Shop - THINK SIMPLE : How Smart Leaders Defeat Complexity

In Insanely Simple, Segall showed how Steve Jobs’ love of simplicity propelled Apple from near-bankruptcy to the world’s most valuable company. Now he explores how other companies, in a range of industries, all over the world, are simplifying their way to success – providing real-life examples that can inspire others to do the same. In practice, simplicity was Jobs’s most powerful business weapon.
 
It helped Apple distinguish its products and create entirely new product categories, and it put distance between Apple and its competitors. But, while Apple is a terrific example of a company that has been propelled by the power of simplicity, it is hardly alone. Inspired by the ways Apple has benefited from the power of simplicity, Segall set out to find other companies that were traveling this path.
 
He wanted to learn more about the thinking of their leaders. He felt that if he could chronicle the experiences of those who have successfully simplified, it would be an invaluable guide for everyone who would like to do the same.
 
This book is the result of his journey into simplicity in companies around the world. Many of the “heroes of simplicity” profiled in this book are probably not on your list of usual suspects. Segall had conversations with over forty men and women from a wide range of industries, in companies big and small, established and up-and-coming, famous and below under the radar. Each leader has a fascinating point of view about how simplicity has helped improve his or her company and set it apart from competitors.
 
Segall’s interviews with leaders from more than forty diverse companies demonstrate the power of simplicity on multiple levels.
 
Readers will discover:

● How South Korea’s second biggest credit card company, Hyundai Card, used the power of simplicity to turn around a business losing two billion dollars a year.

● How Australia’s biggest telecom, Telstra, tapped the power of simplicity to reverse a severe drop in customer satisfaction ratings and stock price.

● How a simple concept drove the architecture, location, hiring, and record-setting global success of the retail Apple Stores.

● How adherence to a simple mission helped propel StubHub to create a consumer revolution.

● How The Blue Man Group used the principles of simplicity to grow from a local street act to a multinational creative network.

● How Ben & Jerry’s, Whole Foods, and Charles Schwab embraced the principles of simplicity to create their own success stories.
 
Each is unique, yet, as you’ll find, many display interesting similarities. From Jerry Greenfield, you’ll hear how Ben & Jerry’s grew from local to global without losing its focus and simple values. From the CEO of one of Australia’s biggest banks, you’ll hear how simplicity is attracting new customers. From former Apple Senior Vice President Ron Johnson, you’ll hear how a simple idea aligned the team creating the worldwide network of Apple Stores.
 
You’ll discover how simplicity influences the CEOs of The Container Store and Whole Foods. You’ll get insights on simplification from the worlds of fashion, automobiles, entertainment, and technology. You’ll even get inside the blue heads of the Blue Man Group, who developed a business strategy to defeat complexity before it could take root.
 
In a complicated world, no principle is more important for businesses today than simplicity. In this insightful and often surprising book, you will learn how to harness the power of simplicity to build lasting, profitable organizations. Segall distills the philosophies and methods of all these successful companies into nine useful chapters, each of which explores a key component of simplicity–Mission, Culture, Leadership, Brand, Scale, Streamlining, Team, Love, and Instinct.
 
The combined insights of Segall and accomplished business leaders help readers create a roadmap to simplicity of their own.Recommended for its insights into how great leaders recenter their companies, this title unfortunately too often falls back into being an insider’s account of Steve Jobs’s impact on NeXT and Apple.
 
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Review From CIO :
 
Ken Segall knows what he is talking about. For many years he worked with the Emperor of Simplicity, Steve Jobs. Ken is the former Apple and NeXT ad agency creative director who came up with the Think Different campaign and put the “I” in front of the Mac and therefore the Pod, Phone and Pad.
 
His excellent 2012 book ‘Insanely Simple’ examined how Apple got back on top of the tech and business worlds by replacing big-business complexity with simplicity.

It’s a must-read if you’re interested in Jobs and the history of Apple, as well as for anyone involved in creative marketing and advertising. His new book, ‘Think Simple: How Smart Leaders defeat Complexity’ (Portfolio/Penguin, 2016), is less a history of Apple and Steve Jobs, although both are mentioned plenty.

This time it’s about how other companies have also used simplicity as a potent business weapon. As such, it’s aimed more at business leaders than the marketing crowd, but they’d miss a few tricks if they thought they’d learnt everything about simplicity in Segall’s first book. Each of the 10 chapters is devoted to a theme that’s applicable to most businesses: mission, leadership, brand, etc. How to use simplicity as a business tool

Segall’s point is that simplicity is a deceptive concept. “Simplicity takes work” but it can “power a company to amazing growth or revive a company that’s become mired in complexity” – look no further than Steve Jobs’ Apple revolution for a prime example.
 
The enemy is complexity, which Segall blames as a side effect of civilization: “The more we discover, the more we invent, the more we advance… the more complicated life becomes”. Being complicated is easy, making things simpler is the challenge.
 
Indeed, Segall states that there is really no such thing as simplicity – just the perception of simplicity – “it’s what the customer takes away from the experience”.
 
Segall has interviewed key executives from a diverse range of industries, from Westpak Bank to Ben & Jerry’s, from Whole Foods to Electronic Arts. And there’s still plenty of room for more Apple stories, and some cringeworthy horrors from Microsoft and Dell.There are interviews with Ron Johnson, who conceived and built the Apple Stores and the Genius Bar, and with Steve Wilhite, Apple’s former VP of Marketing.
 
We don’t just see the glowing examples, but there’s lessons galore in Johnson’s post-Apple short-lived time at the helm of JCPenney. And the fate of Johnson’s successor at Apple Retail, ex-Dixons cost-slasher John Browett, is a sobering one. Streamline to create something compelling
 
Like Apple you need to streamline – taking many things and turning them into fewer things – to create something more compelling, and more focused. You need a clear mission statement.
 
Observe how your employees embrace that mission, and involve everyone in reaching that goal. Clarify, empower (think Steve’s prompt promotion of Jonny Ive on his return in 1997) and aim high. Think like a start-up, and trust yourself.
 
Of course, many of these are all staples trotted out in vanilla business manuals, but Segall’s ‘Think Simple’ focuses the power of simplicity at these lofty aims and explains them all with real-world examples from business leaders who’ve been there and simplified it.
 
KeWhile the message might be simple, the getting there will be anything but. Armed with ‘Think Simple’ your business won’t immediately rival Apple’s, but you should progress more smoothly away from the complexity that strangles so many. Segall learnt from the master of simplicity, Steve Jobs and has interviewed 40 more business pioneers. ‘Think Simple’ is our chance to also learn from Steve and those who followed him.

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About the Author

Ken Segall is the author of the New York Times bestseller Insanely Simple. Working with Steve Jobs as his ad agency creative director for twelve years spanning NeXT and Apple, he led the team behind Apple’s legendary Think different campaign, and set Apple down the i-way by naming the iMac. Segall has also served as agency global creative director for IBM, Intel, Dell, and BMW. He is an international speaker on the power of simplicity, and frequently appears on cable and Internet news for his marketing insights.