Steve Jobs, the Common Sense Contrarian
Reading all the tributes and praise of Steve Jobs and his ability to rescue Apple from near-bankruptcy in the mid-90s to become one of the world’s most successful companies, what has always struck me most has been his talent as a contrarian.
Apple's co-founder and leader Steve Jobs.
Jobs has never relied on consumer or audience research because there is no vision or innovation ever revealed in such time-wasting exercises. No consumer testing, no focus groups because that’s the silly stuff of organizations who don’t have a grasp of who they are or where they are going.
Think about that logic … audience research might show you where you’ve been but will never reveal vision, opportunities or a pathway to become a competitive leader.
Steve Jobs knows his industry of technology, and he knows how the products created by technology benefit consumers. He has common sense and gut sense, essential elements of an authentic leader. He has unique sensibility, and he is passionate about his company, its products and his team.
For example, around 2000 when one of the world’s most ineptly managed trade organizations – RIAA, which oversees music licensing – and Napster were embroiled in lawsuits over music piracy (remember when RIAA was also suing elementary school kids for using Napster?), Jobs saw the solution.
He recognized that consumers generally did not want to buy an entire CD album of music … what they wanted were a song or two from an album. He hired the English designer Jonathan Ives who quickly came up with what was to be called the iPod. Jobs skillfully convinced RIAA and the whole music industry that its business and marketing model was outmoded and broken … and that more money could be made by selling the music of albums one song at a time.
The real magic and genius behind Steve Jobs, recognized as the world’s greatest innovator, is that it is all just common sense in the end. He’s just following his gut sense about things. Most importantly, he pitched out the conventional, boring, broken and ineffectual thinking of traditional marketing disciplines, has taken risks, and, well, he has made history.
The curious thing is that so many companies and organizations, while admiring Jobs, remain stuck doing things the same old way as they have been done for ages … and getting nowhere.
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- Steve Jobs Is Not Dead
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- Advantage of Brand Journalism Delivers Distinction
- Just Say, “Creating Jobs for America”
- iBlackeye or Not?
Category: Featured, Reputation management
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