For example, we might have customers fill out evaluation forms of their experience with our company–but then we have our sales people hand them out–people who have a vested interest in the customer rating them high (and they do say to customers, “Please give me a 10!”). Or we’ll only give them a few options. Or we’ll make it incredibly difficult for them to give feedback. Or we’ll have a strategic initiative to increase our customer service number by x percent, which, translated means, we don’t really want to get feedback that would lower the number.

However, the problem with all of those scenarios above is that they keep us from hearing what we need to hear in order to make the changes we need to make. To make this real, let me share with you an experience I had last week with a company, Power Windows and Siding.

My wife and I live in a neighborhood where the houses are 23 years old and every one of our neighbors has had their roof redone starting about seven years ago. We’ve been the lone holdout. So, this year we decided, let’s not push our luck, let’s get the roof redone. We attended a home show recently and filled out three forms for estimates  (one of which was Power Windows and Siding) to do our due diligence, plus we’ve contacted references from two neighbors.

Three of the companies were all very easy and professional to deal with. Sears was a little annoying with their call center, but their sales person was easy to work with and quickly assessed that I knew a lot and could skip through whole sections of his sales presentation pretty fast and get to the estimate quickly.

But Power Window and Siding was a whole different story. Their call center was the most annoying I’ve ever encountered. They called incessantly to confirm the appointment. I mean daily–which was annoying. I made an appointment. I keep my appointments. If they wanted to call the day before to confirm the appointment (which is a good practice), I wouldn’t have been annoyed. But to have their computer dial my number daily to confirm the same appointment–that was beyond infuriating.

Furthermore, when the computer would leave the phone number, it was always fast with a tagline like, “You know the number, RIng PWS!” Now, let me ask you, do you know what number R is? Or W? Or I? Names aren’t customer friendly. If I’m taking a message, I want someone to give me numbers. I don’t want to have to look at the dial pad and then have to figure out what the numbers are.

So, by the time the sales person came by, he was already in last place. Then as we sat down, he went into “sales mode.” You know what I’m talking about. He was trying to be my best friend. So tell me, where did you grow up? How many kids do you have? What are they doing now? Etc. He kept peppering me with questions, reflecting back my answers, affirming everything I said, etc. So much so that it all felt fake/plastic.

I kept telling him that I just wanted an estimate for my roof. My time is valuable and I didn’t need to bond. Then to get the measurements, he asked me to go out with him. Now, I’ve had four estimates before his and none of them needed me to hold the tape and walk the house with them (asking me more annoying questions).

Then when we came back in, he proceeded to go through the sales presentation which talked all about Power Windows and Siding and how great they are and how they were featured on Extreme Makeover, etc. — none of which dealt with me — or that I cared about. All I wanted was a roofing estimate.

He continued through the stock presentation even though I was telling him that I didn’t need to know all this stuff.  But he kept his head down, affirming, “I understand …” and then continuing to do what I was asking him not to do. Finally, when he got to the actual numbers he pulled out his calculator and showed me numbers that were about two and a half times higher than some of the other estimates we had received. Two and a half times higher! At that point, I said, “Listen, let’s save both of us some time. There’s no way we need to carry this conversation any further unless you’re about to tell me, ”Normally, this is what we’d normally charge, but right now we have a special going on where we’re discounting our normal price by over $10,000.“ He kept trying to move forward but I wouldn’t let him. Life’s too short.

However, to make matters even funnier, we’ve still been receiving calls daily from Power Windows and Siding since then. Finally, this morning I picked up the phone (I clearly recognized the number :-) to say, ”Stop Calling,“ when they guy on the other end informed me he was calling to schedule an appointment for a free estimate. Amazing!

But, here’s the point, I’m guessing that the people at Power Windows and Siding are pretty clueless about the feedback I just gave. In fact, right on the front page of their website, their CEO says

We work tirelessly to satisfy our customers, and our standards of quality, ethics, and integrity are unmatched.

Right! I’m sure, from an internal standpoint, they’re working on their systems to make things better from their standpoint. But if they really talked with customers, they’d find out something different.

1. No one likes being called to death by call centers reminding them of appointments, day after day.
2. No one likes alphabetical phone numbers (or, if one must, at least give a numbers option and repeat it twice).
3. No one likes being sold or a salesman trying too hard. (fake bonding is bad)
4. No one likes a salesperson who can’t read their customers’ verbals and non-verbals and then doesn’t adjust their sales presentation to what they’re seeing and hearing.
5. And no one likes an outrageous estimate (after all, we’re talking about a roof here. No one says to their friends, ”Hey, come look at my roof! I paid two and a half times what I should have. Isn’t it grand?“)

So, how are you doing? Are you really searching for honest feedback from your customers and prospects? Are you making it easy? Are you getting feedback that isn’t filtering into some metric that makes you look good? Are you asking enough tough questions? Are you following up with lost sales?

