Steev Job's 12 rules of Success !!

Steve Jobs was one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our generation. His success story is legendary. Put up for adoption at an early age, dropped out of college after 6 months, slept on friends’ floors, returned coke bottles for 5 cent deposits to buy food, then went on to start Apple Computers and Pixar Animation Studios. He stated 12 basic rules of his legendary success:



1. Do what you love to do. Find your true passion. Do what you love to do a make a difference! The only way to do great work is to love what you do.
 
2. Be different. Think different. "Better be a pirate than to join the navy."


3. Do your best. Do your best at every job. No sleep! Success generates more success. So be hungry for it. Hire good people with passion for excellence.


4. Make SWOT analysis. As soon as you join/start a company, make a list of strengths and weaknesses of yourself and your company on a piece of paper. Don't hesitate in throwing bad apples out of the company.

5. Be entrepreneurial. Look for the next big thing. Find a set of ideas that need to be quickly and decisively acted upon and jump through that window. Sometimes the first step is the hardest one. Just take it! Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.


6. Start small, think big. Don't worry about too many things at once. Take a handful of simple things to begin with, and then progress to more complex ones. Think about not just tomorrow, but the future. "I want to put a ding in the universe,” reveal Steve Jobs his dream.


7. Strive to become a market leader. Own and control the primary technology in everything you do. If there's a better technology available, use it no matter if anyone else is not using it. Be the first, and make it an industry standard

8. Focus on the outcome. People judge you by your performance, so focus on the outcome. Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected. Advertise. If they don't know it, they won't buy your product. Pay attention to design. "We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them." "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."



9. Ask for feedback. Ask for feedback from people with diverse backgrounds. Each one will tell you one useful thing. If you're at the top of the chain, sometimes people won't give you honest feedback because they're afraid. In this case, disguise yourself, or get feedback from other sources. Focus on those who will use your product – listen to your customers first.

10. Innovate. Innovation distinguishes a leader from a follower. Delegate, let other top executives do 50% of your routine work to be able to spend 50% your time on the new stuff. Say no to 1,000 things to make sure you don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much. Concentrate on really important creations and radical innovation. Hire people who want to make the best things in the world. You need a very product-oriented culture, even in a technology company. Lots of companies have tons of great engineers and smart people. But ultimately, there needs to be some gravitational force that pulls it all together.

11. Learn from failures. Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

12. Learn continually. There's always "one more thing" to learn! Cross-pollinate ideas with others both within and outside your company. Learn from customers, competitors and partners. If you partner with someone whom you don't like, learn to like them – praise them and benefit from them. Learn to criticize your enemies openly, but honestly.

Customer Driven Organization - Key of Success !!

"Thanks to our customers, we turned a potentially disastrous mistake into a great opportunity." ~ Michael Dell (founder of Dell Inc.)

Customer-driven Innovation

Customer-Driven innovation is not a one-time event or a slogan, it's a philosophy and a mindset.

You should live this principle daily. Observe people, live your customers' life, watch how they use your product to learn what works and what doesn't work. Encourage experimentation and risk taking. Involve everyone.

 Yin-Yang of Customer Value Creation

Require every person, regardless of their position to spend time on customer contact and services activities. Help your employees to understand the customer's needs by involving them in listening to customer feedback after a product launch. Ask all your employee to get on board with customer-driven innovation. Ingrain it in your operations so deeply that is becomes a part of DNA of your company

Case in Point Dell Inc.

Michael Dell founded Dell Inc. in 1984 with $1,000 and an unprecedented idea – to build relationships directly with customers. Dell Inc. is the fastest growing company in the industry. It was added to the Fortune 500 list in 1992 and achieved more than $44 billion in sales in 2004. The three golden Dell rules are:


Disdain inventory


Always listen to the customer


Never sell indirect.


Dell Computers were the first personal computer company to organize and build itself around the idea of direct customer feedback. "Our attitude was diametrically opposed to the engineering-driven thinking of "Let's invent something and then go push it onto customers who might be willing to buy it." Instead I founded the company with the intention of creating products and services based on a keen sense of the customer's input and the customer's needs. I spend about 40% of my time with customers," says Michael Dell


Selling Is Problem Solving
 
Google is the Internet’s number one search engine today. What is the reason for their remarkable success? It’s beta testing and market learning. They launched a less than perfect service into the market place to get market feedback. Feedback is the answer to dominating a market. It also makes great business sense. Google's competitors  were trying to perfect a product by themselves separate from their target market as Google was continuously and rapidly upgrading their original beta version by listening to the customer. They strived to achieve harmony with the reality
 

Customer driven Innovation - 7 basic practices

Customer-Driven Innovation is not a one-time event. It's a philosophy, a mindset, and a habit. You should live this principle daily if you wish to keep creating an innovative customer value, developing attractive product designs, and ultimately win the value innovation competitive game.


1. Observe people to understand hidden and unarticulated customer needs.


2. Live your customer's life, "walk a mile in the shoes of your customer".


3. Involve everyone, require every person, regardless of their position, to spend time on customer contact and services activities. Ask all your employee to get on board with customer-driven innovation and value innovation. Encourage experimentation and risk taking.


4. Involve customers in testing the prototype of your new product.




5. Help your employees to understand the customer's needs by involving them in listening to customer feedback after a new product launch.




6. Watch how the customers use your product to learn what works and what doesn't work.




7. Ingrain customer-driven innovation in your corporate culture and operations so deeply that is becomes a part of DNA of your company.