Page 27 - The Apple Experience

competitors’ regular rooms, with quieter plumbing, a better showerhead, and
a bed with a comfortable, custom-made mattress.”

The Four Seasons, in turn, inspired some of Apple’s retail innovations.

Steve Jobs and Ron Johnson asked themselves, “What would the Four

Seasons do?” For starters, the Four Seasons does not have cashiers. Instead it

has a concierge (another innovation that Sharp brought from Europe to the

U.S. hotel industry). When the Apple stores first opened, a “concierge”

greeted customers. Although the concierge title no longer exists, a greeter
still stands at the door ready to welcome customers into the store. Apple

copied another Four Seasons innovation: the bar. Walk into an Apple Store

and you’ll find a bar, just like the Four Seasons. There is one difference: The

Four Seasons bar dispenses alcohol. The Apple Genius Bar dispenses advice.

The Genius Bar is an example of connecting ideas from different fields, a

concept I explore in The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs. Your customer

experience is only going to be as good as the model you use for inspiration.
Studying brands outside of your industry can spark creative brainstorms.

Johnson was actually the first person to come up with the idea of the Genius

Bar after listening to members of his retail development team. According to

Jobs’s biographer, Walter Isaacson, Jobs thought it was a crazy idea. But

Johnson was a fearless employee (a concept you’ll learn in Part I) and stood

his ground. The next day Jobs had filed to trademark the name, Genius Bar.

The Three-Word Vision That Built FedEx

Michael Basch learned the power of vision at FedEx. During his ten years as

senior vice president of sales and customer service, he helped take FedEx

from $0 to over $1 billion. Today everyone knows FedEx’s three-word vision:

Absolutely, Positively, Overnight. After its first day in operation, however,