Archive for Creativity/Innovation
What You Can Learn From Steve Jobs About “PowerPoint”
Posted by: | CommentsEvery CEO eventually has to do a presentation. And that invariably means that you have to use PowerPoint–or if you’re lucky enough to be on a Mac, Keynote (which is way better, by the way). Note: That’s also why “PowerPoint” is in quotes above since Steve Jobs clearly uses Keynote–but you get the point.
While watching Steve introduce the iPad last week in real-time on Gizmodo (hats off to B. Lam and Jason Chen at Gizmodo who were doing photo and text blogging during the presentation–I was majorly impressed), I thought that I’d share some of their images of Steve’s slides so you could see how a master does his “PowerPoint.” So, here we go.
Here’s one of Steve’s first slides. Notice the simplicity of the design. A short quote in large enough type to read, and a simple image to further drive home the point. Also notice the cool reflection of the image.
As Steve started to talk about mobile platforms he posed a question, “Is there space for a device between a cell phone and a lap top?” Here’s how he represented that.
I love this next slide for it’s simplicity and color popping. No fancy charts. Just one image and one number–that’s all that matters!
Changing gears, when Steve wanted to talk about environmental friendliness, he took and created a “report card” check list that didn’t just look like another table. You get the point. Nothing confusing here.
Here’s another slide where Steve’s team had to convey a list of features (in this case, iWork software for the iPad). Notice the simplicity of the image and six statements. Once again, you get the point.
When Steve started talking about price, he started with one slide with just one number on it. Unfortunately, slide images don’t do justice to the animation Steve and his team used. The number actually dropped from the top and kicked up some dust until it settled with the following clear slide. It really was one of those awe moments when you could hear people’s shock and awe.
Probably, the only somewhat confusing slide Steve used (which isn’t too confusing) was this one announcing the different price points based on memory and 3G (an extra $130 per model)
So, there you have it. A few lessons from Steve on doing a “PowerPoint” presentation.
- Keep your slides uncluttered. Strive for simplicity.
- Use large font sizes (anything less than 40 pts. should be a concern). The bigger the better.
- Use one large graphic and minimal text to say a lot.
- Strive to find a simple way to say something complex.
- Get to the core of your point, and just illustrate that.
- Look for creative ways to say the same things
- Don’t spend time reading off your slides. Their job is to augment you, not drive the presentation (note: if you don’t put too much info on a slide, this becomes automatic).
- Use lots of slides. It doesn’t cost any more to add an extra slide. You don’t need to cram a lot of info on one slide. Most of my presentations have 80 – 140 slides.
- Practice, practice, practice. Steve and his team run through their presentations multiple times before going live.
- Get a Mac and Keynote. You’ll be glad you did!!! :-)
P.S. Post writing the above, I found a YouTube video that takes a humorous look at the adjectives Steve and his team use. Even as a Mac Addict, I have to admit, this is fun (cool, awesome, unbelievable, remarkable, exciting, gorgeous, amazing, super …)
What’s Holding You Back, Part II
Posted by: | CommentsIf you didn’t read part one, scroll below (if you’re on the blog right now) or click on the following link>> (if you’re reading this by RSS).
Note: If you didn’t answer the question from the last post, “What are the major constraints that are hindering me (and my business/organization) from achieving my (our) potential?”, then make sure you do so before proceeding any further.
Okay, so you’ve now identified your major constraints (and as I said last time, they could be external or internal, mental or physical, systemic of situational). They could be a person or a process, a self-limiting belief or a financial limitation (for example).
The next thing you want to do is order them. You want to take each constraint and ask the question, “Where does this constraint come in the priority list of which constraint needs to be solved first?” In other words, you want to play each constraint off the others as you seek to find the major constraint that needs to be solved first.
I liken this to a playoff system (brackets) you see in sports. For simplicity’s sake we’ll call constraints “C”. So you play C1 vs. C2. Let’s say C2 needs to be solved before C1. Then you play off C3 vs. C4. Let’s say C3 needs to be solved before C4. Then you playoff C2 vs. C3 and let’s say C3 needs to be solved before C2 (which means it has to come before C1). You now know what has to happen first. In other words, once you work through this process, you’ll quickly know what the major constraint is for you (or you and your business) this year.
