Steve Jobs: CEO of the Decade

Fortune Magazine just named Steve Jobs CEO of the Decade for his impact on computing, movies, music and cell phones. What the article didn’t do, however, was get to the heart of what sets Steve Jobs apart from his peers: Holistic Thinking.

Yet for all his hanging out with copywriters and industrial designers and musicians — and despite his anticorporate attire — make no mistake: Jobs is all about business. He may not pay attention to customer research, but he works slavishly to make products customers will buy.

He’s a visionary, but he’s grounded in reality too, closely monitoring Apple’s various operational and market metrics. He isn’t motivated by money, says friend Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500). Rather, Jobs is understandably driven by a visceral ardor for Apple, his first love (to which he returned after being spurned — proof that you can go home again) and the vehicle through which he can be both an arbiter of cool and a force for changing the world.

Few corporate CEOs see the world as anything other than a giant piggy bank to smash for their own short-term enjoyment. Steve Jobs is no saint, but he is unique in that he sees the world as one in which he, his shareholders and his customers all have a stake. Steve Jobs’ desire to change the world may come from a selfish place that seeks to impose his vision of the world onto others, but his vision is one in which others are benefiting by his actions rather than suffering as a result of them. This is a key difference between Steve Jobs and most other CEOs.

Steve Jobs is innovative because he wants to positively impact the lives of his customers. He aims to profit as a result of improving people’s experiences with the brands he oversees. He understands the concept of karma — he’s traveled to India as a seeker of spiritual enlightenment, after all. He’s a bohemian executive — a rarity on Wall Street, and a shame at that.

Wealth can be extracted or it can be nurtured. There are many who extract, yet few who nurture. Holistic thinking draws upon the nurturing force that respects the interconnectedness of things while striving to profit and build wealth in a sustainable manner.

Neither Steve Jobs nor Apple are perfect — there is no such thing as perfect, but there sure is such a thing as far from perfect, and much of corporate America can be said to be very far from perfect. Steve Jobs stands out not because he is perfect, but because his approach resonates much more with our conception of what a CEO ought to embody as an iconic representation of the vision behind a brand.

The fact that so few corporations stand for anything in this world makes it all the more reason Apple and Steve Jobs get (and deserve) so much attention. If you want to change the world, you first have to stand for something genuine that isn’t just about you. And if you don’t want to change the world, please resign from your leadership position.

What do designers have in common with chefs, composers, poets, architects, florists, dancers, martial artists, yoga practitioners, painters, novelists, sculptors and all manner of others involved in the arts (aside from the fact that one can say they are all involved in the arts)?

Designers, like their brethren in the arts, rely on an intuitive process of holistic thinking (combining learned, observed & empathetic intelligence) in coming to terms with an understanding of the world in which they live, their role in it and how what they do impacts it. This type of thinking is essential to the long-term sustainability of the human experience.

The ‘designers’ of the Enron business plan can be called ‘designers’ — absolutely. The thought process they embarked on in order to come up with innovative ideas that would rock the markets were indeed — innovative. In fact, one could argue that the designers of the Enron catastrophe were engaged in design thinking, for at the time, Enron was considered a model in innovation and corporate success — before their ultimate demise. What the Enron thinkers lacked was a larger sense of their role in the world, for had they contemplated the end game of their shenanigans, they would have surely seen the writing on the wall way before they crashed into it.

I once proudly proclaimed that Design Thinking is Dead (I still believe in Design Orientation) but this time I mean it. There is nothing wrong with the way designers think, but the way they think (I’m calling it Holistic Thinking) isn’t a practice that’s exclusive to designers — this is my key point. Yes, designers are special as are all others in the arts, but we have to be careful about how we position and project the words and phrases we use in order to communicate important messages to others.

The meme design thinking, I’m afraid, attempts to package, brand and trademark everything that is amazing about the arts (including the practitioners thereof) into one convenient yet dishonest label.

Most importantly, Holistic Thinking can be learned by those outside of the arts through carefully structured and managed interactions between interdisciplinary teams of professionals — from the business world as well as from the arts.

Here’s to more Holistic Thinking — here’s to a sustainable future.

Postmodernist Origami
The More of Less : Beauty From One Fold

Joshua Retterer & Deanna Denk recently made me aware of the upcoming PBS documentary, Between The Folds, set to air on December 22, 2009.

