Apple is one of the highest
valued companies in the world. Love them or hate them, there’s a lot to learn
from their success. Let’s refer to a few secrets to its success:
1. Consistency
The reason why Apple
announcements are so widely awaited is because they are consistent with the
things they have been doing. In a decade, it has introduced 4 products - iPod,
iTunes, iPhone and iPad, and none failed the market.
It’s a well understood fact that
in life and in business, your brand is what you do consistently. Apple is known
to deliver high end, high quality, desirable products only. When you are not
consistent, you must work much harder to win people’s attention each time. Most
companies have to plead the customers to buy their products, while Apple gets
thousands of pre-orders on its products that are yet to be launched.
The law of consistency applies
here. Consistent deliveries prize your work in advance. Your reputation will
accelerate your successes, but to obtain this level of consistency, you need to
learn the focus the company boasts.
2. Focus
Apple makes a handful of
products. This is the first thing Steve Jobs did on his return to Apple. He
reduced their computing line to just four models: 2 laptops and 2 desktops,
aiming to make each of them best in class.
To be consistent, you need to
focus. Withdrawing yourself out is an assured means of mediocrity, even for a
billion dollar business. Unfortunately, as we become successful, we all tend to
diversify. Companies and people are persistently affected by demands to do
more. Most surrender to these demands, and are weakened, one distraction at a
time.
The lesson you should learn here
is to do the opposite. Take advantage of your successes to narrow your focus.
Say no to everything, and concentrate on choosing the right things.
3. Choosing the Right Things
In the beginning, many of Apple’s
best choices were criticized, but later proved to be really insightful. An
example of this criticism is the iPhone. The iPhone was launched with a
seemingly primitive ‘one app at a time’ model. Apple basically wanted to
outweigh its cons with its benefits of simple user interface, better battery
life, non-removable batteries, App Store and a lot more.
4. Distinction
The official tag line of Apple
was ‘Think Different’ and the company made sure that they stood up to it. Their
products stand out amongst a sea of rivals.
The best kind of distinction is
the kind that makes your customer feels distinctive. Apple has managed the
trick of making themselves the leaders of the mobile and the computing world,
without limiting themselves to the top 1% of earners. Apple’s peculiarities
were in making the right choices and thus stimulate desirability.
5. Desirability
Apple is the master of creating
what people want. It is an often overlooked business maxim that
Product Desirability =
Profitability.
Through a remarkable fusion of
focus, consistency, choosing the right things, offering distinctive products, Apple
has built a brand cachet that any company could kill for.
This sounds really obvious, but
the majority of the writers, playwrights and poets could trait their failures
to basically never creating things that people want.
What Next?
All this points the approach for
Apple’s prospective downfall. If they surrender to pressure they might start
broadening their horizons, saying yes to more but dropping the focus. As foes
get better at replication, they risk losing their distinction.
The biggest threat to Apple comes
from within. It has built itself on the highest expectations, and if they
should fail, they have a long way to fall.
Presently, Apple is the most
valued company in the world. About 15 years ago, it was almost bankrupt.
Whatever success it has today, it has earned it all. All it took was a
consistent, focused viewpoint of saying no, chose the right things and built
distinctive products that were desired by all.
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