Remember, sometimes the feedback from the sales you lose can be the key to making a whole lot more money in the future!

To your accelerated success!

P.S. Note: this is not to say that all feedback is valuable or true or that it should change what you do. However, if you don’t aggressively pursue honest feedback, then you just might miss out on those insights which are accurate and which you should take some action on!

It doesn’t have to be that way. Henry Ford was absolutely right when he said, “Whether you think you can or you can’t you’re right.” It’s all about what goes on in your head. So, if you think the year is over, then it’s over–not because it is, but because you won’t do what’s necessary to create a great year end finish. However, if on the other hand, you believe that you can finish the year well, then you’ll do what’s necessary to finish well–and you will. It’s all about what you believe first, then what you do.

So, if you want to finish this year well, here’s what I’d encourage you to do over the next three days, Create a 100 Day Plan (or if you’re reading this later than September 24th–create a X number of days plan–a 90 Day Plan or 87 Day Plan or 65 Day Plan, etc. to reach the end of the year).

Now, to create this plan, there are a couple of guidelines worth remembering.

1. Focus on your growth accelerators. In other words, what are the three to five most important things you need to get done before the end of the year that would have the greatest impact on your business. You can’t get everything done by 12/31, so what are the three to five most important projects/initiatives/tasks etc. that need to be completed by the end of the year if you want to finish well.

2. Focus on what can drive additional revenue and profits by year end. This is it. You’re now on the 20 yard line. You’re within striking distance. The 2:00 minute warning has been sounded. So get focused. Where can you quickly drive additional revenue and profits before the whistle blows on 12/31? Don’t let other items get in the way. The end of the year is too close.

3. Focus on a few projects that have been dragging along that “never” seem to get done. There are few more enjoyable moments then checking something off a to do list that has been hanging on there forever. For example, that website redo that was supposed to happen back in March–wouldn’t it feel great if you knocked it off before the end of the year?

4. Focus on what will set you up for a great next year. In other words, you not only want to set yourself up for a great year end finish, you also want to set yourself up for a great start to next year as well. Or to put it another way, you don’t want to be so short-term focused, that you hurt your first quarter of next year. So, what needs to happen this quarter to set you up for a great first quarter of next year?

Then, once you have your 100 Day Plan, you’ll need to push yourself and your team to make sure it gets done. Put your plan up someplace where everyone can see it. Create some key metrics. Keep them visible. Report on them daily or weekly. Put some incentives into your plan for your people. And keep talking about your 100 Day Plan ad nauseum.

You only have a few days left in this year to make it remarkable. So, don’t waste any of them. Create a 100 Day plan. Work your plan. Evaluate the results you’re getting. Then keep adjusting your plan until you get the results you want. Remember: January 1st is not that far away.

To your accelerated success!

P.S. This is a great exercise to do with your executive team!

Once you remember what your profit drivers are, you can then refocus your efforts on figuring out how to increase the percentages or numbers for each of these profit points. And once you do that, you’ll see the multiplying effect they have on one another and how they can rapidly accelerate your profits.

That said, here they are.

1. The Size of Your Funnel. In other words, how many total leads do you have. Business is a game of numbers so if you have a small top to your funnel, everything below it will limited by that number–which means that finding a strategic and systematic lead generation system that can predictably deliver an ever-increasing number of leads is critical to any profit growing initiative.

2. The Number of Conversations or Presentations Per Month. In other words, regardless of how big the funnel is, there is always a smaller number of legitimate viable prospects who will buy that month. So figuring out how to increase the number of actual conversations or presentations you make per month is another critical profit driver. Even if your conversion rate is 100%, your total amount of profit is limited by the number of actual conversations or presentations made per month.

3. The Percentage of Prospects You Convert. All things being equal, if you can increase your conversion rate from, let’s say 30% to 40%, you have just grown your profits by 33%.

4. Your Average Transactional Value. This is the MacDonald’s approach to up-selling, cross-selling, and packaging. Yet, most companies and businesses miss out on this profit driver because they don’t take advantage of intentionally increasing the average transactional value per customer–which could easily bring about a 20-30% increase in their profits.

5. Your Profit Margin. Either by increasing the perceived value or price of what you’re selling, or by reducing the cost of goods sold or overhead, you could make substantially more profit every time you sell what you sell.

