The Ten Faces of Innovation - Steve Jobs

The Ten Faces of Innovation - Steve Jobs

In an increasingly changing and complex business world, organizations need to prevent and react more quickly to remain competitive. React to the changes of the environment is a huge challenge for them nowadays. In this scenario there are key factors that organizations need to take in account. One of them is innovation. Innovation is crucial for these organizations that want competitive advantages in order to have long term success. But, many of them may ask themselves how they can achieve it or what truly innovation is about. Tom Kelley explain Innovation with a human face, he said that ‘’Innovation it´s about the individuals and teams that fuel innovation inside great organizations’’[1]. People are what make an organization successful. There are many types of innovators in companies. Kelley come up with ten, the anthropologist, the experimenter, the cross-pollinator, the hurdler, the collaborator, the director, the experience architect, the set designer, the caregiver and the storyteller. Inside a company people can take on multiple roles, they are different from each other but everyone contributes with something at the moment of Innovate.

People make the difference in a company, so is the case of one of the biggest technological companies. Steve Jobs the founder of Apple Inc., was the person who led the little garage entrepreneurship to what we know nowadays the multibillionaire company. He could accomplish this whit his revolutionary and innovative ideas that totally changed people’s perception towards computer technology and left his mark in the world for his visionary and exceptional way of thinking and doing things. If I had to classify or choose which type of innovator Steve Jobs is, I would say that he is a mix of six of them. However, he has more similarities to some of them than others.

Steve Jobs showed some characteristics of being an experimenter; he was a passionate and hardworking person who puts everything of him in his job. When he was fired of his own company and return after 12 years, he held a staff meeting and explained the role passion would play in revitalizing the brand. In that meeting he said a very singular phrase ¨People with Passion can change the world”. Passion for Innovators is the secret to overcome the setback all entrepreneurs face. Successful entrepreneurs are abundantly passionate like Steve, but not necessarily about the product. They are passionate about what their product or services mean to the lives of their customer. They are passionate about changing the world, innovate and experiment. Jobs was not passionate about computer hardware. He was passionate about building tools that would help people unleash their personal creativity.

Jobs also had a curious mind another characteristic of experimenters, when he was young The Buddhism had a significant influence on him. He started a journey to India seeking a broader vision of the world and personal enlightenment. That experience lately enables him create a company that delivered world- changing products. He was the kind of person who saw beyond the limits. He would never see limit possibilities, a perfect endpoint at which his work would be done, all of that because of his curiosity. When the first Apple was sold to Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop, he said that Personal computers should come in a complete package. Steve came to the realization that Terrell was right. The next Apple, he decided, needed to have a great case and a built-in keyboard, and be integrated end to end, from the power supply to the software. He took a concept into a real product the new Apple II. “Experimenters delight in how fast they take a concept from words to sketch to model, and, yes, to a successful new offering”[2].

“Cross-Pollinators are the kind of persons that can create something new and better trough the unexpected juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated ideas or concepts” (Kelley, 2005). In my opinion Steve Jobs was this kind of innovator too. During his life he experienced many things that helped him in some point of his life, For example, when he took calligraphy classes in Colleague, that class was fascinated for him, but he didn´t know that in the future that simple class would let him design the first computer with beautiful typographies. He developed a distinctive point of view by combining multiple interests. He studied, design, art and music, and brought it together for the rest of us. ”You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future” Steve Jobs.

He used to like modern style and simplicity; this was partly because of the influence of his father. His father liked to finely perform works until the smallest detail. Steve applied this concept of perfection in all Apple products especially in one of his biggest projects, the first Macintosh. Cross-pollinators often think in metaphors, enabling them to see relationships and connections that other miss. Steve used both the past and the future experiences he had, and applied them in some way into the company, letting them innovate. This is what Cross Pollinators usually do, collect their experiences, knowledge acquired during their lifetimes and innovate in organizations

“An Experience Architect is the right person to remind your organization that the first step in becoming extraordinary is simply to stop being ordinary” (Kelley, 2005). Experience Architects are merely focus in creating remarkable experiences for customers. Steve Jobs was a true customer experience and user experience thought leader, wildly and repeatedly successful at transforming the customer experience for millions of customers around the world, through Apple´s products, the experience at the Apple Store, and in many other ways. His approach was based in a very simple message that he pushed into his team many times: “You have got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology, not the other way around”. He liked to innovate and improve in customer experience. He wanted that Apple products were able to help customers in many ways, increasing their product experience becoming an extension of themselves.

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