The Apple of my eye

I’ve just watched the film, ‘Jobs’, the one with Ashton Kutcher playing Steve Jobs. It’s not a great film but it is such a great story. I really enjoyed it. It reminded me of the film ‘Invictus’, another so-so film made thoroughly enjoyable because of the story, in this case, about Nelson Mandela. Anyway, back to Apple.

I feel a real connection with Apple. When we started Added Value in 1988 we bought 3 of the first generation Macs for reasons I can’t remember. Was it because we weren’t that techy and they were so easy to use, was it just because we thought the brand was cool? We’d seen the 1984 ad, it was already a famous case study. I think most of all we liked the association with the creative industry that Apple had. Design agencies were using macs and we wanted to be seen as creative not just strategic. And of course we loved all the fonts.

As the business began to grow we geared up with more people and more macs. If you joined Added Value you had to move over to Apple and most seemed pleased to do so. But then we hit a problem, Apple computers were becoming increasingly incompatible with the Microsoft software all our clients used. By this stage we simply could not afford to move back to PC’s and we had a nervous year or two before eventually the compatibility issue eased and people were free to use either Apple or PC using Microsoft Office for either. I had made the transition back to PC, a Sony Vaio, a brand I liked but didn’t love. I stuck with this for years, until I left SABMiller, at which point I went straight out and bought myself the latest and best Macbook. It was like coming home.

By now, like everyone else, I was very familiar with the Steve Jobs story. Has it been exaggerated? A flawed genius but was he more flawed than genius? I never met him and have only talked to a few who did. But I know where I stand – he is my hero. If you tell me I could have been anyone I’d be hard pushed to choose between Bruce Springsteen and Steve Jobs. I am sure Steve Jobs made some very poor decisions. I can believe he did not treat everyone well and was difficult to work with. But he had passion and vision, was super smart and got far more right than he got wrong. I have written about the only mission statement worth having – change the world, have fun, make money. I can’t think of anyone who lived that credo better than him.

My love for Apple runs very deep. I love the brand, I hero worship Steve Jobs (and Jonathan Ive), I love the story, I love the kit.

Are there lessons for the rest of us wannabes trying to be innovative marketers and build successful brands that inspire people? I think there are but knowing them does not make it easy to apply them.

Geniuses are hard work. It’s not hard to get along with good people, it’s very hard to work with great people. Their greatness always comes with baggage. I have worked with a few and they were all difficult. I decided that the right thing to do was to shape the organization or team to suit them and not the other way around. Other people did not like this, but then they were not geniuses, so tough luck.

Great brands have an authentic story and authentic people behind them. If you don’t have that you can be a good brand with good marketing but you will never be great. Just set your ambitions accordingly. Apple is a great brand, it has made brilliant products, it has an authentic story of people with passion and vision. You can’t spin this off the back of mediocrity and compromise. As they say in sport, performance is temporary, class is permanent. Apple has class.

Design is very, very, very important. So is quality. You either get that or you don’t. I have heard many business leaders over the years paying lip service to quality and design – they say they think they are important but they don’t and you discover that every time there is pressure on costs. For people like Steve Jobs and the rare breed like him, the commitment to quality, perfection, design is total and unconditional. They’d rather make something that is great, of which they can be proud, than something that is not so great but profitable. It is that simple. Which is why the best businesses and the best brands are independent or if not, are run by a leader who is untouchable by shareholders (they never are for long but at least for a while).

Oh, and you have to work harder than you ever thought possible.

One lesson from Apple that’s a bit easier to apply is that Apple targeted a new product at a new segment – they aimed to thrill a few people not satisfy lots. And they picked an enemy – IBM – who they successfully repositioned as the enemy of their target audience. We can all do that. Even I’ve done that.

Those are the main lessons for me – and that is why there are so few Steve Jobs, the guy that built the most valuable brand and company in the world.  They’ve already made one film about him and another one is in the works with Michael Fassbender playing Steve. So there will be two films about Steve Jobs, just like Mandela (‘Invictus’ and ‘Long Walk to Freedom’).

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