The #1 Business in the world: "APPLE"

I recently lost my most precious and prized possession...my Apple Iphone.

I went though desperate withdraw, the loss of ALL my contact #'s and day timer for almost 4 days without a phone while I debated if I should even get a new Canadian cell before I left to Asia in a matter of days, then a friend of mine offered to lend me her un used Blackberry (which I have never used before). In under an hour I was re connected to society...

I quickly realized there are cell phones, and then there is the iphone...vast differences.

Blackberry took over the market in the early - mid 2000's, but Apply dominated and destroyed ALL competition growing 160% in the last 12 months alone, (BBM only grew 11% and is closing stores and laying off record # of Blackberry employees this year.)

My buddy who is a stock trader on Wall Street in NYC called me the other day from the "Big Apple" and we spoke about Apple's stock prizes (that he bought and told us to invest in when it was a mere 15$/ share a few years ago which is now trading at over 370$/ share...and it will continue to rise with this innovative company)

So, why does Apple grow exponentially while competitors try to scramble to get a piece of the market share?

This article talks about this business plan and marketing strategy Apple uses that made it the #1 company in the world this past week (Aug 2011)

Apple bite by bite:

"Most of Apple’s money comes from recently invented gadgets. More than two-thirds of Apple’s revenue comes from product types that didn’t even exist five years ago (iPhone and iPad). And 78% of Apple’s income is made by products unimaginable just ten years ago (throw in iPod and iTunes).

That means, in order to stay on the same growth curve in the current decade, Apple will have to invent product categories as new as the iPod, iPhone and iPad were, right?

Wrong.

The new products were part of a killer strategy Apple came up with in 1997. Apple will dominate the future by sticking to the strategy, not by trying to invent more product categories.

Apple became the most valuable company in the world twice this week, trading places briefly with Exxon Mobil. But Apple and Exxon aren’t even in the same league in terms of coolness, greatness or any other ness you want to throw at it. One company sells flammable muck sucked out of the ground to be converted into air pollution, and the other makes the MacBook Air, the most perfect computer every built.

Apple used to be a big loser. I mean that literally. Some 14 years ago, Apple had been losing money year after year. The conventional wisdom was that it’s glory days were in the past.

The PCs wars were over. Microsoft had won. Attempts to invent new platforms, most especially the Newton platform, had failed. The company was in a pickle. If it tried to be unique, it would remain a shrinking, minor fringe company. If it sold out and tried to be more conventional, it would be destroyed by more efficient conventional competitors.

Apple was not only a loser, it seemed that there was no possible way it could win. It was a relic from the 80s, a minor footnote in the history of computing.

The lowest point in the company’s history came in 1997. Out of desperation, Apple forged a new partnership with Microsoft in which that company invested $150 million dollars in Apple in exchange for a promise by Apple to offer Internet Explorer as the default browser on Macs, and other promises. Apple needed the money. And the partnership.

Apple had sunk so low in 1997 that they were willing to try anything. So out of sheer desperation, they promoted Steve Jobs from “advisor” to “interim CEO.”

Jobs, no longer just a visionary loose cannon, had become a skillful leader. The whole experience of being driven out of his own company, and building a new company from scratch, taught Jobs to be the complete visionary dictator he was born to be.

Jobs packed the board with loyalists, unceremoniously deleted entire product lines, and re-structured the company around a breathtaking, new, long-term vision.

The new vision was to transform Apple from a computer company to a content appliance company. No, THE content appliance company. No other company had or currently has the same strategy.

Apple clearly devised this strategy in 1997. That’s when the “Think Different” advertising campaign launched. That campaign broke all the rules for positioning computing products. Instead of “buy this, it’s faster, cheaper, runs more software,” the pitch was: “aspire to genius, we’ll give you the tools to create.”

So while Microsoft sees itself as a company that makes software, Dell a company that makes hardware, Google a company that sells advertising and HP a company that provides turn-key business solutions, Apple would obsess over content — big products for creating it; all products for consuming it.

