The Words That Will Change Your Company in 2014
Gijsbertus J.J. van Wulfen
Innovation keynote speaker, Number One Thought Leader Design Thinking 2024, LinkedIn Top Voice helping you and your organisation, to become amazing innovators with keynotes, workshops, and a proven innovation method.
When you're company gets stuck in its habits. When growth stops. When your firm might even be heading for huge losses. You will feel urgency. You don't have to despair. Big turnarounds happened before. You may find it hard to imagine, but Apple, the most valuable brand in the world at this moment, was once in severe problems. In 1997 Apple reported even a net loss of $161 million.
Every crisis is an opportunity for a big change. Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997. And made drastic choices. Be inspired by the famous words of the historical advertising campaign of Apple launched in 1997: Think Different.
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Apple stayed a permanent troublemaker, breaking conventions in all the markets they penetrated.
When there's urgency, it is time to free the rebels in your own organization (again). Be brave. Be an innovator. And be the change yourself in 2014. Here's to the crazy ones: five words that will change your company and your markets, as Apple has been proving continuously.
-----
To read more from Gijs on LinkedIn, please click the FOLLOW button above or below.
Gijs van Wulfen is a LinkedIn thought leader on innovation. He recently published : "The Innovation Expedition, A Visual Toolkit to Start Innovation". Available at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
Source: Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs de biografie, Spectrum, 2011.
Creative Navigator
11 年On a parallel track; I always think of companies from the perspective of where they are in their Brand Cycle". New? Challenger? Established? Decliner? Old? We try to stay in the challenger/established zone......!!
Marketing Consumer Products
11 年Being a product developer truly is challenging. When I developed safety hunting vest for hunters and outdoorsmen to protect them in falls from deer stands and ATV's. the CEO OF THE NWTF, vilified the product because it made hunting look dangerous. My response was every sport has a certain amount of danger. Fishermen wear floatation devices, then consider all the other sports, football, hockey, baseball, etc., they all require safety gear. He felt the orange vest was enough to protect hunters, the most prominent injury in hunting is falls from tree stands and ATV's. I don't believe the color orange protecteded a single one from their injuries. Some people can't see the forest for the trees. Common sence is not all that common!
Owner, Corporate Communications - Effective Marketing, Communications and Reputation Management
11 年As an independent spirit these words have always appealed, however unfortunately not all troublemakers are visionaries - there are plenty of crazy ones who create more damage than good and sorting the chaff from the wheat can be more than a bit challenging!
?? BOLD leaders, people, ideas | Interactive Keynote Speaker, MC, Author, Story & Innovation Strategist | Turning Creative Courage into Performance Fuel for Tech Pioneers, Brands, Teams thru humor and improv
11 年Amen!
Senior Business Analyst at Westpac Group
11 年the "odd" employee who sits alone at lunch, has odd habits and is considered "weird" by their co-workers might be the ones crazy enough to have the breakthrough ideas. Tap that individuality - this isn't just about leaders "becoming crazy" - it's about using those people who THINK DIFFERENT EVERY DAY... because their crazy idea may be completely outside the realms of anything a "normal" can imagine......