Page 30 - The Apple Experience

a week visit the typical Apple Store), and Apple was competing against
computer players like Dell whose slim margins and lower costs seemed to be

the preferred business model.

According to Johnson, “A vision is something that you can say in one

sentence. The fewer words the better. It’s like saying ‘A thousand songs in

your pocket.’ It’s a clear vision that everyone understands.” Johnson and Jobs
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decided to craft visions for their competitors. For example, retailers like

Gateway “sell boxes.” Johnson believes a company vision will lead it to pursue
a very specific set of conclusions about the experience it offers. So if your

vision is to sell boxes or “stack ’em high and let ’em fly,” as some retailers do,

it will lead to a business model that competes on price and price alone. For

some large retailers, offering the cheapest price on the block has clearly been

a formula for success. But most businesses cannot simply compete on price.

They must differentiate on the customer experience. “When we envisioned

the Apple model, we said that it has got to connect with Apple,” said
Johnson. “So it was easy. Enriching lives. That’s what Apple had been doing

for thirty years.”

When a company starts with a vision such as “enriching lives,” magical

things begin to happen. For Apple, “enriching lives” meant offering one-to-

one training and group workshops for people who wanted to release their

inner Scorsese, directing and editing their own movies, publishing their

family memories, or dreaming of becoming rock stars. Steve Jobs said that

people didn’t want to buy computers; they wanted to know what they could

do with those computers. Jobs understood that his customers didn’t want to
walk out of a store with a box. They wanted to leave with a tool to help them

fulfill their dreams.