Of course, Apple products are multi-purpose devices, useful for communication, business, doing taxes and other purposes. But the content creation and consumption would be the company’s laser beam focus and the centerpiece of the Mother of All Winning Strategies.

Apparently Apple noticed in 1997 that nearly all the ways that people consumed content sucked. Hard.

People were paying $12 to $18 per CD for music, then carrying around massive CD players to listen. Television was always horrible. Cable TV services were (and are) clunky, non-intuitive and expensive. Car radio never had anything good on. Books and magazines were expensive and wasteful.

Apple could see that new digital technologies, combined with the Internet, could fix what was broken in content consumption. But Apple could also see that the various content industries would fight to prevent needed change.

People talk about the iPod, iPhone and iPad as merely new gadgets that Apple invented, which succeeded because they were appealing consumer electronics devices. But you can’t really understand why they were all so incredibly successful unless you view them in the context of the content strategy.

While Apple’s competitors were focused on building devices, Apple was focused on transforming how people interacted with human culture. The iPod was created to use digital media and the Internet to fix what was broken about audio content. Likewise with the iPhone, the iPad and Apple TV.

The theme with all Apple’s new products in the last decade has been to use digital technology plus the Internet to fix what’s broken about how people consume content. And likewise with Macs and MacBooks — Apple has improved those products by fixing what was broken about both the consumption and creation of content.

And that’s why Apple is done creating whole new platforms. There will be nothing in the coming decade equivalent in newness to the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Apple’s full line enables the company to fix what’s broken about all the major ways people consume and create content.

I do believe Apple will offer a TV set at some point. But they can’t claim to have invented the TV set. It’s not a new gadget platform in the same way as, say, the iPad is. A better TV is not the same as inventing the TV.

The important point is that Apple absolutely does not need to keep entering whole new businesses like it did with iPod, iPhone and iPad in order to continue growing and dominating.

The iPod, iPhone and iPad didn’t make Apple billions because they were new, high-quality gadgets. They were that, but they enabled the company to improve content consumption in places where people would be consuming content anyway.

Apple needs only to continue to perfect the platforms it already offers. For example, Apple will continue to add touch-friendliness to Macs. Look for all-touch iMacs and all-screen MacBooks (where the keyboard is a screen) in the next five years. Yes, Apple will continue to innovate brilliantly. But those innovations will be improvements to existing lines, rather than the creation of all-new lines as represented by the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Apple’s continued growth will come from growing marketshare, new markets and new revenue models. The iOS platform, in fact, is the likely model for all future business.

On the iOS platform, Apple makes money from sales of the integrated hardware/software appliance. Then it takes a huge cut of all third-party app sales. Then it takes a cut of all content downloaded to the device. It makes money selling advertising that will be displayed on the device. It will make licensing revenue from desperate competitors who copy the device.

Apple will continue to grow revenue by rolling out this model more completely to desktop and laptop devices, and also television.

And Apple will be happy to leave the low-margin, high-maintenance businesses to sucker… I mean competitors. The PC clone vendors, the Chinese tablet makers, the Korean cell phone makers — Apple will let them claw at each other for near zero-margin hardware sales.

Apple is the most successful company in the world because Apple has the greatest business strategy ever devised: Fix what’s broken about creating and consuming content.

Apple invented three radically new gadget platforms in a single decade. But those inventions were only means to an end. Those inventions inserted Apple into all the major ways people consume content.

Now that Apple has product lines that offer the best experience for creating and consuming content, both on the desk and on the go, no further product lines need to be added.

The invention of whole new gadget categories at this point would mean Apple was trying harder for smaller markets, for the fringe, for the periphery.

And that’s something Apple hasn’t done since 1997."

Time to go buy some "Apple's"

My Best,

Quinton

Business & Life Success Principles

I'm a member of a subscription site my a mentor of mine named Mike Dillard created called the Elevation Group (www. He wrote this in his newsletter I read today and wanted to post this because its not only values for business success, but life success.

Enjoy Mikes message:

"Part 1 – Core Values For A Long, Profitable Business & Life...

