“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”
Steve Jobs

We all know a bad design when we see it. We not only remember them, but also share our experiences with others. But, it is the good designs that we admire and hopefully remember the most. Maybe it is the gorgeous look and simplicity of use of the iPod, or the one-hand-slide action of Motorola’s PEBL, or new and ingenious packaging like HP laptops, or some new online experience. The unforgettable designs are multi-dimensional. The best designs influence and enhance many aspects of our lives through interaction with those products/services — from our buying experience, to the delivery and packaging, to installation and use, to other products/services that complement it, to customer support and maintenance, all the way through end-of-life and disposal.

Design is the trendsetter. It is the translation of an idea to the final product. It has incorporated itself into every aspect of our lives, and became the ubiquitous element in our lives. “You can have any color you want as long as its black.” was Henry Ford’s manufacturing design revolution that triggered mass production. Today, design is yet again at center stage with the green revolution: good design is sustainable design. Good design delivers maximum impact to the customer with minimum impact on the resources of our planet. Good design contributes to the triple bottom line: economic, social and environmental.
(more…)

Are you sabotaging your own productivity and leadership efforts? Here is a list of work habits that should be changed, whether they are demonstrated by you or someone on your staff. Let us know what else should be added to this list.

1. Accepting ambiguous meeting invites — Just say “no” to meeting invites that have no clear agenda or purpose, and don’t send out any either. It doesn’t just look clueless and unprofessional, but it also demonstrates a lack of understanding of who the needed decision makers are.
2. Feeding your addiction — Stop accompanying your laptop or crackberry, or worse — both, to every meeting. You can’t be fully present if you allow distractions. Remember, multitasking is the wolf in sheep’s clothing, and definitely hurts your meeting’s productivity.
3. Continuously negating yourself — Stop starting sentences with “But”. It adds no value and negates everything you said up to that point.
4. Living a life of excuses — Excuses are an acknowledgment of failure. Excuses don’t deliver results. So, don’t let excuses and excusers run circles around you, and instead keep the focus on the goal, the desired results and how to get there.

(more…)

“Where some see control freakery, others see a desire to craft a seamless, end-to-end user experience. Instead of perfectionism, there is the pursuit of excellence. And, instead of screaming abuse, there is the passion to make a dent in the universe.”
–Leander Kahney

Yes, the book is repetitive. Yes, it is an extrapolation of compiled sources in an attempt to explain what might be going on inside Jobs’ head and how it has shaped Apple. Regardless, it is an interesting read as the author has pulled together various aspects of Jobs’ style, drive, passion and obsession in order to give us a hint of what makes Apple tick.

I don’t believe I would get any arguments by stating that Steve Jobs has molded Apple in his image. Jobs’ core value of developing easy-to-use technology for individuals, coupled with his love of design excellence (where design is the function), has shaped Apple’s innovation strategy: shape the technology to the customer’s needs, instead of forcing the user to adapt to the technology. By owning hardware, software, online services and everything in between, Jobs successfully controls the end-to-end customer experience, and thereby delivers on his core value: products that work seamlessly together and seldom break down.
(more…)

Change is hard, managing change is even harder. As I mentioned in my previous post, change, even the idea of change, generates resistance. Therefore, change management is about effectively overcoming resistance to successfully achieve the desired results..

As the above image highlights (note: original source is unknown), many key factors need to be aligned for successful change management. Below are some additional factors that must be managed in addition to vision + skills + incentives + resources + action plan.
(more…)