A Business Parable: Chase Only Greatness
Steve Jobs, 2006
In 2006, when Mark Parker was named CEO of Nike, one of the first things he did was reach out to Steve Jobs for advice. Jobs got straight to the point:
“Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.”
“He was absolutely right,” said Parker. “We had to edit.”
How extreme did Jobs take his commitment to perfection? In Walter Isaacson’s biography Steve Jobs, a book I recently listened to on Audible, Isaacson tells the history of the NeXT computer, nicknamed “The Cube” by the media because of its 90-degree corners. In design and manufacturing, most parts cast in molds have angles that are slightly greater than 90 degrees, because the extra degrees make it much easier to get the parts out of the mold. Jobs wouldn’t relent, arguing the slightly extra angle would ruin the “purity and perfection” of the NeXT cube. So the sides had to be produced separately, using molds that cost $650,000. Even though they would still appear exactly as a cube to the naked eye at slightly more than 90 degrees. What’s more, the inside of the computer’s magnesium case was a matte black, even though no one would ever see it.
Our firm, Spivey Consulting Group, has been approached hundreds of times about expansion across a diverse arena. We have yet to partner with a single other entity. Most of the time it is because we don’t know enough about what they do. How could we chase greatness if we don’t even know what it means to be great in another arena? We, and for that matter Steve Jobs and everyone else, make mistakes. But the mistakes we most often make are along the same exact road we want to stay on. A constant pursuit to be better in what we already believe we are good at. It’s a business model that has worked exceptionally well for us.
NeXT is often referenced as Job’s greatest failure. It only sold about 50,000 units. But, are you reading this on a Mac? Have you played a video game in the last 30 years? The Mac operating system and the 3D technology you have used came from NeXT. The computer sought the be perfect in every aspect — because of this perfection it was far too expensive for the typical user. But because of this abject pursuit of greatness, hundreds of thousands have been employed and hundreds of millions have reaped its benefits. Chase greatness. Let others expand to “crappy stuff.”