The above clip from the documentary is a beautiful example of the power of simplicity derived from creative experimentation; conveyed in an elegant manner.

What I really like about it is that it started with an inquisitive question that did not go ignored. All good design starts this way.

Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles

Handcrafted with love by BYU design students and faculty, for the 5th Typophile Film Festival. A visual typographic feast about the five senses, and how they contribute to and enhance our creativity. Everything in the film is real—no CG effects!

Shot with a RED One, a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, a Canon EOS 40D, and a Nikon D80.
Stop motion created with Dragon Stop Motion.

More information about the video here.

Detailed article highlighting the process here.

Thanks to @BBQJunkie for the heads up.

Honda’s Practical Concept

For the first time, I am witness to a concept car that is forward thinking enough to be labeled ‘concept’ yet practical enough to be relevant for today’s needs.

My favorite feature has to be the solar panel roof. Needless to say, designers have been thinking along this direction for years, but somewhere up the management food chain (closer to the boardroom than not), decisions have been made to totally ignore vehicles such as this. I hope the trend changes sooner than later and we finally go from concept to production.

Thanks to tmblg, +KN & Autoblog.

Full disclosure — the word Green as used in the title is meant to symbolize the literal use of the color green as used to connect talk of sustainability with the environmental movement. In addition, the use of the word Green in the title is meant to symbolize the color of money which some perceive as a means of monetizing on a trend — both of these symbols limit the higher potential of sustainability in my opinion.

Below is a compilation of a series of Tweets posted on the evening of the 6th:

The fortune 500 CEO attitude re: sustainability = “If it can’t make me $ I don’t wanna hear about it…” — wrong attitude entirely.

Inherent in the very word “sustainability” = “survivability” — if you’re not going to survive, what good are you with a few $ now? The notion of holistic thinking, I’m afraid, is entirely lost on the generation that still clings to power in the boardrooms.

Short term return on investment is … simply … not … sustainable. Sustainability isn’t about putting a green sticker on a product & getting away w/charging more for it. Sustainability is a way of thinking about the long-term viability of a business & its impact on society as well as the overall resources its operations impact. Sustainability and design go hand in hand — good design is sustainable.

@mvellandi @raymondpirouz indeed. One of my fav sustainable aspects is usability because if UX and functionality is difficult, item/process won’t last.

Absolutely — in this respect, sustainability as a concept is about a ‘frame of mind’ or ‘strategic approach’ rather than the symbolic representation implied by — say — the use of the color green (not that I have anything against it) because it limits thinking around the topic and restricts it to material selection and environmental protection (again, not that I mind) because there is more [than color] to ‘sustainability’ as a concept.

Is Google News Engaged in Perception Management?

I’ve always been puzzled by the way Google News juxtaposes headlines and story summaries from one article with an image from another article. The above featured story on Iran’s centrifuges juxtaposed against the image of a missile launch got me thinking about the message Google News may be communicating (either intentionally or unintentionally — i.e. Iran is developing nuclear technology specifically for use in warheads?!) to those who may not be sophisticated enough to realize that the image doesn’t necessarily go with the headline and/or story summary.

Perception management is a term originated by the U. S. military. The U. S. Department of Defense (DOD) gives this definition:

Actions to convey and/or deny selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning as well as to intelligence systems and leaders at all levels to influence official estimates, ultimately resulting in foreign behaviors and official actions favorable to the originator’s objectives. In various ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and psychological operations.

For what it’s worth, the headline and story summary in the above image point here:

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-06-voa55.cfm

The image of the missile launch points here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6860892.ece

In a previous post I defined design as a Creative Problem Solving Process — but to what end?

Why even attempt to engage in the act of creative problem solving? For this, we have to think about the purpose of design, which I believe is to impact experience.

I could have said shape experience but I’d venture into the territory of ‘the makers & the shapers’ who would like to claim sole ownership over the domain of design. So it is with careful thought that I chose the verb impact.

Design — understood as a creative problem solving process for the purpose of impacting experience — opens the floodgates of understanding with regard to the higher potential of design as not just an art form or method of making, but as a focused approach whose intent is to impact the human experience. And whether the scale is grand (like the design challenge before the framers of the U.S. Constitution) or seemingly insignificant (like the design challenge of what to wear in the morning) each thoughtful and intentioned approach is nonetheless a design approach.

