Til forsiden

What makes Apple so successful as a product and service innovator, as well as a design paragon?  Not what you think, if Mark Ury, writing on The Restless Mind blog, March 12, 2008, is right.

Ury has the interesting theory:  “What makes Apple special isn’t design. Or process. Or talent. It’s fear. Fear of the man who is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. (And sheathed in titanium.)”  Ury, of course is speaking of Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, famous for his occasional…ummm…flare-ups. 

Lovers of French cinema will recognize a paradox at work. While pain is something we fear, we’re also attracted to it. Apple staff may fear humiliation from Jobs, but they’re bullish about rising above it—of not being humiliated (which is tantamount to praise at Apple). That bravado can stimulate neurons to do wonderful things.

Ury offers as an update an article in Wired magazine, April 18, 2008, by Wired news chief and Apple biographer Leander Kahney, “How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong.”  Kahney observes,

… Jobs’ employees remain devoted. That’s because his autocracy is balanced by his famous charisma — he can make the task of designing a power supply feel like a mission from God. Andy Hertzfeld, lead designer of the original Macintosh OS, says Jobs imbued him and his coworkers with “messianic zeal.” And because Jobs’ approval is so hard to win, Apple staffers labor tirelessly to please him. “He has the ability to pull the best out of people,” says Ratzlaff, who worked closely with Jobs on OS X for 18 months. “I learned a tremendous amount from him.”

Innovation, the hard way.