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‘A person can have the greatest idea in the world. But if the person can’t convince enough people, it doesn’t matter’ – Gregory Burns.
How do you follow one of the greatest speakers of our generation in presenting to an audience scrutinising and comparing your every move, pause and emotional expression? Apple’s newly appointed CEO, Tim Cook, had the near impossible task of doing just this at the latest iPhone unveiling merely days before Jobs sadly passed away. And while in recent months media speculation had been rife as to how Cook would handle the task of running one of the world’s most admired brands, it reached fever pitch when Apple announced that Tuesday 4th October would be the day that Cook took to the stage for the very first time.
Undoubtedly, as the new CEO of Apple, comparisons would and have been made between Cook’s and Jobs’ presentation styles and questions would be posed as to whether Cook could really live up to the expectations that the media, consumers, shareholders and employees had placed upon his shoulders.
Trying to be Steve Jobs would have been embarrassing and fruitless, instead Cook placed his own mark upon the launch of the iPhone 4S to create an altogether different feel, but one that still felt oddly familiar to those of us who have experienced previous Apple unveilings. He chose to stick to Jobs’ winning formula and basic principles in delivering his first presentation to the waiting masses, which are:
• Always exude passion – Cook’s opening line was short and succint “I Love Apple”. Enthusiasm, especially when ignited with anticipation can be highly contagious.
• Make a wow moment – Cook’s presentation was slightly lacking in comparison to those that Jobs had made. However, this wasn’t so much his fault, as the product was simply not as revolutionary as previous releases.
• Deliver a Twitter friendly headline – “The most amazing iPhone ever.” Once again not quite as ground-breaking as earlier unveilings such as MacBook Air “The world’s thinnest notebook.” But exactly how much of this is Cook’s fault is debatable as the iPhone 4S simply did not have as much of a wow factor as other Apple products.
• Stick to graphics and simple slide layouts – Cook’s presentation was stunning for its visual simplicity. No bullet points and statistics were presented graphically. Why? Because people process information better this way.
• Sell the benefit – nobody actually cares about the product, what they are more interested in is how the product will make their lives more enriched. Do this and you will win them over and this is where Apple is in a league of its own. The demonstration of the iPhone 4S was centred on what it did for the customer rather than an explanation of how it worked.
Cook’s own style of presentation may be a glimpse of things to come from Apple, as instead of delivering the presentation alone (something Jobs always did) he allowed other senior executives to take to the stage to talk about the iCloud and iPhone 4S. At a time when the world’s media discuss a post-Jobs era, Cook chose to showcase all of the talent that resides in Apple’s ranks. Security in numbers or a genius move to showcase Jobs’ legacy disciples and Apple’s strength in numbers?
In a speech made to Stanford graduates Jobs gave them a valuable piece of advice - “You’re time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” Let’s just hope he passed on these words of wisdom to Cook too.
