On Thursday 4th September 2014, a non-descript guy with greying hair in jeans and a black sports jacket stepped on the podium in the ballroom at Sofitel On Collins.
This was the ad guy who worked with Steve Jobs for a decade, this was the guy behind the ‘Think Different’ Apple campaign, this was the guy who put the ‘i’ in iMac. This is THE guy. And his name is Ken Segall.
With such a resume I expected a lot from his talk. I was excited. I was one degree of separation away from the inner mind of Apple. I was one degree of separation from Steve Jobs, well, one degree and a ouija board.
Ken rested his hands on the podium and looked at the 320 business leaders in the room. He glanced down at his clothes and said, ‘You know, this is the first time I’ve been the worst dressed guy in the room’.
The second thing, and perhaps more inspiring thing he said was, ‘Simplicity is about love and I’m going to tell you why,’.
As we all sat and listened to the guy, we learnt about the ways of simplicity and how we could apply it to build a successful business model, just like Apple did.
The Profitable Art of Simplicity
Simplicity was, he believes, a defining reason for Apple’s meteoric rise out of the ashes of near financial ruin.
For those of you who don’t remember, in 1997 Apple was 90 days from bankruptcy. In 2011, just 14 years later, it was the most valuable company on earth.
How?
Leadership, yes. Talent and incredibly hard work, yes. But Ken believes simplicity was the magic ingredient that fuelled Apple’s success. And of all the ingredients of success, simplicity was the hardest to achieve.
Being Simple Isn’t Simple
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication and it can work for any business. More importantly, it can work for YOUR business.
Now, simplicity is something most creative entrepreneurs instinctively know they need, but it’s often the hardest. Our minds are busy, our ideas are endless. When we devise something new it’s got to be aweeeesome and, often, we think awesome = complex. Because complex means we’ve thought of everything, right? Complex means that we’ve covered anything and everything our client could want or need. Because ‘everything’ is exactly what people want, right?
Nope.
We humans are bombarded with a hundred things at once. We’ve got work demands, family demands, we’re being bombarded by advertising, we’re wondering if we’re good enough, we’re dealing with the tax man, we’re planning our next business move, we’re thinking about whether we should order takeout or go to the gym, we’re trying to work out how to use that expensive gadget we just bought… oh and we’re trying to just live a life we love.
Life Is Not Simple. But…
When we find a thing that does exactly what we want it to do AND it’s simple. No dramas. No thinking. No stress. It just works. Do you know how that feels?
Like heaven.
Now, if YOU can provide that little piece of simple heaven to someone, even if it’s just a teeny tiny piece of their life, how do you think they’ll feel about you?
They are going to love you.
Love creates loyalty. Loyalty creates evangelism. Evangelism creates word of mouth. Word of mouth creates more business.
So get the simple stuff right, and you’ll have the beginnings of an unstoppable business. Just like Apple.
Want to learn how you can use simplicity in your business?
Simplicity isn’t just a goal, it’s a skill. – Ken Segall
- Simplicity of message
Now if you’ve ever watched Steve Jobs talk to the media, or at one of the Apple conferences, you’ll know Steve was a master at making the complex very simple. He would have one main message. The big marketing message. And he repeated it verbatim until it stuck. So don’t bore or confuse your clients and leads with detail until (or if) they ask for it. Stick to the big picture. Stick to simplicity. And clearly communicate what you and your business stands for, just like Steve Jobs. - Simplicity of delivery
Now this one is where it gets tricky. It’s going to take a huge effort to make this part happen because, chances are, your business systems might need to be incredibly complicated. For example your business might revolve around creating new physical products. So you need to design a prototype, test it, refine it, commercialise it, build it, market it, pack it , track it and post it. It’s a mammoth effort. But, here’s the thing, your customer doesn’t care about any of that. They just want the thing they’ve bought. They want every touch point with you to be easy. So make it easy. Make the process so simple that they’ll love you for it.
Even if it’s all smoke, mirrors and misdirection, make doing business with you effortless. Don’t ever involve your clients in the crazy inner workings of your business. Ever.
Now this might seem to be at odds with the idea of authenticity. Not at all. That’s just helping them declutter their lives from things they don’t need to worry about.
Simplicity Is The Love Child of Brains and Common Sense
Hopefully, as an entrepreneur, you have both of these. So don’t shirk away from the hard work. Make simplicity the keystone of your business proposition and you’ll win. Every time.
P.S. If you want to learn more about this, Ken Segall wrote a book called Insanely Simple, The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success. It’s an interesting read! Until then, THINK SIMPLE! 🙂