I launched Magnetic Sponsoring in 2005, which is now six years ago. During those years, I’ve seen dozens of “leaders” come and go in the network marketing and internet marketing industries.

They come in, make a big splash, and within 12 months they’re gone.

Why?

There’s typically two reasons…

1: The screwed people over.

2: They were only in it for the money.

On the other hand Magnetic Sponsoring is bigger than ever, and the fact that my reputation has only grown during that period makes me one of the few dinosaurs of the internet marketing world, who is still here, and still growing.

The internet and social media have changed business forever. In the past, the power was in the hands of the company. If they provided poor service or product quality, you were basically screwed because you were limited to the options within your local area.

Today, companies compete on a global level, and the customer has all of the power, because their voice and opinion can be heard by thousands of friends and family members with the click of a mouse.

Today we are in a “trust-based economy”, where your reputation literally IS YOUR BUSINESS.

Take The Elevation Group for example…

I launched EVG in December of 2010 with the clearly stated expectations of, “I’m not an experienced investor, I’ve made financial mistakes, but we have a big problem and we’re going to solve it together.”

There are clearly more qualified people to learn from when it comes to investing than I…

Yet more than 10,000 people joined EVG that very first week…

Why?

How is that possible?

Did I use some kind of trickery or gimmick?

No.

It was possible because I’ve spent the last six years building a reputation around the world as someone who is honest, someone who is authentic, and someone who always over-delivers when it comes to the content I provide.

MANY people who joined EVG, did so blindly without even watching the presentation because they’ve come to trust the products and work I produce.

This kind of loyalty, response, and recommendation would not be possible without sticking to a core set of values.

There is nowhere to hide. If you screw people over today, you won’t be in business tomorrow. It’s that simple.

Given this fact, it is critically important to create a foundation of values for you and your business right from the start.

So with that being said, here are the values that have enabled my success in this business…

1: Forget About The Money, And The Money Will Come.

If you do something for money, you will fail. Making money is the BY-PRODUCT or result, of helping other people solve a problem. When I stopped worrying about making money, and started focusing on helping others, the money came quickly and by the truck-load.

I do not look for ways to make money. I look for problems I can help people solve.

2: Always Deliver What You Promised, And On Time.

If you sell a product to someone, make sure it’s delivered quickly. If you say that it will be there in five days, deliver it in three days.

If you’re not sure if you can meet a deadline, then don’t set one.

3: Be Authentic.

I’ve been told many times over the years that the reason people like to do business with me, is because I’m real. Every event I’ve ever been to, I’m approached by someone who says, “Wow Mike… You’re exactly the same person in real life as you are on the web…”

People don’t want to buy from a fast-talking sales person. They want to buy from a friend they can trust.

Be yourself.

4: Deliver 10 Times More Value Than The Price.

Whenever I produce a product, I make sure it’s worth 10 times more than the price.

This is extremely important if it’s your very first product, and therefore, your very first impression on your new customers.

5: Never Make A Decision Based On Money.

There are extremely profitable products and services that I could promote to EVG Members, which would probably make me an extra $50,000 or more per month.

But I do not promote them.

Why?

Because in most cases, I don’t feel like they’re in the best interest of my Members. I do what’s right for my customers, not what’s right for my pocket book.

And it’s for this reason, that I’ll have customers for years, instead of cash for a few months.

6: Always Make Decisions For The Long-Term.

A very good friend of mine recently asked me if I had plans to write a main-stream book based on The Elevation Group in the coming months,, as it would help with branding and promotion.

I said that yes I did, but I’m going to wait at least two or three more years because I want to earn the right to produce a book that can truly change people’s lives.

I am confident the decision to wait and write a truly profound book three years from now, will result in benefits that are far greater than a mediocre book I can write today.

7: When You Screw Up, (Because You Will), Admit It And Apologize.

While I strive to be the best I can, I am not perfect. Your customers will forgive you and respect you that much more if you acknowledge your mistakes and apologize. Trying to hide it will only turn you into a liar.

8: Provide The Best Customer Service Possible.

Treat your customers as you’d like to be treated. Make it easy to reach your customer service department, and train your agents well. They represent you.