The Apple Store Does Not Register

I had the most fantastically futuristic and fundamentally transformative customer experience at my local Apple retail store today.

I went in to purchase the latest version of OS X, Snow Leopard, along with a few accessories for my MacBook Pro.

When I was finished speaking with the helpful assistant who accompanied me on much of my journey, I kindly bid him farewell and turned to the front of the store, looking for the cash registers — you know, those black IBM boxes (well, more like iMacs at Apple stores) you usually see on your way out of such retail establishments.

To my surprise, not one IBM cash register machine or aluminum iMac with a little receipt printer was anywhere in sight. I was in shock that I hadn’t taken notice of the missing machines upon entering the store, but in honesty when I walked in I couldn’t notice much because I was quickly greeted by four Apple sales staff (yes, simultaneously) who were eager to assist me…

Feeling somewhat out of place and no longer on the planet Earth, I turned to the back of the store hoping to find the registers there. You would not believe the feeling of relief I felt upon seeing the wide counter toward the back — what an odd place to check out of a store, I thought. But no — wait…that’s the Genius Bar, not a checkout counter. Now I really felt like I was in the Twilight Zone.

Completely baffled, I walked up to yet another Apple retail store employee and told him that I’d like to check out…”I’m ready to buy this stuff…” to which he reached into his back pocket and withdrew a micro-register complete with credit card scanner. Yes, I’m getting old and I no longer know what planet I’m on at this moment.

“But wait…” I stopped the employee, “you mean to tell me that you all have one of those in your back pockets, all of you wearing that light blue shirt?” His reply was a jovial, “yep.”

“So, you mean to tell me that when I said goodbye to the person who was helping me, because I wanted to leave him to go to the REGISTER to pay, I didn’t have to say goodbye to him? I could have just asked HIM to ring me up right there?” His reply was a jovial, “yep.”

At this point I was going to prove myself hip to Apple’s little game — just wait until he prints the receipt, I thought. He can’t possibly print it from that little device — it’s got no paper….it’s not a printer….so wherever he prints that receipt from, THAT is the register….THAT is where I’ll claim — in my mind — the missing area for my precious checkout spot.

“So, don’t tell me that little thing is going to print my receipt,” I joked — knowing full well I was close to final victory over this … this….deception. “Nope,” he replied, “it’s going to be emailed to you — can I have your email address?” And to this, all I could do was LOL, and follow up by asking him a number of inquisitive retail sales and procedural questions — all of which he happily answered.

As an aging consumer with lifelong expectations of looking for those IBM registers on the way out, the experiential reality of a register-free shopping environment proved to definitely be more of a perceptual challenge than I might have conceived it to be had I merely toyed with it as a concept in my mind. Would I trust Apple to not literally hand me a printed receipt but email it to me instead? [It did arrive in my email as promised] Sure, but would I trust Wal-Mart or another brand? This is definitely an interesting case to contemplate on many levels, mostly having to do with perceptions related to customer experience — with a branding component.

Apple.com : Beautifully Frustrating

I visited Apple.com to locate my nearest retail store today, navigating to where I logically expected this information to exist.

From the home page, I clicked Store and that’s when I was struck by the most beautiful yet frustrating customer experience I’ve encountered in a while. All I wanted to do was get information about Apple retail stores, yet this information was nowhere to be found at http://store.apple.com/.

I know, I know. It’s my fault. Maybe it’s there and I just didn’t know where to look, or I didn’t look correctly. It’s always the user’s fault.

At this point, I stopped thinking like a customer and started thinking like an engineer.

Obviously! DUH!!! You’re looking for the retail store but instead clicked Store which obviously means Apple’s online store (silly consumer). Don’t you know that when you go to Apple’s home page, all you have to do is scroll all the way to the bottom where a text link will take you to information about Apple’s retail stores?

Silly, silly consumers with their experiential expectations.

Am I going to be pushed around by this type of rigid thinking? No way. The customer expectation when clicking Store (no matter what Apple’s information architects may like to think) is that they will be taken to a place that will provide them information applicable to both online and offline shopping related to Apple’s products.

The above images represent a before (what’s there now) and after (my suggestion) in order to very simply address this problem and dramatically improve the customer experience in the most contextually relevant and easy to implement fashion.

Designing the customer experience requires thinking like a customer while abandoning rigid thinking.