Using the four constraints listed above, it would be understandable to think that you need to solve the financial problem first. But that might not be true. It may be because you don’t have a systematic and methodical process in place to acquire new capital. However, it may be that the reason you don’t have a systematic and methodical process in place is because Sally is in charge of that area and she’s not very competent. She’s been at your company for ten years, she’s loved by every one, but she’s incompetent. You know you ought to let her go, but you haven’t pulled the trigger yet. Why?
Ah, it’s that self-limiting thought that keeps you from changing her out. It may be a belief that letting Sally go will demoralize your team. Or the belief that, “If I just give her some more time and training, she’ll succeed” (which could be true, but hasn’t been for the past five years). Or it could be the belief that, “She’s a single mom and she needs our help.” Or it could be the belief that, “Maybe in a year another position in our company will open up and I can move her over there.” Etc. We all have them. And those self-limiting beliefs do get in the way of making good business decisions.
The beauty of working through this process is that once you play this game, you’ll often find out that what you thought was the major constraint (in this case, “We don’t have enough access to capital”) may, in fact, not be the most important constraint to solve first.
So, before I give you the next step, why don’t we stop here for today. Take out your list of constraints and order them. Play them off against one another and see if you can reduce your constraints down to a handful of the most important constraints to solve first. And most importantly, make sure you identify what the first constraint is that you need to solve before any others!
To your accelerated success!
Five Lessons from Steve Jobs, CEO of the Decade
Posted by: | CommentsIf you haven’t seen the article yet, Fortune Magazine has declared Steve Jobs, CEO of the Decade. In their own words,
How’s this for a gripping corporate story line: Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death, one securities-law scandal, an also-ran product lineup, and his own often unpleasant demeanor to become the dominant personality in four distinct industries, a billionaire many times over, and CEO of the most valuable company in Silicon Valley.
Not a bad story, is it? 
Furthermore, at the start of the decade, Apple had a market cap of “just” $5B. It now hovers around $170B (slightly larger than Google). What that means is that despite the market crashes of the dot.com boom and last year, if you had invested $1,000 in Apple in 2000, your investment would now be worth over $7500 (I think most of us would gladly accept that). And finally, Jobs has been instrumental in changing four completely different industries–computers, music, media and mobile phones—three of those in the past decade.
Any way you add it up, the past 33 years have been a pretty incredible run for Steve Jobs—and we’ve all benefitted—even if you’re a PC. But the question for you and me is, “What can we learn from him that can make a difference in our businesses?” Here are my top five lessons.
1. Improve on the next new thing. What’s fascinating about Jobs and Apple is that Apple has become the symbol for innovation. However, Apple rarely creates anything entirely new. In fact, one of Steve Jobs’ comments on this subject years ago was, “We look for the next new thing and then make it better.” In other words, Apple didn’t invent the mp3 player, they just made it better. They didn’t invent the cell phone, they just made it better. They look for trends they think are going to be big—and then figure out how to make that “new thing” infinitely better.
So, in your realm, what are the next new things or new trends you’re observing in your market space? How can you create a better product and/or service that can improve on the current offerings in that market space?
2. Change before you have to. As a long standing card carrying Mac Addict, one of my favorite sites is MacRumors. And one of my favorite parts of the site is the buyer’s guide which tracks the time between new iterations of a product (and let’s you know where they are in cycle). Even when Apple is making good money, they keep introducing new models or discontinuing old models so that none of their competitors can catch up (i.e. they change before they have to).
I’ll never forget the day Steve Jobs was talking about the iPod mini and how it was the most successful launch they had ever had up to that point in time. And then he said, “And that’s why today we’re killing the iPod mini … (dramatic pause) … and introducing the iPod nano!” Who else would have killed a cash cow right in the middle of a growth cycle? Only Steve and crew!
So, what products and/or services have you been riding for too long? Do you need to revamp or upgrade any of them? Do you need to discontinue any of them? And/or what new thing do you have in the pipeline?