9: Say “Thank You” Sincerely, And Often.

If you don’t, they will buy from someone else who does.

10: Stick To Your Guns.

Stand up for who you are and your beliefs. You will never be able to please everyone, and attempting to do so will only make you look like a flip-flopping politician. Sticking to your beliefs will help you create true, loyal fans.

11: Never Burn A Bridge Over Money.

I see partnerships or joint-ventures fall apart all the time over a financial dispute. Always give the other person the benefit of the doubt, and the money that’s in question.

It’s only dirty paper, and burning a bridge or screwing someone over for money is the quickest way to end up at the bottom.

Industries are small, word gets around, and no one wants to do business with a jackass.

12: Never Argue With A Customer.

Just give them a refund and a respectful “thank you”. You don’t know what’s going on in their life, or the problems they may be having.

13: Fire Bad Customers.

On the other hand, if someone’s an asshole or treats anyone on your team with disrespect, fire them. Give them a refund, remove them from your database, and wish them well. They’re never worth the money.

14: Stand Up For Yourself.

If you choose to start a business in the “information marketing” world as I have, you will become a tiny celebrity in your own little way.

While most of the people you have contact with will become fans if you follow the values outlined above, “haters” come with the territory. (Even Jesus had haters).

Should you find yourself the target of a mentally unstable person who wishes to harm you or your business, stand up for yourself and take the high road. Do not engage them publically, as they are only looking for attention.

You can engage them privately to try and find common ground. When I’ve seen a negative post in the past, it’s usually a case of miscommunication. I’ll personally email or call the person to clear the air, and that’s worked wonderfully 99% of the time.

If they continue to abuse you and your reputation without just cause, get a good attorney, and sue the crap out of them.

These people are bullies who feel safe behind a computer. That feeling goes away when they’re served with a lawsuit in person.

Your reputation is your business. Stand up for yourself.

15: Thank Your Mentors.

None of us can build a business, or acquire new skills alone. We all need teachers and mentors, and I believe that teaching is the noblest profession on the world.

So There You Have It…

Staying true to these principles have allowed me to build a long-profitable business in our new “trust-based economy”.

Print them out, write them out, post them on your wall, and never forget them.

In Part III of Lesson 11, we’ll get into the different types of business, different industries, different skills sets, and personality types that I believe offer the best opportunity today…"

Words of Wisdom...

I'll be sharing more from my man Mike in the future...

My Enneagram Personality Type = #7 The Enthusiast

Enneagram Type 7 - The Enthusiast tied my #3 characteristics from the last post below, and here are the results: (btw, if you wanna do it, here is the site, its free & fun http://www.eclecticenergies.com/enneagram/introduction.php, lemme know what you are by posting your results below in the comments section if you want)

"The Enthusiast's are Pleasure seekers and planners, in search of distraction"

Enneagram Type 7 - The Enthusiast People of this personality type are essentially concerned that their lives be an exciting adventure. Sevens are future oriented, restless people who are generally convinced that something better is just around the corner. They are quick thinkers who have a great deal of energy and who make lots of plans. They tend to be extroverted, multi-talented, creative and open minded. They are enthusiasts who enjoy the pleasures of the senses and who don't believe in any form of self-denial.

Sevens are practical people who have multiple skills. They know how to network and to promote themselves and their interests. They often have an entrepreneurial spirit and are able to convey their enthusiasm to those with whom they come in contact. When they are able to focus their talents, they are often highly successful. Focusing does not always come easily for Sevens, however. Their tendency to believe that something better awaits them, makes them reluctant to narrow down their options or to pursue their aims with true devotion.

The central problem for Sevens is that their pursuit of pleasure is compulsive. Sevens are fear types who are specifically afraid of the power of negative states of mind. These they avoid by seeking distractions in the external environment: by multi-tasking, by keeping their options open, by engaging in stimulation seeking of all kinds. For this reason, Sevens are more prone than most to addictions of all sorts, whether it be to shopping, gambling, sex, drugs or whatever.

