Page 25 - The Apple Experience

completely reinventing the customer experience—the Four Seasons. When
Steve Jobs first decided to enter the retail business, he hired former Target

executive Ron Johnson. Jobs challenged Johnson with this question: who

offers the best customer service experience in the world? The answer was not

another computer retailer—or any retailer for that matter. The answer turned

out to be the Four Seasons hotel. Just as Garth Brooks did not invent country

music, Steve Jobs did not invent exceptional customer service. Both artists,

however, copied a great idea, refined it, and took it to the next level.

The Brand That Inspired Apple Retail

Isadore Sharp founded the Four Seasons in 1960, but it took another decade

for the brand to become synonymous with luxury. Prior to building his first
luxury hotel in London in 1970, Sharp’s experience had been limited to

building homes, apartments, and small motels in Toronto. But homes were

too small for Sharp’s outsized ambition. Sharp’s goal—his vision—was to

create a worldwide luxury brand that would offer an unparalleled customer

experience. Most bold visions are met with a high degree of skepticism, and

Sharp’s vision was no exception. Sharp’s wife, Rosalie, admits that she didn’t

share Sharp’s confidence, but thankfully for the Fours Seasons, Rosalie kept

her reservations to herself.

Like Steve Jobs, Sharp was a dreamer. He refused to settle for anything
less than excellence. “So much of long-term success is based on intangibles.

Beliefs and ideas. Invisible concepts,” Sharp once said. Once Sharp’s vision
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was set—a worldwide brand of luxury hotels that offer exceptional customer

service—he had to fill in the blanks. Sharp asked, “What would that luxury

experience look and feel like?” You might be surprised to learn that the

innovations that follow are all thanks to Sharp and the Four Seasons: