wonder if he is simply one of a kind, a kind of idiot savant who understands how to tap into our wants and needs, and who has an almost messianic vision that we need to follow. Sometimes I suspect that books about him are probably best read to illuminate how different we are from Steve rather than how we can become more like Steve. >>read more>>