spot_img
28.3 C
Philippines
Thursday, March 28, 2024

How Apple disrupted the world of telecom

- Advertisement -

Guy Kawasaki, a Silicon Valley marketing specialist, has challenged Asian telecommunication companies to keep innovating and follow the lead of Apple Inc., the world’s most valuable company, “so that you will not die.”

“Every company has to innovate,” says the 63-year-old former Apple Inc. ‘chief evangelist’.  “Apple innovates a lot.  It spends billions of dollars on innovating and they are highly successful, and customers love them.”

“I can’t think of an example where customers don’t want their tech companies to innovate and they just want to get the same old thing. That is a sure way to die in tech,” says Kawasaki during ACC 2017, formerly Asian Carriers Conference dubbed as the region’s premier tech and telco event, hosted by PLDT Inc. at Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort & Spa in Lapu Lapu City, Mactan Island, Cebu province.

More than 1,500 delegates from over 60 countries representing 400 companies attended this year’s ACC which carried the theme ‘Reinventing Customer Experience in the Digital Age’.

Now in its 13th year, ACC provides a venue for industry leaders to discuss and share the latest technologies and breakthroughs in telco, ICT and related industries.   “What started as a group of carriers has transformed into an influential gathering of technology, software leaders and innovators.  Given this emerging direction, it is fitting that we have invited a Silicon Valley icon, the former ‘chief evangelist’ of Apple, to provide insights on customer experience in this digital age,” PLDT executive vice president Eric Alberto says, referring to Kawasaki, a former chief marketing executive at Apple.

- Advertisement -

Kawasaki, who is now a ‘chief evangelist’ of Australia-based online graphic design tool Canva, apart from being a brand ambassador of Mercedes-Benz, an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business at the University of California in Berkeley and a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation, recalls the ‘art of transformation’ that has enabled Apple to become a $700-billion global company and change the way people communicate.

DISRUPTOR. Silicon Valley marketing expert Guy Kawasaki

Kawasaki, a Japanese-American, started working for Apple under Steve Jobs in 1984 where he was tasked to market Macintosh or Mac, the company’s first mass-market personal computer with a graphical user interface and mouse. 

Kawasaki is known for his people-centric approach to marketing, which focuses on highlighting products as experiences. He popularized the term ‘evangelist’ in the tech sphere and is heralded as one of the industry’s most passionate stalwarts.

Kawasaki worked for Apple twice, first from 1983 to 1987, before he started a few companies.  He came back to Apple, as Apple’s ‘chief evangelist’ from 1995 to 1997, then left again and started a venture capital firm.  He also became a writer and speaker.

Kawasaki says one of the most startling transformations that he has seen in his 35-year career in IT is Apple itself under Steve Jobs. “Think about the transformation that Apple went through.  It was incorporated on April Fools Day, 1976.  From there, it became a Macintosh company,” he says.

“We went from Apple II personal computer to Macintosh personal computer.  And then the mother of all transformations occurred of course when Apple became this extremely successful company.  This is the kind of transformation that I was a part of, that I hope I helped cause a little bit.  I learned a lot of lessons from Steve, from Apple, and I would like to pass on those lessons onto you, because you are in an industry that must transform itself, must disrupt itself.  You are in a very, very competitive business,” he says in addressing the telcos and IT companies.

“I hope that some of the lessons I learned from Apple, from Silicon Valley, I can pass on to you because you have been using your business to change the world, or as Steve Jobs said, to dent the universe,” says Kawasaki.

Kawasaki shares 10 thoughts on innovation, disruption and changing the world. “If it is truly disruption that you want to do, if you truly want to change the world, you may not be able to ask your customer.  Because your customer is going to define change and innovation and revolution in terms of what they already know,” he says.

Kawasaki recalls that in the mid 1980s, customers wanted a bigger, faster, cheaper Apple II. “Nobody asked for a Macintosh,” he says. “Customers wanted a better Apple II, but Apple gave its customers a completely different thing from what they would probably ask for.  I learned a very valuable lesson.  If you truly, truly want to disrupt the industry, you cannot necessarily ask your current customer.  Because your current customers will only describe what they want in terms of what they already know. If they know an Apple II, they are gonna ask for a better, faster cheaper Apple II.”

“The second thing I learned is that if you want to truly disrupt, then you have to jump to the next curve, to not simply build a better Apple II, but to get to the next curve in computing,” says Kawasaki, in highlighting the importance of innovation.

He says most companies were so used to embracing their current operations that they failed to ride the next curve of technology.  “You have to get to the next curve.  You could be the most successful ice factory, but if you don’t embrace the refrigerator curve, you will die,” he says, citing the example of the ice business.

Kawasaki listed a number of companies that failed to jump to the next curve and lost their market, including Kodak, Wang, Polaroid, Smith Corona and Remington Rand.  

“Think about all the taxi companies that are threatened by Lyft and Uber. Think about all the hotels that are threatened by Airbnb.  Those things are the next curve.  Airbnb is not a slightly better hotel chain.  Lyft is not a slightly better taxi company.  You want to be on the next curve, if you truly want to disrupt,” he says.

