The Critic Takes the Hindmost
Nobody epitomizes the way creativity drives the bottom line of a business like Steve Jobs. Time after time, he confounds his competitors with products that set the customer’s imagination on fire. But do you remember how at first the experts snubbed their noses at the iPhone and the iPad? What did Jobs know that they didn’t? Principally, that a great idea needs time in the market whereas criticism is just the final stage of its adaptation.
Reuters
In driving Apple where no tech company has gone before, Jobs employs a very simple paradigm: he carefully guards those few people in the organization who, like himself, possess unerring creative skill, whether dealing with products, people or systems, and he nurtures them and their ideas. Then he looks to a larger but still select group of problem solvers who enjoy finding the challenges in the new products and working them out. Finally, there is that faceless class of critics that gets a kick out of tearing things apart; Jobs lets them go to work to toughen the idea to meet the market. The key in the development of a new business idea is to make sure the process is staged in that order. Don’t bring in the critics too early; they can be idea killers.
Warning: Truth Spoken Here
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, demonstrates Trumanesque plainspoken wisdom in his 2010 shareholders letter, a 32-page classic that is crystal clear, far seeing, insightful and about as subtle as a baseball bat.
Jeff Cunningham
Here are some examples from the letter:
The U.S. legal system: “Actions against big companies, justified or not, have the potential to deliver large payoffs. This lack of balance and fairness too often results in outrageous claims.”
Dealing with regulation: “Our ability to compete may be hampered in some instances but actually helped in others. For example, the cost and complexity of all the recent regulations, ironically, could create greater barriers for new entrants and new competitors.”
Mistakes: “Unfortunately, we make mistakes. And unfortunately, and infrequently, sometimes someone in our company knowingly does something wrong. And when it does happen, we take immediate and firm action.”
Regulation: “The Durbin amendment is a terrible mistake— price fixing at its worst. It is arbitrary and discriminatory.”
Bank failure: “Banks should pay for the failure of banks.”
Group think: “We need to beware backward-looking models and ‘group think’ and suspect of what will happen when all market participants essentially are using the same models.”
Optimism about the future: “I remain, perhaps naively, optimistic. As Winston Churchill once said, ‘You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.’”
It’s the Economist, Stupid
They don’t call him the Oracle of Omaha for nothing. At the recent Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, Warren Buffett’s quip about the uncertainty of global financial markets providing a good reason to keep cash on hand proves the point. He closed with “Who knows what can happen, maybe Ben Bernanke will run away with Paris Hilton tomorrow.” Even as humor, some may have thought that was a reach. This was one week prior to the downfall of former IMF Chairman Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Jeffrey M. Cunningham is a frequent speaker and writer on governance topics and the boardroom. He is managing director and senior advisor to NACD and has served as a director or chairman of 10 public company boards.