Book Title: What would Apple do?
Author: Dirk Beckmann
To be very honest with you, my reader, I bought the book almost impulsively because it was beautifully designed and produced by Jaico Books. It was sleek, light weight, well printed and perfect for reading on the flight. But I must say that if the title had nothing to do with business, I may have just appreciated it and left it behind. Apple is a company I admire (like so many others) and hence pick material written about it. The intent is not to see if they have got something that is insider information about their growth strategies – but to see if the thought process can produce some insights which are applicable for emerging enterprises.
The author of the book initially wrote this book in German and then translated it into English. But there is no difficulty in reading as it has been well done. The author seems to have written most of this book for a blog that he runs himself: www.what-would-apple-do.com
The book primarily has two parts, the first that attempts to decipher the communication strategy of Apple and the second that attempts to apply how these will apply in emerging sectors / opportunities. While the first book is a typical refresher on what we have been hearing about Apple from many authors, the second seems more interesting as topics than thoughts. Honestly I would encourage the readers to take the topic or idea and think for themselves about how Apple would have commercialised it. The author provides his perspective, but to be honest, I somehow enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second half.
Even though the thoughts in the first half seem like what we have heard there are a lot of interesting connections to other thinking that the author brings forward. I loved the references to some aspects of industrial design ideas, design thinking and the concept of virtual design concepts and patents. These sprinkled across the book were sure takeaways from the reading.
Overall a simple book, a quick read, a sure refresher of Apple’s philosophy to creating products and communication. How many ever times we read books on this subject, how many ever times it seems repeated, it does not matter. If we can get one good insight into how we can bring simplicity to our products, services and especially communication – it is worth all the money we spend on such books.
Happy Reading!
Raj's Lab 