An Inside Glimpse of The Apple Core

There is an interesting article about Apple in the latest edition of Fortune magazine. If you don’t want to buy the magazine you can download just the article to your PC from Amazon (you don’t need a Kindle).

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Apple is the world’s current poster company. It does cool things, it makes heaps of money, it has disciples not customers, and it’s run by one very intriguing guy, Steve Jobs.

This article tries to get behind some of that mystique he has created, and if anything it makes him seem even more different and ‘out there’.

First thing that strikes you; when it comes to wrapping its employees in ‘come to work’ benefits Apple is no Google. There’s no free anything, because Apple is so admired for its great products you should want to work here.

Second is how focused the organisation is on producing ’Apple Cool’ everything. Jobs, through his incredible track record and legendary status creates the idea that people have to work to very high standards, to Apple standards. This creates a meritocratic, aspirational and competitive peer group. Jobs takes this top cadre of 100 people and lavishes special attention on them with an exclusive yearly retreat, where of course you are expected to excel. And to keep people on their toes he changes the composition of this group each year.

Next is how hard Jobs works in turning complexity of ideas into simple elegant products produced by a highly accountable, simply organised business. No difficult to understand, multiple reporting lines here, just clear DRIs (people with Direct Line Responsibility). VPs on appointment are told by Jobs not to look for reasons to explain failure (that’s for Janitors).

Apple doesn’t look for synergies but for unified purpose, which, when scaled up delivers real business momentum.

Finally it’s the legacy issue. Jobs has created a high-powered group to basically capture, through a series of case studies, Apple’s secret sauce. By codifying the corporate memory they can inculcate others in to their ways of thinking and working.

When will Apple misstep? Will they thrive post Steve Jobs (he doesn’t enjoy good health)? What happens when competitors wake up and get going? These are questions Steve Jobs doesn’t seem to directly focus on. To him, it comes down to the next product and how cool can they make it, and if that new device again connects with a currently unarticulated customer need, then Apple is doing its job.

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Prospero 0

Increasing Demand For Improved Key Account Management Strategy

Over the last few years, especially since the recession started to bite, there has been a significant increase in the demand for Key Account Management training. The majority of these enquiries and interest has not been for generic, off-the-shelf interventions, but rather for more specific, tailored programmes that address particular industry and sector needs. Sales organisations are looking at their customer engagement business model (either through choice or more increasingly through necessity) – to ensure not only do they win ‘good’ business, but they keep ‘good’ business.

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The debate about sales strategy versus key account management strategy has been on the table for some time now. Many commercial businesses have recognised the issue and taken steps to address it – although many of these steps are more often transactional steps rather than transformational ones. The problem is organisational rather than functional and it takes considerable organisational will to develop a culture where finding good customers, winning good customers and keeping good customers is systematically institutionalised. Look at the potential issues between these three more closely:

Finding good customers (Marketing)
Winning good customers (Sales)
Keeping good customers (Key Account Managers)

How closely does the understanding and trust between these three functions in your organisation work? Do they all have the same understanding of what a ‘good’ customer is? Do their respective approaches utilise the same language, philosophy and criteria – one brand – one message? Does the trust factor work both ways – do the sales people trust the account managers to get the most out of the relationship – and do the account managers trust the sales people to set up the relationship in a way that is most productive?

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Recognising the need is only the starting point – sales teams need to the tools and methodology to analyse their customer engagement model, and then be able to clarify the vision of their strategic focus in order to mobilise and drive the cultural changes needed. This is not something that happens over night, and it is not something that can be bolted-on to an existing structure like adding an extra warehouse, for example. The real challenge is to get all three; marketing, sales and key account management – all completely aligned, so seamlessly that even the customers can’t see the joints.

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Prospero 0

Prospero's World

Prospero's World

Month: May 2011

An Inside Glimpse of The Apple Core

Increasing Demand For Improved Key Account Management Strategy