Can Apple's "Genius Design" Model Be Duplicated?

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2010/03/08/Innovation_Series_Design_in_Business

Design strategist Nathan Shedroff describes Apple's business model as an exceptional combination of strategy and leadership. While this "genius design" model has worked for Apple, Shedroff says it probably can't be duplicated without Steve Jobs behind the wheel.

-----

Design and business have traditionally made uneasy bedfellows, with practitioners of each eyeing each other suspiciously. But in recent years, some companies have demonstrated huge success by adopting a design-savvy approach. That's led to a resurgence of interest in design as business strategy. There remains little agreement on the best policies, structures, or principles for its smart adoption and execution, however.

This panel, a continuation of swissnex San Francisco's series on innovation, brings together those working on every side of the equation, from individuals implementing design within large corporations, to consultants aiming to bring an objective eye to their clients' problems, to educators working to shape the future discussion.

With moderator Helen Walters, editor of innovation and design at Bloomberg/BusinessWeek; Helmut Traitler, V.P. of Innovation Partnerships at NESTEC Ltd., in Vevey, Switzerland; Udaya Patnaik, Jump founder and principal; Nathan Shedroff, chair of the MBA in Design Strategy at California College of the Arts; and Mary Jo Cook, Vice President of Discovery and Design for Clorox. - Swissnex San Francisco

Nathan Shedroff has been an information and interface designer for over twelve years. He focuses on developing online experiences, building online brand strategies and business models, and developing online communities.

Throughout his career, he has worked in various media and authored several books on multimedia, computers, and information. His electronic experience spans CD-ROMs, kiosks, published titles, application development, and online experiences.

He co-founded vivid studios, a decade-old pioneering company in interactive media. Prior to that, he worked with Richard Saul Wurman as a senior designer at TheUnderstandingBusiness. He earned a BS in Industrial Design, with an emphasis in Automobile Design, from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• business
• strategy
• leaders
• company
• models
• investing
• investors
• entrepreneurs
• planning
• plans
• corporate
• corporations
• fora.tv
• foratv
• fora
• tv
• nathan
• shedroff
• swissnex

[omnigear1975]

lol "genius design", to bad intelligent design was taken already :p

[LordNapalm]

pfft.. stop sucking Job's dick. The only good design they had was the iPhone... other than that, they're all marketing.

[srkh28]

I dont think the success is just jobs - its definately the lack of other companies missing a key ingredient. Thanks to the majority of brain dead CEO's and the monkey managers their knobs are wedge in, they simply dont have a clue. They talk apple, study apple, copy everything they can apple, but simply dont understand why apple is apple. When you submit a design and they tell you "its unnecessary work" - you found another one who copies apple, but dosent understand why they will never be them.

[xpez]

STEVE JOBS DOESNT HAVE HIS PULSE ON HIS CUSTOMERS...

MOST OF THE COMPUTING WORLD IS MOVING TO OPEN SOURCE PHILOSOPHY....APPLE IS CLOSED ARCHITECTURE...

EVENTUALLY AS THE POWER OF PROCESSING POWER TECHNOLOGY WILL GET SO FAST THAT THE DESIGN AND INTERFACE WONT MATTER...we wont need special engineers like Apple's

IT WILL BE REPLICATED BY COMPETITORS>>>likE THE ANDROID ETC...

INVESTORS SHOULD START TO THINK ABOUT SELLING THEIR APPLE STOCK

IN 5-10 YEARS APPLE WILL BE OUT OF BUSINESS!!!

[Dionysus187]

@LordNapalm

I agree with this fully.

when the iPhone came out it was awesome. But now you can find smart phones that are way better imo. Especially the android ones. When you buy Apple your basically paying for a label, no different than buying "popular" brands of clothes.

[d1d4d0]

The ten principles to approach to good design, defined by Dieter Rams, are the design philosophy used by Apple to create its products.

I would not call it "Genius Design", but "Honest Design".

[d1d4d0]

I think it's more correct to say that Apple duplicated "Genius Design" model...

What most people don't know is that Jonathan Ive, the man responsible for designing most of the Apple products since the late 90's, is a confessed follower of one of the most important designers of the 20th century. That man is Dieter Rams who was chief of design at Braun since the 60's.

[naede88]

except for the fact they've set the bar for all of the handheld electronics industry.

[evilelton]

Simple answer to question: yes.

Apple is nothing special, end of story.

[ndyt]

I disagree with the speaker. Apple is just focusing on what is fashionable and sometimes creating the fashion just like car companies do.

[mauriciohavok]

NeXT computer was the base of OS X maybe it was a commercial failure, but it brought a lot of technology

[glennd7962]

Very interesting perspective. And Jobs has had some absolutely smashing failures - NeXT computer, for example. I was in the thick of software world that jumped on his bandwagon only to be left on the junk heap of technology history. I think his success actually reveals the failure of our corporate culture, which somehow makes it unique to for executives to really think about customers and differentiation first, rather than leaving that to other folks.