With the passing of Steve Jobs, it's useful to celebrate his life by identifying key learnings from his sojourn through business and technology. Here are some thoughts for you to ponder:
- Don't hesitate to copy a concept - just operationalize the concept much better than anyone else. Ever hear of Go? They built one of the very first tablet computers - way back in 1987. We can't forget Newton, either. What Steve Jobs did was combine design and economy of scale to build iPad - the world's first successful tablet. Yes the design and functionality of Apple's iPad were beautiful, but beautiful design combined with economies of scale driven by new Apple CEO, Tim Cook, made the iPad a true success.
- Put work above family - Of course, for Steve Jobs, his work equaled his life. He was certainly not trapped by the dogma of work-life balance. Fortunately, Mr. Jobs was able to leave behind a biography for his kids to help explain his world changing work. Most of us won't end up with a biographer, of course. But whether you're a CMO, a marketing manager, or a marketing assistant - ask yourself how many times you've used family or personal commitments as an excuse for not being able to find a better solution to a business problem or not wanting to have a tough yet needed conversation with a client or co-worker? It's a difficult question to consider. Who benefits? Does your career? Your client? Your kid - who senses your disengagement at home because you bolted out of a meeting or left issues unresolved at the office?
- Don't market stuff, define an experience - The iPhone, at it's most basic level, is a piece of software and hardware that costs $180 to make in a factory that suffered a rash of suicides last year. That, of course, isn't what Apple sells. It sells curiosity, learning, mastery and many other experiences.
What's the most valuable thing you've learned from Steve Jobs? And what are you doing to incorporate your Steve Jobs "learnings" into your inbound marketing efforts? Do you "think different?"
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