Here’s a great article for inspiration from Time (full article courtesy of Time Canada). Sure, it’s a sugar-coated view of what makes Apple’s innovation machine tick, but there are valuable lessons.
My main points:
1) Control. Someone at the end of the discussion says ‘that’s the way it’s going to be, discussion over.’
2) Deep collaboration. Everyone needs to work together on making the stuff succeed.
3) Ignore the nay-sayers.
4) The most important one: Winning is great, but losing is not bad. Being lame is.
Here’s the quote from the article:
But Jobs doesn’t care just about winning. He’s willing to lose. He has done it often enough. He’s just not willing to be lame, and that may, increasingly, be the winning approach.
Points 1-3 are classic innovation requirements, and are Apple classics. But, point 4 – being lame is not an option – I knew it in my bones, but put this way, it’ll haunt me for the rest of my days. 😉
Now go read the article while the link is still live. Time USA now is carrying the full article.
Link: HOW APPLE DOES IT.
This is partly a story about a company called Apple Computer. It’s also partly a story about a fancy new iPod that plays videos as well as music and that could dramatically change the way people entertain themselves. But it’s mostly a story about new things and where they come from, about which there are a few popular misconceptions.