6. The Percentage of Customers You Retain. Since it costs about six times more to acquire a new customer than to sell to a current one, it just makes sense that you’d want to develop a series of strategies and tactics to ensure that you keep an ever increasing percentage of your new customers.

7. The Frequency of Customer Repurchase. In other words, if you can get your customers to buy more often, everything else being equal, your profits will soar. For example, if a men’s hair salon can get their customers to go from getting their hair cut once every five weeks to once every four weeks, that’s the difference between 10 cuts and 13 cuts–or an increase of 30% in profits.

8. The Number of Years They Continue to Buy From You. Again, if you can increase the longevity of your customers (since they have no cost of client acquisition any more–and they tend to buy more frequently), you will automatically increase the amount of your profits.

9. The Number of Referrals Your Customers Provide. Since warm leads tend to convert at a higher rate than cold leads, if you can increase the number of referrals your current customers provide, you could radically increase both your conversion rate and your profits.

So, there you have it–the Nine Profit Drivers for your business. If you’d like a pdf of these 9 Key Profit Drivers, click on this link and you can put up this graphic in front of you some place to remember that when it’s all said and done, if you focus a fair amount of your time and effort on figuring out how to systematically increase the percentages and/or raw numbers of each of these nine drivers, you could end up making a whole lot more money.

Note: Figuring out how to systematically increase those 9 Drivers isn’t necessarily easy (choosing which strategies and tactics to use, test, adjust, systemize, etc.) but the framework is. So don’t make it too difficult. Just stay focused and work on increasing each of these by a little bit and your profits will begin to soar!.

To your accelerated success!

P.S. If you need help with this, feel free to contact me. It would be an honor to help you!

Yet, what do most owners and CEOs (and their companies) focus their marketing (and strategy) on? Exactly! Being better than their competitors. “Our technology is 10% faster than theirs.” “We have the best pizza in town.” “Our bank has the best customer service in our city.” “Our music rocks more than your church’s music.” “Our paper towels are the better picker uppers.” Etc. Etc. Etc. And yawn, yawn, yawn.

I don’t know if you read “Blue Ocean Strategy” or not, but the metaphor that Kim and Mauborgne laid out in that book is perfect for this point. Their main idea was/is that most companies attempt to compete in a red ocean (an ocean filled with competitors where each is extracting blood from the other) which leads to commoditization and low margins/profits. Instead, they argue, you want to create a blue ocean where you’re the only one who does what you do–which also leads to uniqueness and higher margins/profits.

In essence, it’s the same point I’m making here about marketing (and strategy). Whenever you’re focusing your attention on being better than someone else, you’ve automatically defaulted to a red ocean marketing strategy. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that strategy. Being able to claim that your product or service is better by some quantifiable measure (Zyrtex works two hours faster than Claritin) is not a terrible marketing strategy. But it doesn’t get the same attraction and attention that something new does (a la Apple).

Several years ago, Al Ries and Jack Trout, in their book on the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing brought this to the forefront, when they said,

“Everyone is interested in what‘s new. Few people are interested in what‘s better.” — Al Ries and Jack Trout

I can’t say it any better. In fact, you may want to write that statement on a wall somewhere (like in your conference room). Most marketing campaigns and strategy sessions are focused on being “better,” which isn’t bad–it’s just not great. What you want to focus on is “new, because ”everyone“ pays attention to the ”new“ and ”different“ or ”unique“ thing. Better just gets lost.

So, as you take a look at your company’s products and services, what can you add or change to create something ”new“ and ”different“ this year? What can you do to set your company apart from all the others in your market space? What could possibly create a blue ocean moment for you?

Once you identify that, make sure you make that the focus of your marketing (and strategy). Why? Because, ”Everyone is interested in what’s new. Few people are interested in what’s better.“

To your accelerated success!

P.S. Twenty minutes after (originally) posting this, I received an email from Apple with the following image at the top. Notice the key word.

I remember, shortly after my board coup several years ago, the movie “Rocky Balboa” came out and in the middle of the movie, Rocky made the following comment to his son,

“It ain’t about how hard you’re hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward–that’s how winning is done!”

I immediately put that quote up on my credenza and still look at it to this day. To me, that’s the power of a great quote. In just a few words, it can say so much.

In light of that, over the July 4th weekend, I decided to create my own favorite quote site. As a consultant and professional speaker, I’m regularly on the look out for great quotes. So, rather than horde them for myself, in the spirit of Tom Peters (when you go to the site, you’ll understand that comment), I’ve decided to make them available to everyone.

