Apple’s Turn Around
When Steve Jobs was called back to Apple in 1997, Apple was “90 days away from bankruptcy”. Sales were dismal. The story goes that Steve was asked by a friend which computer she should buy. Steve was stumped. Despite hundreds of products, there was no clear answer. In fact, The company had been making multiple versions of products to satisfy requests from retailers, including twelve versions of the Macintosh computer.
After weeks of meeting with product people he had heard enough.
The simple insight was to help people choose a computer using only two questions – are you an everyday consumer or professional? Do you want a portable or desktop?
In this one bold move, 70pc of Apple’s product line was cut down. One year later, the nearly bankrupt company returned a very healthy $309 million profit.
Today Apple is worth more than USD 1.3 Trillion.
Learning from the Story
1. Structure of our products, sub-brands and price points should be designed to help our customers pick the right product at the right price, helping them navigate & make choice intuitively even if you got multiple products.
2. A product range should only be expanded where it clearly makes the choice easier for a customer segment.
3. New creation happens when you create space by dropping what is not working.
Questions to ask ourselves
1. How can I choose my Customer Segment?
2. How can I have product portfolio relevant for my chosen customer segment?
3. What do I need to drop to create space and possibility of new creation in Business? If you really want to learn how to choose your right Customer Segment and build a portfolio relevant to your chosen customer segment like Steve Jobs; here’s my personal invitation to our seminar Business On Autopilot.
Read what entrepreneur *Bhavin Karia* has to say about this seminar.
“ Have attended many business seminars and thought his would also be the same, he conducts in a way where we get time to think and delivers on his promise that he makes at the beginning. Thanks Sachin for the amazing way to help me understand where I can improve”
