Unprecedented Value – The day that changed business forever.

Jan 9th 2007 was  a groundbreaking day for business. What happened on that day that had so much impact on the business world? That was the day Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Inc, stood on stage and announced the launch of the first iPhone.
I recently went back and watched the launch on YouTube and was struck by the magnitude of this event. Not because of the hype of the day. Not because of the impact on the phone market, the camera market, the music industry, navigation devices or any of the other industries that were impacted.
What I was most struck by, was that Apple added so many new groundbreaking features before they launched.
The amount of value that the iPhone created beyond its competitors was unprecedented. As Steve Jobs stated at the time “The iPhone pushes state of the art in every facet of its design”. He wasn’t wrong. The iPhone included hundreds of new features that have since revolutionized the phone industry and the way most of us live our day to day life.
The impact on the business world however has also been unprecedented.
The public response to the iPhone, and the ensuing financial success of Apple Inc (at one point becoming the most highly valued company in the world) created a statement that business leaders could not ignore. Every business leader has since had to confront that, having your attention on creating value is an important part of the game.
The truth is, many of today’s business leaders are still novices at the game of value creation. They know they should be thinking in terms of value creation but don’t really understanding what the term means. Staff are often told to focus on creating value without any real context or understanding of how it impacts them or the aspects of the business that they are required to be responsible for. Having an organisation gear itself towards value creation takes more than just talking about it. The value your organisation creates, becomes the reason for its existence.
If you want to assess how geared your organization is towards value creation,watch the YouTube clip of the iPhone launch and ask yourself, “How many new features would I have added before I launched?”. “How many new features would my organization have added before it launched?” At what point would my organization have said “Okay… enough value already”.