So, rather than bore you with more content, let me encourage you to go to the site and read some great inspirational business-oriented quotes. I think you’ll enjoy them! Oh, and the URL is pretty easy to remember

http://www.brucequotes.com

Note: I just created the site Saturday evening so some of the topics only have a few quotes, while others have quite a few. But over time, the approximately 400 quotes will grow. The site is still under 48 hours old. Just bookmark it and return to it whenever you either need some inspiration or you’re putting together a talk or training session and need the perfect quote to make the perfect point.

To your accelerated success!

http://www.brucequotes.com

That said, last Thursday, my father sent me a list of things he needed from Home Depot to complete the installation of a new sliding glass door at my home. Not necessarily excited by the task, I got in my car and drove over to the local Home Depot, with my list in tow, and entered “The Unfamiliar Zone.”

I call it that because it’s all out of my comfort zone. And in my previous journeys to Home Depot, I’ve rarely met anyone who’s been exceptionally helpful. Despite advertising to the contrary, most of the time I ask a question of someone at Home Depot, they point down the concrete pathway and says, “I think that’s on aisle … about halfway down on your right.” Thanks!

However, last Thursday, that all changed. As I walked into Home Depot (at the lumber entrance), a Home Depot employee was walking towards me and, probably noticing my pained look, asked, “Can I help you?” To which I quickly replied, “Absolutely!”

He asked, “What do you need help with?” I pulled out the list my father had sent me by email and said, “My father sent me a list of items he needs to complete the installation of our new sliding glass door.”

He (his name is Shadi–picture below) said, “Can I see the list?” “Absolutely!” As soon as he saw what I needed (chair rail, floor base and trim) he took hold of my cart (one of the lumber ones) and started walking me toward the correct area of the store. As we were walking Shadi asked, “Do you know the sizes of each of these? And what kind of trim or chair rail you need?” Etc.

Fortunately, I had taken measurements and photos with my iPhone so I could show someone what I needed (since I knew I didn’t have the right vocabulary). He said, “Perfect. I know exactly what you need.”

And then Shadi did something wonderful, he literally walked me to each of the three places where I needed to get what was on the list, pulled out what I needed out, cut the wood into the exact lengths I needed, and even helped me save some money. It was truly wonderful. In fact, I even said, “This is like having a personal shopper!”

So, why did I title this post, “Shame on You Home Depot!”?

Because when we were done and I had shared with Shadi how much I really appreciated everything he had done for me (and he did it rather quickly, by the way), I asked, “So, Shadi, do you have a comment card I can fill out on you about how terrific your service was?” He could only reply, “No!”

I continued, “Well, is there a manager I can talk with?” He politely said, “Don’t worry, it’s nothing. It was my pleasure.” As I walked to the front of the store, I kept looking for a manager to share my story with–and couldn’t find one. I asked the cashier, “Do you have any comment cards I can fill out?” She said, “No!” I said, ‘Really?“ And she said, “The only thing we have is a computer way down at the other end that you can log onto and fill something out.” End of story. Fortunately, Shadi had walked to the front of the store by then so I could grab a photo of him with my iPhone (which you can see below).

But shame on Home Depot for not making it easy for someone like me to brag on one of their employees! They should be collecting these stories and sharing them in every location all the time. Great customer service doesn’t just happen. You have to cast vision about it. And nothing speaks louder than a compliment from a customer about a great service experience.

So, how about you? Do you have a system in place that makes it easy to capture customer testimonies? Do you use multiple capture methods? Do you have some Shadi’s that you need to lift up? Do you regularly cast vision about great customer service? Etc.

At the end of the day, you and I don’t know Home Depot by their executive team. We know Home Depot (and every other business) based on the Shadi’s of the world–the people we actually interact with. And the same goes for you and your company. So who are the “Shadi’s” of your company? And how are you going to make heroes out of them today?

To your accelerated success!

Moreover, he states that when his company loses a bid or contract, he simple throws away any vestige of that client in their offices and moves on as if that client or bid never existed. In his world, they’ve never lost a bid because if they didn’t get the contract then it isn’t a client they would have wanted to work with.

Besides the fact that I find it hard to believe that his company actually works this way (like they’ve never fired someone for underperforming or they only evaluate based on successes), I find it just bad advice. The reality is that most businesses need to do more learning from failure–not less.

As a consultant, I spend my life walking into companies where problems exist (and they exist in every company, including Bogusky’s). And I have yet to find any company that is really great at evaluation and learning from failure. Most business leaders are so busy trying to stay on top of all their work, that they rarely ever take time to stop and learn from their failures/missed opportunities/mistakes etc. Therefore, they tend to keep making the same mistakes over and over again. As the saying goes (slightly altered),

“Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Now, if a leader or manager is a blamer (i.e. a bad leader or manager) then that is a problem–but not with the idea of learning from failure. Rather it’s a failure of the leader/manager to carry out their job well. Likewise, if they’re creating a culture of fear vs. trust, then that’s a leadership issue, not an evaluation problem.