3. Eliminate what ticks people off. The supposed story of the iPhone is that a bunch of Apple execs were at a meeting when they were all complaining, tangentially, about their cell phones. In the midst of that discussion someone said, “We’re all a bunch of bright people. We should be able to do this better.” Or if you had ever tried to download an app several years ago and load it on a Palm device, you know it was a major pain (it ticked people off). What Apple did with the App store was/is nothing short of remarkable. Or if you had ever tried to download music and put it on your mp3 player pre-iPod, you know it was a major pain. The iPod and iTunes store combo simply eliminated that piece of the puzzle that just ticked people off.
So, what are the issues that tick off the people in your market space? Find the key ones and design a simple solution to solve that problem.
4. Repurpose what you can. If you haven’t been in the Apple fold, you could easily miss this, but Apple is great about repurposing ideas and technology. For example, back in the 90’s, if you wanted to see a movie trailer on the internet, the best place was to go to the Apple site, which highlighted movie trailers and their product Quicktime. But that experience and built in infrastructure for movies made streaming music for the iTunes store infinitely easier. And the experience of the iTunes store made creating the App store for the iPhone infinitely easier. Or the Safari browser for the Mac, made it infinitely easier to create a great web experience on the iPhone (which was night and day ahead of Palm and Blackberry when it debuted). Or the experience with NeXT, led to Mac OS X. On and on you could go. The, “Apple Way,” is not just to create something new, but to repurpose what they already know into a different arena.
So what do you know or have or do that could be repurposed to create a new product or service for your market?
5. Think big and small at the same time. Some leaders are just big picture people. Others are just small picture people. However, what makes Steve so powerful is that he’s both. Steve gets it that executives need to make big picture, bold strategic moves (like canceling several product lines in ‘97 and focusing on just four products). However, he’s also famous for being nit picky and focused on the very intricate details of the business–especially when it comes to design issues and market messaging. As he said to Ken Segall (who used to be at Chiat/Day, the ad agency) on day, “The third word in the fourth paragraph isn’t right. You might like to think about that one.”
Looking back on your history, are you more of a big picture person? Or a small picture kind of person? Whichever one you are, how could you add the other to your wheelhouse and become more versatile ?
So, there you have it, “Five Lessons from Steve Jobs, CEO of the Decade.” The only question remaining is, “What are you going to do in the next few moments in response to it?”
To your accelerated success!
Steve Jobs’ Presentation Secrets
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’ve ever watched Steve Jobs do a product launch, you know you’ve watched a master communicator. And if you’ve ever wondered if you could ever communicate as effectively as Steve, there’s good news for you. Business Week Small Biz columnist, Carmine Gallo, has just published a book on “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs.” And BW, has just run a photo gallery outlining the 15 major lessons from the book.
The ones I found most interesting and can probably help you the most were as follows.
- Plan in Analog – In other words, before Steve and his team move to Keynote (the Mac version of Powerpoint) and other digital options, he starts by creating/writing a storyboard, similar to a movie. And just like any good story teller, he builds anticipation and plans for surprises. When was the last time you did that?
- Focus on Benefits – Even though Steve is usually revealing updates to products, he doesn’t focus on the product. Instead, he focuses his comments on the benefits that come from using that product. Similar to the old adage, “No one needs a drill, everyone needs holes,” Steve keeps drilling down on benefits, as you can see in the following image for why developers should create Apps for the iPhone.
- Create Twitter Friendly Headlines - I love this one. If you look at the number of words on a typical PPT slide, vs. a Jobs’ slide, it’s almost humorous. Steve is notorious for minimalism. So, for example, when he introduced the MacBook Air, the title slide simply said, “World’s thinnest notebook.” Can you position your products with just three to five words?
- Create Visual Slides – I actually watched the webcast when Steve was introducing the MacBook Air and I can remember this slide. The image of a laptop inside an envelope was powerful. Not much more needed to be said. Note also how uncluttered the image is. Take a look at your last Powerpoint presentation. How many words were on your average slide?
- Use Props – Another common feature of most of Jobs’ presentations is that he always does some kind of demonstration. Frequently he sits down at his Mac and then you watch the screen to see in real time something that he’s doing. It might be to demonstrate the ease of creating a movie in iMovie or retrieving a lost file in Time Machine or playing around with new cool app on the iPhone. What can you use besides your voice and PPT slides?
