Sunday 20 November 2011

What made Steve Jobs so innovating and how could I follow his exmaple ?




Steve Jobs is the co-founder of Apple. He is "the classic American entrepreneur starting his company in the spare bedroom of his parents’ house, and pioneering the first personal computer for everyday use"( Gallo, C,2010) . Steve Jobs is hands down one of the best entrepreneurs of all time. He has been an inspiration to many young entrepreneurs including myself. Gallo has laid out what he believes Steve jobs 7 secrets to innovation are.
"Do what you love" if you have a product that you do not have a real desire for then how are you going to sell it to the world. "Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition .They somehow already know what you truly want to become"(Gallo,C,2010) so to innovative follow your heart and what you think is right not what everyone else is telling you could be the right direction as you are not creating a product that is already there you are creating something new something no one else knows about so how could they possibly know the direction you want to go in.
Secret number 2 "put a dent in the universe" Steve jobs said "we are gambling in our vision and we would rather do that than make 'me too' products" (Gallo,C,2010) so this says to me try something different don't just copy what is currently going right in the market find something new and try it.
"Kick start your brain" , "creativity leads to innovative ideas" Always be thinking about the product and take ideas from other industry’s to improve your product. Steve Jobs didn’t see this as stealing but experimenting and always trying to improve the product you have. An example of were Steve Jobs did this is in the layout of all of his shops there is no cashier this was taking from studying the four seasons hotel.
"Sell dreams not products" Steve Jobs once said "some people think you've got to be crazy to buy a mac, but in that craziness is a genius" (Gallo, C,2010) the customers have bought a product to for fill their dreams. When innovating you have to think about your dreams not just about the product otherwise you will end up with a product similar to one on the market.
Secret number 5 "say no to 1,000 things" "innovation comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much"(Gallo,C,2010) This says to me that we need not make our products too complicated as when a product is too complicated people do not want to use it for example look at the i- pad children as young as 2 can use this product yet people as old as 90 still use it as it is simple but genius.
"Create insanely great experiences" It is all about good customer service and making sure the customers are the number one priority. The way Apple have done this through innovating as discussed earlier is that they have no cashier’s in the shop all they have is the experts on the products in store. You need to make sure that the website, calling office enriches the customer’s experience. So make your website interesting and try different things that is what Apple do.
The final secret is number 7 "Master the message" get people excited about your product "for every idea that turns into a successful innovation, there are thousands of ideas that never gain traction because people behind those ideas failed to tell a compelling story" (Gallo, C,2010)  you have to believe in your product and even when told your idea will never work defend it and say it will believe in what you are doing and one day it will happen. When giving presentations about products use photos instead of text as "verbally your audience will remember 10% of the information. Attach pictures and attention goes up to 65 %”
These 7 secrets summed up to me say you need to be have courage and be little bit crazy but just believe in yourself and your product or service and one day it will pay off you will make dreams come true.

(Gallo, C. (2010). The innovation secrets of Steve Jobs. Available: http://www.slideshare.net/cvgallo/7-innovation-secrets-of-steve-jobs. Last accessed 25th November 2011)

Wednesday 2 November 2011

What is innovating?

Innovation is an important part of any business as it is what makes one business different from another "Innovation has always been a fundamental basis of competitiveness for firms, regions and nations." (Ahmed,P, 2010 ). Innovation can be about creating a new and exciting never seen before product like what Steve jobs did with Apple. However it can also be about just merely improving an existing product such as changing the colour of the packaging. Innovation can be many things in a company and this is what i am hoping to explore.

(Ahmed,P and Shepard,C (2010). Innovation Management. Essex: Pearsons Education Limited. p4-5. )