Sequencing Apple's DNA

This book aims to extract the "molecular genes" leading to craziness! Geniuses are the ones who are "crazy enough to think they can change the world" and boldly go where no one has gone before. Where no past habit and usage are available, there is no proof of viability, as nobody has done it yet, or even imagined it, and no roadmap for guidance or market study has come up with it. The authors call upon Leonardo Da Vinci, the Renaissance genius, who as strange as it seems, shared many traits of personality with that of Steve Jobs, in terms of the ways of performing. Da Vinci helps in understanding Jobs, and hence Apple, with his unique way of designing radically novel concepts, which were actually quite crazy for his time. In order to shed light on a special creative posture, the indomitable sense of specifying undecidable objects – a hallmark of the late Steve Jobs – is what led the authors to match it with a specific design innovation theory. A real theory, backed by solid mathematical proof, exists and can account for the business virtue of a prolific ability to move into unknown crazy fields! The authors postulate that, by bringing the power of C-K theory to crack open a number of previous observations made about Apple’s methods, it is possible to identify most of the genes of this company. The authors analyze how and why an Apple way of doing business is radically different from standard business practices and why it is so successful. Genes are a measure of the entity at hand and can encourage past business education routine approaches, then become transferable across the spectrum of the socio-economic world.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments xi Preface xiii Introduction xxvii Part 1 From Insanely Successful Episodes 1 Chapter 1 Sequencing the First Segments of Apple’s DNA 3 1.1 The gene, domain and cultural bias 3 1.2 Nine DNA segments of rare importance 4 Chapter 2 On Risk Taking 7 2.1 Where is the gap? 7 2.1.1 Business school 7 2.1.2 Apple 8 2.2 Amplifying the gap and progressing 9 2.3 The genes 13 Chapter 3 Product Design 15 3.1 Where is the gap? 15 3.1.1 Business school 15 3.1.2 Apple 16 3.2 Amplifying the gap and progressing 16 3.2.1 On packing with functionality 18 Chapter 4 Market Studies 21 4.1 Where is the gap? 21 4.1.1 Business school 21 4.1.2 Apple 22 4.2 Amplifying the gap and progressing 22 Chapter 5 Giving up Some Fights 25 5.1 The chasm 25 5.1.1 Business school 25 5.1.2 Apple 26 5.2 Amplifying the gap and progressing 26 Chapter 6 Entering New Markets 29 6.1 The chasm 29 6.1.1 Business school 29 6.1.2 Apple 30 6.2 Amplifying the gap and progressing 30 Chapter 7 Apple, the Learning Company 33 7.1 The chasm 33 7.1.1 Business school 34 7.1.2 Apple 34 7.2 Amplifying the gap and progressing 35 Chapter 8 On Research and Development 39 8.1 The chasm 39 8.1.1 Business school 40 8.1.2 Apple 40 8.2 Amplifying the gap and progressing 40 Chapter 9 On Company Acquisition 45 9.1 The chasm 45 9.1.1 Business school 45 9.1.2 Apple 46 9.2 Amplifying the gap 46 9.3 Progressing the gap 52 Chapter 10 The Manager, the Software and the Process 55 10.1 The chasm 55 10.1.1 Business school way 55 10.1.2 Apple’s way 56 10.2 Developing the chasm 56 10.2.1 The case of Mister Hullot 57 10.2.2 Drawing lessons from software management 58 Part 2 Emergence of a Brand: From Failures to Everyday Situations (In Search of Exclusive Value) 61 Chapter 11 Failures Left Behind 63 11.1 Why failures? 63 11.1.1 Business school 63 11.1.2 Apple 63 11.2 Failure dissolves in time 64 11.3 A basket of historical failures 64 Chapter 12 A Cornucopia of Commerce Situations 71 12.1 Commercial policy 71 12.1.1 Business school 71 12.1.2 Apple 71 12.2 Asking customers 71 12.2.1 Business school 71 12.2.2 Apple 72 12.2.3 Development 72 12.3 Forecasting and strategy 73 12.3.1 Business school 73 12.3.2 Apple 73 12.3.3 Development 73 12.4 Grabbing a trend 73 12.4.1 Business school 73 12.4.2 Apple 73 12.4.3 Development 73 12.5 Communicating 74 12.5.1 Business school 74 12.5.2 Apple 74 12.5.3 Development 74 12.6 Getting incomparable value 74 12.6.1 Business school 74 12.6.2 Apple 74 12.6.3 Development 75 12.7 Making something profitable 75 12.7.1 Business school 75 12.7.2 Apple 75 12.7.3 Development 75 12.8 Going after the enterprise market 75 12.8.1 Business school 75 12.8.2 Apple 76 12.8.3 Development 76 12.9 Expenses versus returns 76 12.9.1 Business school 76 12.9.2 Apple 76 12.9.3 Development 76 12.10 Management to commitment to product 77 12.10.1 Business school 77 12.10.2 Apple 77 12.10.3 Development 77 Chapter 13 Emergence of a Brand 79 13.1 The chasm 79 13.1.1 Business school 79 13.1.2 Apple 80 13.2 Amplifying the gap and progressing 81 Part 3 Importing Apple’s Genes into Transferable Knowledge (In Evidence of Deeper Gaps) 83 Chapter 14 On Structure and Contents 85 14.1 The chasm 85 14.1.1 Business school 85 14.1.2 Apple 86 14.2 Developing the chasm 86 Chapter 15 You Said Reality? Which Reality? 89 15.1 The chasm 89 15.1.1 Business school 90 15.1.2 Apple 90 15.2 Developing the chasm 92 15.3 It’s all about perception 95 Chapter 16 Combining the Genes 99 16.1 Taking stock of a flat list of genes 99 16.2 Setting the stage toward a combined dynamics 103 16.2.1 In search for dominant designs 103 16.2.2 Breaking the dominant designs 104 16.2.3 Blueprinting radical “crazy” concepts 105 Chapter 17 Evolving Competition 107 17.1 Cracking open the notion of “competition” 107 17.2 Designing an expanded understanding “competition” 109 Chapter 18 Evolving Innovation 113 18.1 Cracking open the notion of “innovation” 113 18.2 Designing an expanded understanding of “innovation” 112 Chapter 19 A Company Under (Dynamic) Tension 117 19.1 Tension is a co-evolving dynamic 117 19.2 Tension is a dynamic toward futures 119 19.3 Walking the way 120 Chapter 20 Overcoming Common Blocking Points 123 20.1 The need for an innovation molecule 123 20.2 A need to revisit risk-taking 125 Conclusion 129 Appendices 133 Appendix 1 135 Appendix 2 139 Appendix 3 151 Appendix 4 171 Appendix 5 177 Appendix 6 187 Bibliography 191 Index 199

About the Author :
Patrick Corsi is an international consultant in designing breakthrough futures based in Brussels, Belgium, and an Associate Practitioner in intensive innovation at the Centre de Gestion Scientifique at Mines ParisTech in France. Previously, he had an extensive career with IBM Corp., IBM France, THOMSON-CSF, the European Commission as well as a successful start-up experience in artificial intelligence. Dominique Morin has worked across private, public as well as semi-public organizations. Throughout his career, he could observe a wide spectrum of mismanagement practices, mostly in the IT domain, while acutely observing Apple’s history. Recently, as a senior engineer in aeronautics for Safran Group in Paris, France, he was involved in critical software development and certification, and airworthiness.