- Practice a Lot – This is one of my favorites. I’m forever telling speakers they need to practice more before they get up to speak. While Steve’s presentations may come off very relaxed and unrehearsed, they’re anything but. He prepares for days for every moment of the presentation. Now, while you may not have days, you should at least run through your talk two or three times before presenting it.
Well, those were my favorite six. But you can see the whole presentation at BW by clicking here. However, don’t forget to print this list of six things out and use it the next time you have to give a presentation. Taking your cues from Steve Jobs isn’t a bad model to follow!
To your accelerated success!
Originality and Commonality: A Powerful One-Two Punch!
Posted by: | CommentsHave you ever noticed that most people like to live life in an either/or world? Either we buy a sports car or a minivan. Either we go to the beach or the mountains for vacation this year. Either we locate in a busy location or an isolated one. Either we focus on one product or a slew of products. Either we focus on one niche or on everyone.
The problem, of course, with an either/or world is that it rarely reflects reality because life is rarely that clean. Rather it’s full of contradictions and surprises. One of which is that originality and commonality go hand in hand together.
In an either/or world that doesn’t make sense. Either you’re original or your common. But, in the real world, being completely original isn’t an easy road to success. Just ask the creator of the first fax machine (Bain, 1843) or first cell phone or first anything. It’s not that easy to create an entirely new market.
When people read books like, “Blue Ocean Strategy,” they tend to think that the key to success is to come up with an entirely new idea (a new blue ocean). But if you take a look at the examples in the book you’ll notice they weren’t entirely new at all.
Cirque du Soleil wasn’t the first circus. Southwest wasn’t the first airplane company. Curves wasn’t the first health fitness facility. Etc.
All three of those examples are part of huge industries. The entertainment industry is huge. It’s common. But Cirque du Soleil’s genius was to do something original in a big market (i.e. a circus for adults with one ring vs. three and no live animals).
Southwest’s genius was to do point-to-point (i.e. non-hub), fun, no frills flights to tier two cities. Curves’ genius was to do a women’s only club with minimal equipment in a circle (a low-cost, quick, gender specific workout).
In other words, rather than look where there wasn’t a lot of competition, they looked for a very competitive market (the common part) and then looked for an uncommon way/original way to meet the needs of that market.
So, if you’re in a town full of pizza joints, that doesn’t mean you can’t start another pizza joint. Maybe you should start a gourmet one (if there isn’t one yet). Or maybe the people in you town just love fast food. If that’s the case, you might want to start a different kind of fast food restaurant (maybe BBQ wings). Or maybe your market simply loves Italian food. In that case, you could start a northern or southern Italian or even a sicilian restaurant. Etc.
Ultimately, it comes down to buyers. And what do they want? In general, they usually want something similar to what they already like/have–just a little different. This is not to downplay new and disruptive technologies. Just an observation about what fast growth companies do.
As a twenty-five year fan of Apple, I’ve drunk the kool-aid. But most of Apple’s successes haven’t come from being the first at something. 
The iPod wasn’t the first mp3 player. And the iPhone certainly wasn’t the first cell phone. But Apple, usually referred to as, “the most innovative company on the planet,” usually has winners when it looks at what people already want and then makes something original in that field.
So, if you want to build a wildly successful company, you might want to look where there’s a lot of competition (the common part) and then come up with a unique solution to that market’s wants and needs (the original part). It’s not an either/or, but rather a both/and that usually wins in the real world. So do your best to eliminate either/or thinking in your company. Both/and thinking is a much better route to go! Originality and commonality are a powerful one-two punch when used correctly.
To your accelerated success!
Is Perfection Getting in Your Way?
Posted by: | CommentsI was at a conference this past week when one of the speakers, a copywriter by the name of Ray Edwards, nailed me–in a positive way.
The way he got to me was by asking two simple questions. Showing a picture of a MacDonald’s hamburger, he asked,
1. How would you describe the quality of a MacDonald’s hamburger?
2. Who sells the most hamburgers in the world?
Point made. Point received.
I don’t know about you, but I often get stuck by trying to make something “perfect.” I have three books, several new talks, and a couple of projects all stuck in varying states of completion–not because I can’t get them done–but because I want to make them PERFECT!