Great leader/managers know that learning from the past, both positive and negative, is essential to improving and optimizing the future. They understand that if there’s a problem, it’s not a person who’s the problem, it’s the system. And the only way to fix the system is to debrief and make sure that they and their team have learned from what happened so that the same problem isn’t repeated. No learning = ongoing problem.

So don’t listen to Alex on this one. Increase your learning from failure (and success). Invest more time in evaluating what happened so that you can both eliminate/minimize any problems and optimize/leverage any successes. It’s not an either/or. It’s a both/and. And in most cases, there’s not enough learning going on. So I’d argue that you need to increase your learnings so you can increase your successes!

To your accelerated success!

P.S. If you want to know the five questions you should always ask when evaluating, click here>>

Most leaders underestimate the power of a makeover–and the speed at which they ought to be undertaken these days. It’s not unusual for someone to be surfing the web these days and think, “Wow! That site looks so … 2009,” and we’re only four months into 2010 (as of the writing of this post).

Next week (starting April 26th) marks the public makeover of a business icon–BusinessWeek (which was bought by Bloomberg back on December 1, 2009). They’ve even created a section on their website describing all the changes.

http://inside.businessweek.com/

Now, I haven’t seen the new remade version, but I do love what they’ve done to prep readers about the makeover. So, here are four lessons worth learning from them about creating a makeover.

1. Teaser campaigns still work. The Bloomberg team has done a great job of promoting the change. If you’re a reader of BusinessWeek, then you know they’ve been talking about “change is coming,” for awhile. And while it’s nothing more than an old school teaser campaign–it’s working. I’ve been reading BusinessWeek for years–and I haven’t been this interested/excited in years.

2. Use video to tell the story of the change. If you go to their website, you’ll see a series of videos from the editor describing the change. Vision casting is usually done best with video (actually it’s best done live, but that’s not an option here). So having Josh Tyrangiel share his vision that, “We take people on journeys … and introduce them to concepts and people that will impact their lives for years, even decades …” was the right decision.

3. Use powerful, short image building phrases to describe the changes. Rather than impress us with their vast vocabulary skills, the design team has done a great job of picking up key phrases we can all understand immediately.

* Reinvented. Redesigned. Reimagined (the tagline for the change)
* More Clarity. More Energy. More Impact (each with four short sub-points defining the changes)

4. Remember that “Look and Feel”/Design matters. While story will always be first and foremost (and should be for a magazine), the Bloomberg team understands that the look and feel of a site or magazine (or whatever you’re producing for the public) does matter. The vast majority of people bring their eyes with them. And whether they want to admit it or not, within seconds, they’ve “judged the book by its cover.” Within seconds they’ve either decided, “culture current” or “old school,” or …

So, as you look at what you and your company are producing and offering, are you in need of a makeover? Is your website or are your other marketing materials in need of a makeover? Is your business model in need of a makeover?

If so, then you may want to take a page from the Bloomberg BusinessWeek playbook in order to make sure that your makeover works for you and your purposes.

To your accelerated success!

P.S. When was the last time your website had a new design. If it’s been more than 12 months, chances are it’s time for a face lift. One of the reasons I’m such a huge fan of WordPress (besides the fact it’s free and that it’s easy to edit) is that WordPress separates out the content and the theme/skin/template. So with one click of a button, you can change the whole “look and feel” of a site without having to change any of the content. In around five seconds you can have a whole new look. Then, you can update the content and layout when you have time.

If so, you’ll want to immediately get your hands on the new free report I just released today entitled, “The Seven Secrets of Fast Growth Companies.”

Inside it you’ll discover,

• The number one differentiator between slow and fast growth companies
• The two key elements you need to use to create a fast growth culture
• A simple practice that can radically reduce the time it takes to implement anything
• A lesson from a Harvard professor that can change the way you think forever about your products and services
• A top team practice that can change any meeting you run—and make it more effective.
• The one metric you need to use before choosing any growth idea if you want to be an accelerated growth company
• How you can create a business that’ll scale fast
• How to avoid letting your market think you’re just like “everyone else.”
• How you can create a business that works 24/7, especially when you’re not around.

• And the number one mistake that most CEOs of small and medium-sized make

To get your copy immediately, just fill in the form in the right hand column entitled, “Interested in the 7 Secrets of Fast Growth Companies?” and then click the submit button, “Send it to me now!”

Then after you read it, post your comments below!

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!