Why Join the Navy If You Can Be a Pirate?
I came across this quote from Apple founder Steve Jobs the other day that I liked so much I used it as a Tweet:
“Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?”
It’s a great point – and I’m sure he doesn’t mean we should all dress up like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean and plunder passing cruise ships.
To Jobs the navy was the bloated establish players in the field. While they may be big, they had also lost their ability to think and act quickly. It’s hard to innovate when an idea is required to be passed up the food chain where everybody has a chance to pick it apart.
The pirates were the ones who were willing to take a calculated risk because their lack of size forced them to out-think and out-work the competition. They didn’t fear bigger vessels based on size.
Some may look at Apple’s size today and say it’s more navy than pirate, but I’d argue the point. People remain so obsessed with the next Apple product there are Web sites devoted to rumors about what the company is working on. We all know who Steve Jobs is – can you name his counterpart at Apple’s top five competitors?
See what I mean? Later….
L.S.
[Founded by Leon Krishnayana in 2008, iSpionage is a competitive intelligence software services company, specializing in the search engine advertising industry. iSpionage monitors Google, Yahoo and MSN text, ads and trends, enabling clients to view competitors’ ad copy, position, search engine coverage, ad testing results, and marketing strategy. iSpionage provides the right intelligence to out-strategize the competition.]
Julie @ April 5, 2010