In the literary world, it’s the equivalent of wanting to write, “The Next Great American Novel.” It’s the desire to want to write something that “no one else has written.” Or to say something so compelling that newswires will want to pick it up, blogs will want to make it viral, TV reporters will want to call for interviews, and schools of business will want to make it required reading (of course, by this point, you’ve already figured out–this guy lacks reality–exactly!).
It’s this longing to do something perfect, to do something that causes people to take notice, that tends to hinder so many of us. When, in reality, we ought to set our sights a little lower. While I may want to write the “ultimate” guide to growing a business, there is no such ultimate book to be written.
In the mean time, while I’m waiting to create the perfect/ultimate book, others are publishing their books and making money–and the people I could be helping out are missing out.
Likewise, in your world, chances are (if you’ve been infected with the disease of perfectionism), you’re doing something similar. You have projects on hold, products that haven’t been launched, services that haven’t gone public, talks and letters that haven’t been written, and presentations that haven’t seen the light of day, etc. Not because you can’t get them done, but because you’re waiting until the thing you’re working on is … well, perfect.
But in a business environment, perfection is not the goal–it’s an impediment. In fact, when Ray was speaking I wrote in my notes, “Perfection > leads to procrastination > which leads to poverty.”
While you or I may want to create the perfect burger (metaphorically), the reality is that someone else (MacDonalds, in this case), is making a ton of money while we’re still in the design phase.
So, if your goal is making money, or influencing others, or meeting a critical need or want for your target market, then you’ll want to revisit this MacDonald’s hamburger metaphor again and again. Make sure you beat down the perfection monster. And whatever you do, make sure you get what you’re working on out in the world. As I’ve said for years,
“Excellence is not perfection. Excellence is doing the best you can with what you’ve got in the amount of time you’ve got to get it done.”
So what projects have you been holding off on or delaying because of perfectionism? And how much more money (or whatever metric your project works with) could you be making if you stopped waiting for perfection and just got that thing out in the marketplace?
To your accelerated success!
Ready for Accelerated Growth Driver #1?
Posted by: | CommentsIf you could pick one idea or concept that drives accelerated growth companies more than any other, what would you pick?
Would you pick, “Great leadership?” Or, “A new or better technology?” Maybe, “Massive cash flow?” Or, “Viral marketing?” Or would you pick, “Great systems?” Or maybe even, “Great people?”
Well, while all of those are worthy choices, I would pick something else. Because, while all of the those choices above are essential to building a great company, especially an accelerated growth company, they aren’t what really drives the behavior of fast growth companies.
No, if I had to pick one driver above every other driver of accelerated growth companies, that one driver would be . . . Speed of Implementation.
Show me a fast growth company and I can almost guarantee that they operate by, “Ready, fire, aim. In other words, the time lag between the generation of an idea and the implementation of an idea is almost always very short.
Bottom line, accelerated growth companies aren’t hung up with perfection.
In fact, Google could easily be the poster child for this. They regularly come up with ideas and put them out in ”imperfect“ forms to test their ideas quickly–in the real world. That stands in stark
contrast to most companies which come up with an idea or two and then tweak those ideas endlessly in their quest for perfection, which of course means they end up missing the timing of the market–and massive cash flow.
Over the past few months as I’ve been speaking on accelerated growth issues, I found myself frequently saying, ”There are some of you who will go home tonight and execute on several ideas you’ve come up with as a result of what you’ve heard here today. Some of you will go home and over the next few days, implement an idea or two. A few of you will take a week or two and then implement an idea. And then there are the rest of you who will leave here and probably implement nothing. I can almost guarantee you that those who leave this room and implement the ideas they received this morning, tonight, are leading the fastest growth companies in this room.“
Why? Because speed of implementation matters. As Dr. Edward Kramer says so well,
“Eliminate the time between the idea and the act, and your dreams will become realities.”
If you have the right strategy, but don’t implement quickly, you’re toast. What good is an idea, even a great idea, if it’s not implemented quickly?
So, take a look at your business (or organization). How fast are you at executing? How short is the time span between the moment an idea is hatched and the moment its implemented? Are you burdened by perfection? Or fear of failure? Or fear of rejection? Or ego? Or are you burdened by systems of ”checks and balances“ (which rarely are)? Or committees? Or controlling people? Or procedures and policies?
