What Can We Learn from Apple?

What can we learn from Apple?

So, what can we learn from Apple?  The following are different thoughts from different people.

Find your noble passion

By focusing on your most noble passions, you increase the chances that you will become the kind of person you yearn to become.

As we learned, Viktor Frankl found that those who survived the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps weren’t the young, strong, and healthy. They were those that had meaning in their life. Viktor himself survived by helping others find their purpose in living.

The world desperately needs you, whether or not you know it or they know it. The world desperately needs people who understand the challenges and opportunities ahead. It needs people who hold and cherish high values and who focus on noble passions. It needs people who have courage to stand for what is right and are willing to develop the capacity to address challenges.

Make your passion your customers

    • Continually invest in your passion and talents
    • Thinking deeply about the desired future experience of the customer
    • Don’t be confined. Innovate beyond today’s realities
    • Focus on both your customers’ functional AND emotional needs
    • Use mockups extensively so you can visualize
    • Create simplicity, elegance and beauty

Apple's success drivers

Thoughts from Christine Thompson – former Apple employee, consultant to Apple and passionate fan. Apple’s Success Drivers

    • Innovation & differentiation
    • Disruptive innovation opportunities
    • Customer delight, not just satisfaction
    • Values drive strategy - not just number

What can we learn from Apple?

Craig Buckler in his article, "5 Business Lessons You Can Learn From Apple" outlines five lessons:

  1. Imitation Over Innovation.  Craig mentioned that Apple didn't invent but rather they went into a market,  found opportunities that offered promise, and leveraged the opportunities fully.
  2. Attention to Detail.   Apple cares deeply about providing customers high value.   The careful detail that is given to a product is staggering.
  3. Offer a Complete Package
  4. Charge a Premium
  5. Achieve Cult Status

In his article,  "What can we learn from Apple,"  Jay Rollins wrote:

The answer is solution orientation. We hear that buzzword in all facets of corporate life and although I understand it, I always try to find examples to explain it to others. Solution orientation in IT is looking beyond just a single technology. Instead, it focuses on delivering a valuable experience for the end user.

Apple saw what customers wanted. They wanted to listen to the music they liked. They wanted to get their music in a way that would not require a degree in computer science (or force them to ask their 14-year-old to get it for them). Simple.  

Richard Ziado with Taxi highlights 10 reasons why he believe Apple is revered so highly:

    • Understand The Total Experience. Apple is not a software company. It's also not a hardware company. It's an experience company. 
    • Less Is More. You see it in all of Apple's interfaces. That "clean" look. Sure, the power is there, but wherever possible it's hidden away.  
    • Control The Hardware. if you want to build great software, you have to control the hardware. 
    • Hide The Screws. Hiding the ugliness of technology makes these toys more endearing. 
    • Go Ahead. Touch It." 
    • Feeling & Thinking. Good functional design and thoughtful product management is a struggle to appeal to and connect with others at a cognitive level.
    • Great Design = New Invention. 
    • It's About People. The one over-arching theme that seems to penetrate everything Apple does is their basic understanding that every single thing they sell will be touched by a person. 

What Can We Learn from Apple?

Highlights by David Willden