How Apple exemplifies a culture of love over greed
A quick follow-up on my post about love, greed and innovation.
In some discussions since, I’ve pointed to Apple as an example of how greed is trumped by love. It may seem surprising to think of a multi-billion dollar corporation, famed for its premium products and ruthless business practices, as being motivated by love, but there are a number of things that show this is true.
First, there’s the Netbook category. Apple are not making one because they “don’t see a way to build a great product for … $399 [or] $499″, according to Tim Cook, Apple’s COO. Note that he didn’t say “we don’t see a way to make money“, just that the product wouldn’t be “great”.
Then, consider this quote from Jonny Ive1, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design:
Apple’s goal isn’t to make money. Our goal is to design and develop and bring to market good products…We trust as a consequence of that, people will like them, and as another consequence we’ll make some money. But we’re really clear about what our goals are.
I think this perfectly encapsulates why Apple’s products can so often be game-changers, and how they can come to a market late and yet still dominate people’s conception of how good a product can be.
Clearly, someone as rich as Steve Jobs is greedy, but his primary motivation is creating products that he can be proud of. The money flows from that.