Sevens usually have a high opinion of themselves and their talents; they tend to focus on their strengths and virtues and to downplay their flaws and vices. They are often a bit self-centered which manifests in an unfounded feeling of entitlement. As Sevens don't want to confront their own darker emotions, they also have difficulty acknowledging the pain that others experience, so that they sometimes have a hard time seeing the reality of other people. The extent of the Seven's flight from negative emotions is really a measure of the Seven's mental health; the more that the Seven flees from them, the more their strength grows and the more likely they are to erupt into consciousness in the form of an anxiety disorder or a severe depressive episode.

As they are outward looking and not especially prone to introspection, it is not uncommon for Sevens to mistype themselves. Sometimes they mistype as Eights, as Sevens too can be domineering, especially if Eight is the dominant wing. But Eights are not anxious and they lack the quick, mental energy that is charateristic of the Seven. Sevens can easily mistype as Threes, but Threes are much more single minded than Sevens and don't suffer from the desire to keep all options open. Surprisingly, Sevens can mistype as Fours. When they recognize the disparity between the optimistic, fun loving persona that they project to the world and their own, often anxious internal mental states, they can confuse their pain with the melancholia of type Four. Sevens are in flight from this pain however, whereas Fours often cultivate their negative mental states."

Guilty as charged...

Quinton

My Enneagram Personality Test = #3 The Achiever

So I have become totally obsessed with learning about these personality tests, the last one I did was the MyersBriggs evaluation were I was said to be an "Inspirer" / ENFP type, that I was very please to hear...(I posted the results / summary under the May 2011 archives on this blog if you wish to check it out and get the link to do that test aswell).

I now just heard of the Enneagram Test Type (http://www.eclecticenergies.com/enneagram/introduction.php) and it listed me as both a 3 - "The Achiever" and a 7 "The Enthusiast" (which I will post after)

here is the description of an Achiever the good, the bad and the ugly of it...

"Focused on the presentation of success, to attain validation

Enneagram type 3 - the AchieverPeople of this personality type need to be validated in order to feel worthy; they pursue success and want to be admired. They are frequently hard working, competetive and are highly focused in the pursuit of their goals, whether their goal is to be the most successful salesman in the company or the "sexiest" woman in their social circle. They are often "self-made" and usually find some area in which they can excel and thus find the external approbation which they so desperately need. Threes are socially competent, often extroverted, and sometimes charismatic. They know how to present themselves, are self-confident, practical, and driven. Threes have a lot of energy and often seem to embody a kind of zest for life that others find contagious. They are good networkers who know how to rise through the ranks. But, while Threes do tend to succeed in whatever realm they focus their energies, they are often secretly afraid of being or becoming "losers."

Threes can sometimes find intimacy difficult. Their need to be validated for their image often hides a deep sense of shame about who they really are, a shame they unconsciously fear will be unmasked if another gets too close. Threes are often generous and likable, but are difficult to really know. When unhealthy, their narcissism takes an ugly turn and they can become cold blooded and ruthless in the pursuit of their goals.

Because it is central to the type Three fixation to require external validation, Threes often, consciously and unconsciously, attempt to embody the image of success that is promoted by their culture. Threes get in trouble when they confuse true happiness, which depends on inner states, with the image of happiness which society has promoted. If a Three has a "good" job and an "attractive" mate, she might be willing, through an act of self-deception which is also self-betrayal, to ignore the inner promptings which tell her that neither her job, nor her mate are fulfilling her deeper needs. Even the most "successful" Threes, who generally appear quite happy, often hide a deeply felt sense of meaninglessness. The attainment of the image never quite satisfies.

Threes can sometimes mistype themselves when they mistake the more superficial features of their personalities as indicators of their type. So, for instance, an intellectual Three might mistype as a Five; a Three who is devoted to her role as mother might think she is a Two; a Three in a leadership position might mistype as an Eight and so on. Regardless of the manifestation however, the core of the type Three fixation is the deep need for external validation."

Well, not sure if I TOTALLY agree with that for myself, I think that my other 1/2,
"# 7: The Enthusiast" defines me more accurately...