When Steve Jobs came back to Apple 1996, the company was in a bad way and had to be rebuilt, rebranded, and reinstated in peoples’ minds. What would the company stand for now?

That required the organization to get really clear on who Apple was, what its values were, and how it would lead. It wasn’t, “making boxes for people to get their jobs done,” it was about the company’s core value:

“We believe that people with passion can change the world for the better.”

Or, as Jobs himself put it, in the part of his speech that everyone remembers, “Those people that are crazy to think they can change the world are the ones that actually do.”

In 1997, the company started its “Think different” campaign and made an almost miraculous turnover.

If you’re one of the “crazy ones”, you know that WHAT you do is less important than WHY you’re doing it, and whose lives you ultimately want to touch.

In which case, which stories are you telling about who you are, what you stand for, and where you fit in the world?

A great place to start is by sharing your organization’s values, beliefs, and vision for how things could be better.

Jobs knew it in 1997. Yet, 25 years later, innovators still want to lead with features, benefits, and price. That approach on its own simply doesn’t work.

The longer we work on something, the more likely it is that the “what” takes over, and we forget how much what we’re developing really matters.

So, before you tell us what your revolutionary product does, take the time to explain to us why you built it, and how it will transform my life.

Why does it exist?
Why does it matter?
And how might our lives get better after using it?

That’s why it’s vital to keep practicing and refining our story every single day. We have to hold on to the “why” even as we develop our “what”, and before we even get to the how.

– Susan.

This Week’s Best Articles on Innovation

11 of The Best Technology Books For Summer 2022 – Fast Company
An Anthropologist Explains Why We Need a Universal Language When Talking About The Metaverse – Fast Company
How Companies Should Invest In A Downturn – Harvard Business Review
How Innovation Affects Labor Markets – An Impact Assessment – Brookings
OK Cupid Is Changing The Online Dating World – A Culture of Inclusion is Key To Innovation, A Top Exec Says – Business Insider