Launching a product with a view to changing the world might be admirably ambitious. Or it might be just plain nuts. What's wrong with launching an improved product that will increase your revenue stream? Nothing.
But 30 years ago, last week, Apple introduced the Macintosh computer to the world. Steve Jobs and his team were not trying to launch something that was only a “New! Improved!” computer. As Bill Atkinson, who developed the first Mac software programs, MacWrite and MacPaint, recently told the San Jose Mercury News: We were not doing it from a business point of view. We were doing it from the change-the-world point of view. We wanted to make something beautiful and usable and something that people would delight in.
And change the world Apple did. That is leadership on an absolutely extraordinary level.
Personal computers all adopted technologies that were introduced with the Mac: the mouse and the graphic interface. Except for programmers, does anyone still remember how to use a “Command Prompt” (c:\something\something . . .)? And the mouse led to the touch pad (where would laptops be without that) and eventually to touch screens (where would smart phones and tablets be without that). The entire idea that users should be able to interact directly with the digital objects in their computing devices started with Mac. As Bill Atkinson said, “We wanted to make something beautiful and usable and something that people would delight in.”
Apple doesn't rely on the Mac for its profits the way it once did. But the Mac was the first of Apple's radically different, easy-for-the-user products. The first with an obsession (Steve Jobs's obsession) for insane attention to design and quality.
Thirty years later, what are the results of all this? Apple's market valuation is one of the highest in the world. (Although it's taken a beating this week for only selling a gazillion iProducts lately. Wall Street seems to have expected sales in the bazillions.)
What are the leadership lessons from Team Mac?
Chase your dream – As Jobs said at the official launch of the Macintosh: “We’re gambling on our vision, and we would rather do that than make “me too” products. Let some other companies do that. For us, it’s always the next dream.” Jobs's chase-the-dream style resulted in Pixar (the film company that brought us Toy Story and Monsters Inc.), the iPhone, and the iPad. Almost everyone in the smart phone and tablet arena has been chasing Apple for years.
Don't worry about “Invented Here” – The “Holy Frijoles!” technologies that separated the early Macs from everything else in personal computing were not invented at Apple. That didn't stop Jobs & Co. from using them to disrupt everyone's concept of how a computer and its user should interact.
Don't follow the crowd – No one else was even considering doing a personal computer like the Mac. John C. Dvorak wrote in his review of the first Mac: “The nature of the personal computer revolution is simply not fully understood by companies like Apple (or anyone else, for that matter.)” Maybe Apple didn't understand the personal computer revolution, but the company didn't wait for someone else to figure it out. Instead, Apple stepped out and led the way.
There is nothing wrong with trying to increase revenues and profits with evolutionary improvements to your offerings. Nothing at all.
But if you want to change your market, if you want to revolutionize the way business is conducted by you and your competition, Lead Like Macintosh.