In developing a product, Kawasaki shares the product development technique called MVVVP, or minimum viable, valuable, validating product.   “If you could create something viable, but not valuable, you would not dent the universe.  Apple for example could sell laser printers.  It could probably be quite successful with it, but is it a valuable contribution to society?  Not at all at this point,” he says.

Kawasaki then cites the importance of art or design in product development.  “One of the things that separated Steve Jobs from any other tech CEOs in Silicon Valley is that Steve Jobs believed that engineers are artists.  It was about art.  I think if you want to disrupt the market, you have to think of engineers as artists, that they are making art.  That is an expression of their soul.  Make design count,” he says.

Kawasaki says in order to disrupt the market, innovators should be willing to polarize people.  “This means that when you have disrupted the market, you will polarize people.  Some people will love what you do, some people will hate what you do.  Some people love Macintosh, some people hate Macintosh. It is okay.  The worst case is people don’t care what you have done, and you are irrelevant,” he says.

“Don’t be afraid of polarizing people.  I am not saying that you intentionally try to piss people off.  But I am telling you that great innovation, that disruption tend to piss people off.  Some people would love what you do, some people will hate what you do.  It is okay,” he says.

Kawasaki says disruptors should also learn how to ignore naysayers.  “The naysayers are gonna tell you, it cannot be done, it should not be done, it is not necessary.  When Apple came out with Macintosh, many people predicted its demise.  When Apple decided to do the Apple Store, many people said that there is no way that an Apple Store would work.  It is a single brand. You cannot possibly support a store with a single brand.  And yet today, per square foot, Apple is the most successful retailer in the world,” he says.

Kawasaki says changing one’s mind in the middle of product development is fine.  “To be successful as a disruptor you have to be willing to change your mind.  Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence.  It is not a sign of stupidity, not a sign of making mistake.  Changing your mind is a good thing,” he says.

A disruptor, he says, should find a niche.  “For the marketing of disruption, it comes down to a very simple point.  If you are an engineer, you need to create a product that is unique and valuable.  If you are a marketing person, you need to convince the world that it is unique and valuable. When the iPod came out, it was unique and valuable,” he says.

Kawasaki says to determine the success of the product or service, “let a hundred flowers bloom” or wait until the right market embraces it. “It means you take your best shot at positioning, branding and figure out who you are unique and valuable for. Then you shift it.  Then you wait and see what happens.  In many cases, you notice something happens.  Your intended audience may not embrace your product.  If you’re lucky, your unintended audience start buying your product or service.”

“Companies started to use Macintosh for desktop publishing.  It is not something we anticipated, not something we created.  They were gifts from God to Apple Computer.  I believe in God.  One of the reasons why I believe in God is that there is no other explanation for Apple’s continuous survival than the existence of the benevolent God,” he says.

“At the end of the process, you have to churn, baby churn.  This is the most difficult thing for a disruptor to do.   Because as you have learned to be a disruptor, you have to ignore naysayers and experts who tell you that it cannot be done, it should not be done, it is not necessary, that an Apple retail store will not succeed.  You need to be able to ignore those people.  Once you shift, once your curve is now available to the public, you need to completely switch you mindset and churn.  Churn means version 1 becomes 1.1, 1.2 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 and 2.0,” he says.

“Macintosh started in January 1984.  It took to 2017 to get a computer like an iMac Pro. One of the big learning lessons for me in my life is that I thought that Macintosh was so great that by January 1985, Apple would control the computing world.  It never happened like that.  It took 20 or 30 years for Apple to be truly successful. I never thought it would take that long,” he says.

Kawasaki says the main lessons for telecom companies is to jump to the next curve.  “When you jump to the next curve, that curve does not have to be perfect. Remember MVVVP. The first refrigerator was not perfect.  The first laser printer was not perfect.  The first digital camera was not perfect. Once you shift, you need to churn, baby, churn.  This is the toughest thing for a disruptor to do, because you have to go from ignoring feedback to listening to feedback,” he says.

Kawasaki says a disruptor shall firmly believe in his idea, even before it becomes a reality.  “One of the most valuable lessons I learned from Steve Jobs is not the skeptic’s point of view.  The skeptic’s point of view is that if I see it, I will believe it,” he says. “But if you want to be an innovator, if you want to be a disruptive force, if you want to dent the universe, if you want to change the world, you need to embrace this attitude—that some things need to be believed to be seen.”

“If you believe in the Internet of Things, if you believe in Macintosh, if you believe in iOS, if you believe in Android, if you believe that people would rent out their spare rooms to total strangers in the Internet [Airbnb], if you believe that people would get in the car from a company [Lyft], if you believe that it can happen, then you will see the Lyfts and the Ubers and the Apples and Airbnbs and all the companies that changed the world.  Some things need to be believed to be seen.  That is the art of disruption,” says Kawasaki. 

On what is the next curve for telcos, Kawasaki says: “I don’t know.  By definition, if it is disruptive, people like me should not necessarily know.  Probably, two people in a garage, or two people in an apartment, or two people in college who are gonna come up with this idea. Not somebody who is 63 years old.  Your job is to encourage that kind of thinking, so that the next Steve Jobs is Filipino.”

- Advertisement -

LATEST NEWS

Popular Articles