Tag: Apple

Apple Corporate Values

Creator

Apple CEO Tim Cook shared the following when he was Chief Operating Officer (COO) under Steve Jobs.  

Purpose

During the period when Steve Jobs was unwell and on medical leave, financial analysts asked Tim Cook how Apple would operate without Jobs. This was his reply.

Apple Logo

Manifesto

There is an extraordinary breadth and depth in our more than 35,000 employees, who are all wicked smart. And that’s in all areas of the company from engineering to marketing, operations and sales and all the rest. The values of our company are all extremely well entrenched.

We believe that we’re on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing. We’re constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple, not the complex.

We believe we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.

We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can focus on the few that are meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross pollination in order to innovate in a way others cannot.

We don’t settle for anything other than excellence in any group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change.

Regardless of who is in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well. And I would just iterate a point Peter made in his opening comments. I strongly believe that Apple is doing the best work in its history.

Source

https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple_coo_tim_cook_lays_out_apple_manifesto_with_or_without_steve_jobs/

Comment

If we top and tail this comment we have four distinct phrases that epitomize a manifesto as a set of corporate values.

They can be summarized as:

  1. Great products (goal)
  2. Innovate
  3. Simple not complex
  4. Focus on the few
  5. Deep collaboration
  6. Cross pollination
  7. Excellence
  8. Self-honesty
  9. Courage

If you want a shortcut to writing your manifesto, then start a series of statements with the words: ‘We Believe’.

More

Apple: We Are the Crazy Ones

Mike Markkula – The Apple Marketing Philosophy

Zappos Core Values Frog

Mike Markkula: The Apple Marketing Philosophy

Mike Markkula: Apple Marketing Philosophy

Creator: Mike Markkula was an investor and for a short time the third partner in Apple with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

Purpose: Markkula wrote this three point call to action as a basic philosophy for the fledgling Apple computer.

Manifesto

Point No. 1: Empathy

Apple should strive for an “intimate” connection with customers’ feelings. “We will truly understand their needs better than any other company,” Markkula wrote.

Point No. 2: Focus

To be successful, Apple should center its efforts on accomplishing its main goals, and eliminate all the “unimportant opportunities.”

Point No. 3: Impute

Apple should be constantly aware that companies and their products will be judged by the signals they convey. “People DO judge a book by its cover,” Markkula wrote. “We may have the best product, the highest quality, the most useful software etc.; if we present them in a slipshod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professional manner, we will impute the desired qualities.”

 

Source

Found here: Blog Post by Jason Fell, technology editor of Entrepreneur.com

Original source: Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. Book cover used as image on this page.

 

Apple: Here’s to the Crazy Ones

Creator: Advertising agency TBWA/Chiat/Day (1997)
Purpose: Promotional Campaign as a series of television and print commercials.

Manifesto

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Sources

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_Different

Comment

For me, this is one of the great manifestos that inspired the view of a Double-Sided Vision.

The strength of ‘Here’s to the Crazy Ones’ is that while it is literally an advertisement for a company, the ad does not sell a specific product.

Instead, Apple pitch a worldview that their users are likely to aspire to. It’s permission to be creative, just a little crazy, and ultimately change the world.

It’s a classic call to arms which is an essential quality of all great manifestos. And while an advertisement calling to its customers, it also has the bigger picture idealism that would inspire, motivate and engage the Apple workforce. That’s a double-sided vision.

I can imagine designer Johnny Ive walking into the then CEO Steve Job’s office with his latest prototype for the new curvy and colourful iMac and having Steve play the ad as the benchmark of success.

He might even ask: Is this crazy enough to change the world?

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