On Decision Making
Ben Brooks on an article by Clair Cain Miller about Larry Page’s management style being similar to Steve Jobs’:
I’m not a Steve Jobs expert, but I feel pretty confident saying that he didn’t make decisions that he thought were just “O.K.” — he preferred to try and make the perfect decision, even if that meant waiting. That much is pretty clear from reading just a handful of chapters in his new biography.
I’m going to have to disagree with Ben on this one. Sure, Jobs’ biography details the two week discussions on which washing machine to buy, displaying his perfectionist nature. But Jobs certainly knew when time was of the essence. Tom Reestman points out this episode from the autobiography wherein, streams of people were leaving Apple and Jobs thought the only way to stop that was repricing their stock options:
Jobs called for a telephonic board meeting and outlined the problem. The directors balked. They asked for time to do a legal and financial study of what the change would mean. “It has to be done fast,” Jobs told them. “We’re losing good people.”
When the board proposed a study that could take two months, Jobs exploded: “Are you nuts?!?”
Obviously, one could trade contradicting examples, but from my own experience and advice that I’ve been given, it’s best to make a decision while you still have options because the chances are that if you spend a lot of time deliberating them, they have gone and you’re stuck.
The Best Supply Chain in the World
When Apple asks for a price quote for parts such as touchscreens, it demands a detailed accounting of how the manufacturer arrived at the quote, including its estimates for material and labor costs, and its own projected profit.
And:
Apple’s retail stores give it a final operational advantage. Once a product goes on sale, the company can track demand by the store and by the hour, and adjust production forecasts daily. If it becomes clear a given part will run out, teams are deployed and given approval to spend millions of dollars on extra equipment to get around the bottleneck.
So many people think that Apple makes money by charging a high price. No, it’s a high price and a high margin.
Self-Purchase at Apple Stores Coming Soon
According to Boy Genius Report, Apple are going to be rolling out a new systems that allow you purchase products without having to go through an Apple Store employee:
Here is how this will work: after you find the item you want to buy, like an accessory, you launch the Apple Store app on your iOS device and there will be an option to buy a product in the store. You scan the product with the camera on your device in the app, click purchase, and it will charge whatever credit card is associated to your Apple ID. You then just walk out of the store.
Over the next few years we’re going to see a revolution in the way be buy things. We’ve seen it to a lesser extent with Starbucks but imagine this scenario:
I arrive at the airport terminal having cleared security and I get a notification that my favourite cafe has a shop here and it tells me if I order in the next thirty minutes I can get a discount. I order right that on the phone, paying. I go to the shop and pick up my order, by having the QR code associated with my order scanned.
No hassle. No waiting. Pure convenience.