If you or your company rate anything lower than a 10 on the speed of implementation scale, my encouragement would be to deal with it–and fast!
Finally, if you’d like a quick practical application of this principle, here’s an idea for you. Pick a project or idea that’s been sitting on the shelf waiting for its turn. Estimate how long you think it’ll take to implement it. Cut that time in half. Then get started. Ready! Fire! Aim! What are you waiting for?
Toward your accelerated success!
Are You Sizzling Hot?
Posted by: | CommentsWhen your prospects and customers think about you, do they think, “I have to have that!” Or, “I need to go there!” Or “I need to use them!” Or is it more of a more of a, “Let me think about it.” Or a “I’ll get back to you.” Or, “I’m doing my due diligence,” kind of thing?“
It’s an important question if you want to grow an accelerated growth company.
If you’re not sure, then just think back over the past few years. Think Twitter. Facebook. Myspace. Apple. Starbucks. Google. Netflix. And Dancing with the Stars (Note: I don’t watch :-), however it is consistently in the top ten shows, according to Nielson–though I’m much more of a 24 kind of guy).
Each of those companies (and shows) has grown significantly because they were sizzling hot and word of mouth took off.
So when was the last time you (and your team) asked, “Is what we’re doing sizzling hot?”
Or similar questions like, “Are we addressing a big pain or problem that needs to be solved?” “Are our customers raving about us?” “Are the media and our target market beating down our doors to get to us?”
If not, then maybe those are the kinds of questions you need to ask—and then answer. I’ve found very few businesses that ask (and answer) those kinds of questions, even though they’re vital to a company’s success.
And don’t think your business is different. A few week’s ago I met Seth Goldman, the CEO of Honest Tea (which is President Obama’s favorite drink). If Seth and his team can make colored water sizzling hot, you can make what you do, sizzling hot as well. Your category and niche are irrelevant.
So, how can you make what you do sizzling hot over the next three months?
To your accelerated success!
If You Really Want to Be More Remarkable Take a Page from Apple’s Playbook
Posted by: | CommentsFortune magazine recently came out with their listing of the Fortune 500 (and 1000). A quick survey of the Fortune 500 shows that the company with the best performing stock return over the past decade has been . . . Apple–at an impressive 50.7% return per year. 
So, how did they do that? From my perspective, they did it by living at the intersection of the four keys to true remarkability.
1. Differentiation - In order for anything to be remarkable, it has to be different (even in the case where different is consistency, as in the case of Cal Ripkin). No one I’ve ever met has ever mistaken any Apple product for someone else’s. No one picks up an iPhone and says, "Looks like a Nokia product." Or an iMac and says, "Looks like a Dell." Or an iPod and says, "Looks like a Sony mp3 player." Or at iTunes and says, "Looks like Walmart." Everything Apple does is different–and clearly different.
2. Innovation – Since the natural drift of life is from remarkable to ordinary to death, every company that wants to be remarkable has to continually innovate their products and services. And no company does this better than Apple. As long as I live, I’ll never forget Steve Jobs’ speech a few years ago when he stood up on stage and said, "The iPod mini has been the most successful product launch in the history of Apple (with a huge graph showing accelerating sales behind him), 
which is why today we’re killing it (pregnant pause) . . . and introducing the iPod nano." Who else on planet earth would do that? Who else would kill a successful product that had been out for less than a year and was selling like hot cakes–other than Apple? Then again, maybe that’s why Apple was once again recently named the Most Innovative Company on the planet by Business Week.
3. Positioning – In order for customers to believe that something is remarkable, it has to be positioned correctly. For example, Cirque du Soleil is clearly positioned to be a theatrical circus for adults vs. the traditional circus like Ringling Brothers. In the case of Apple, they’ve been able to pull off an Avis or 7-up strategy of positioning themselves against the dominant player. Even better, with the Mac vs. PC ads, they’ve been able to make the dominate player look like a Dilbert character–and who would want that? No one wants to remark to their friends, "Hey, I just bought a PC," (makes them look like "cubicle man"). But everyone I know loves to remark, "I just bought a Mac," (i.e. I’m now cool–and not a cubicle slave anymore).
