Inspire Imitators

Inside Apple - Chapter 9 "Inspire Imitators"

Fadell joined Apple in 2011 as part of a special products group, ultimately becoming senior vice president of the iPod division. He left Apple, however in 2008, after clashing repeatedly with Jobs as well as with his software counterpart. Jobs valued Fadell so much that he was kept as an Advisor – Advisers often are paid so they won’t advise anyone else, Fadell received an annual salary of $3,00,000 and shares worth more than $8 million not to work for an Apple competitor.

Since ending his relationship with Apple, Fadell began a high stakes experiment testing the hypothesis that Apple executives can translate their skills outside Infinite Loop. Top Apple people have left to join other companies. Fadell is the first member of the modern Apple executive team to start a consumer electronics company from scratch. Given his triumphs at Apple, his success or failure will speak volumes to how well the Apple experience translates.

Fadell’s new company Nest doesn't compete with Apple. It markets a learning thermostat a $249 device that mildly competent do-it-yourselfers can install to replace the dumb thermostat in their homes. The three key facets of the Nest thermostat was It saved energy, it programmed itself, and it was beautiful. “Even if you have constrained resources do not cut corners,” said Fadell, stating his number one rule from Apple.

For many years it was rare to see an ex-Apple executive reappearing in a leadership role at another tech company compared with the number of former Oracle executives. The data set of Apple alumni leaving Cupertino and trying their hands elsewhere in other words is small.

A secret behind success of Apple and Google products.
Jon Rubinstein ran hardware engineering at Apple, including the division that made the first iPod. After leaving Apple, he became CEO of Palm in a turnaround effort. Rubinstein completely revamped Palm’s Smartphone lineup, to critical acclaim. But palm failed to take hold in the market as an independent company – a victim of having too little money to go toe to toe with Apple and Google in the fast growing Smartphone market. A secret of success for Apple’s new products and Google’s Android mobile operating system is that their efforts are funded lavishly by existing cash cow products, the Mac in Apple’s case and search advertising for Google. Palm has no such advantages.

Communication message - A key to creating a want in customers
iPod was a big step forward for Apple because up until then it was trying to build confidence and get people comfortable coming into the store. iPod was different because it held thousand songs in your pocket. Apple came up with easily repeatable marketing line that perfectly captured the iPod’s capability. Blankenship described Telsa’s version an obvious homage to Apple’s marketing, regarding how to sell its $1,50,000 plus Roadster. Zero to sixty in 3.7 seconds. Two hundred forty five miles on a charge. These marketing lines begin developing customers who wants your car. It’s not about price, it’s about wanting the car.

As an unabashed admirer of start-ups, Jobs fought like crazy to have Apple retain some of a start-up’s characteristics. In fact, though medium-sized and large companies will want to study Apple’s ways, its best lesson maybe for start-ups. Because Apple was so sick when Jobs returned, he was able to treat it as a reboot.

The biggest pitfall in trying to be like Apple, however is that Apple’s culture is thirty five years in the making and bears the stamp of one extraordinary entrepreneur who turned into a shrewd chief executive of a sixty thousand person corporation. It won’t be a snap for any company to create its own version of the Apple culture. As well, Apple itself will find out how strong its culture really is- and how much of its success was directly attributable to Steve Jobs.