If you walk in to a Best Buy to purchase a laptop, it’s safe to say you will have plenty of options. In fact, Dell gives customers 26 laptop choices, HP gives 41. Having that many similar products complicates decision for customers. On the contrary, Apple gives its laptop customers very few choices. The only choice one has to make is whether he/she wants a thin one or a little thicker and more powerful one? How does it work out for them you may ask. Apple makes more money than Dell and HP combined.
Ken Segall’s book, Insanely Simple, he focuses on experiences with Steve Jobs as he observed Apple from an outside prospective. In Job’s return to Apple for his second stint in 1997 the challenge was that Apple was making 20 distinct products. It was complicated. He decided to kill almost the entire product line. He decided that Apple will make only four things – home version and pro version of laptop and desktop – and build them well.
Job’s used to say, “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to remove.”
Simplicity has a universal appeal and Apple has a deep-rooted belief in it, consider iTunes. When Microsoft created the rival to iTunes, the Zune Store, it offered Microsoft points for their music playing devices. It required customers to purchase points by the 100's and then use a conversion rate of 80 points to the dollar to buy a $.99 cent song. The formula confused buyers and Zune is now unavailable.
Often times Apple employees would walk away from meetings with Jobs after being hit with the ‘simple stick.’ “Steve had rejected their work – not because it was bad but because in some way it failed to distill the idea to its essence. It took a turn when it should have travelled in a straight line.”
Simplicity is an all or none proposition and is the ultimate efficiency. As you prepare for meetings, ask yourself if Jobs would hit you with the simple stick. It’s worked wonders for Apple, it could work wonders for you.
My Rating – 3/5
Should you read – I love Apple products, but by the end of the book I was tired of Steve Jobs stories. His ability to make the companies he headed great was an ability only few in the world share. However, the book can easily be put into an abstract or summary, and though you’ll miss some of the entertaining Steve Jobs stories, the core of the message will still come out.