4. Excellence – In order for something to be remarkable, it has to be executed with excellence. Just having a remarkable idea is not enough. For example, last fall when Michael Dell introduced a PC tablet with multi-touch (the thing that the iPhone made popular so you can expand and contract a picture by pinching or expanding two fingers) it sounded and looked remarkable except that what he demonstrated on stage and what you can actually do are two different things (i.e. the laptop you can actually buy doesn’t work with multi-touch, only single touch). No excellence. No remarkability. On the other hand, even though Apple has had it’s share of problems, there is no question that the products they produce are always done with excellence. In fact, the other day I picked up my first MacBook Air 
and just drooled for a moment (then I remembered I was supposed to be shopping for Mother’s Day). However, I’ve never ever seen anyone drool over a Dell or HP or . . .
So as you take a look at your own company or organization, where can you find the place of intersection at the cross roads of differentiation, innovation, positioning and excellence? How can you make sure that no one confuses what you do with what anyone else does? Or how can you innovate what you’re doing to introduce version 4.2? Or how can you better position what you do so you’re the obvious choice? Or how can you do what you do so well that it elicits a "WOW!"?
It’s worth wrestling with these questions because if you find that place of intersection, then, like Apple, you’ll not only be more remarkable, you’ll also be putting away some serious cash (e.g. Apple is currently stashing away around a billion dollars per quarter). So don’t let anyone ever tell you remarkable isn’t marketable. It is. It really is.
P.S. A simple staff discussion might be to take each of your competitors and their main products. Then ask of each, "How can we do this differently than they do?" And, "Is that different something our customers would want?" Finally, "And is that different so clearly different that it would move our customers to tell their friends, ‘You’ve got to check this out?’"
Wolfgang Puck: Put Your Signature On It
Posted by: | CommentsIf you could achieve Wolfgang Puck’s success, would you? If you could go from being a young Austrian boy who was fired from his first cooking job to being a world renown chef and restauranteur with a global brand that includes 15 top rated restaurants (including the famous Spago Beverly Hills), 80 Gourmet Express locations, a catering company that hosts some of the biggest events around the nation (including the annual Academy Award’s Governor’s Ball), as well as producing a line of consumer packaged goods, kitchen appliances and utensils, books, media content and licensing, and television celebrity, would you want that? Probably! Without a doubt, life has been very good for the Austrian from Sankt Veit an der Glan.
But what got him from there to here? Apart from good fortune and good business partners, I’d suggest that the number one takeaway from his life would be the title of this edition of Remarkability Caffeine–he took ordinary things and put his signature on them.
When he first hit California, he worked at Ma Maison where he took french cooking and put his signature on it. Since California was bright, airy and health conscious he took classic french food and used lighter sauces and Californian ingredients to create a more healthy and fun french food.
Instead of a dark subdued and formal gourmet eating environment, he created light, airy and informal dining for gourmet food. He took an ordinary American favorite, pizza, and turned it into a fine dining option. His signature pizza was his smoked salmon and caviar pizza (something that clearly wasn’t on the menu of my hometown pizza joint back then).
He also took Asian cooking to a new level by creating a category called fusion (because he fused together American, Asian and French cooking). You may not recognize the term, but I’d venture a guess that at some point you’ve probably had a Chinois Salad (a chicken salad with a Chinese mustard vinaigrette dressing).
The fact that some of these items seem so normal now is a tribute to the genius of Wolfgang Puck. For whenever you and I see genius, we quickly see others copying it (which is why the most remarkable people are always reinventing themselves and their businesses). Wolfgang Puck never stays still or content with what he’s done. Everyday is a new day for him to put his signature on something different.
So how about you? What have you put your signature on? Or what has your business put its signature on? What have you taken and made new? What makes you unique and different from everyone else? While benchmarking has it’s place, just keeping step with your competition is a losing proposition. You want to be the only one who does what you do. You want others copying you, not the other way around.
So what can you put your signature on? What is it that only you do? Refuse to be a "me too!" business. Take one thing you’re currently doing (that all of your competitors do as well) and figure out how you can do it differently. Go ahead, be remarkable. Put your signature on something today!