What Steve Jobs, Marc Benioff and My Auto Mechanic Had in Common
I used to have an antique Mercedes diesel sedan and would take it to the San Francisco Go-To for these cars: Fred, at Silver Star Motor Services. Fred didn’t just work on old Mercedes diesels. He loved them. He was an aficionado. He was constantly thinking about them, reading about them, learning more about them. And he had strong opinions about them. He could bend your ear for hours talking about the ins and outs of these cars. He wasn’t showing off, he was waxing poetic about something he was passionate about. He would just light up at the thought of these cars. It wasn’t a business or job for him– it was his life.
Though Fred eventually retired, guess what he had in common with every market-dominating Go-To company I've studied in my many years as a strategic marketing consultant: that all-consuming obsession. A Go-To doesn’t just specialize. A Go-To is a devotee. A Go-To becomes the market leader, because it lives, breathes and eats the problem. A Go-To is very opinionated when it comes to the object of its obsession.
Steve Jobs was obsessed with distinctive design. He insisted that Apple's mantra be simplicity. In his mind, consumer technology was too complex, hard to use, and ugly. As a result, the company has always been obsessed with creating innovative, easy-to-use technology that people have an emotional connection with.
When Apple started to work on the iPhone, Steve Jobs didn’t instruct the development team to create a device that would put a computer in your pocket. His directive was: “Create the first phone that people [will] fall in love with.”
According to former Apple product manager, Bob Borchers, “The idea was, he wanted to create something that was so instrumental and integrated into peoples’ lives that you’d rather leave your wallet at home than your iPhone.”
When Marc Benioff founded Salesforce in 1999, he was absolutely passionate about the need for companies to move away from installed software and to adopt the software-as-a-service (SaaS or “cloud”) model.
On stage at a conference in 2006, he relentlessly and completely unapologetically pounded on his primary thesis that installed enterprise software was on its way to extinction. At the time, it was still an emerging idea, but Salesforce was so passionate about the idea that it put a stamp of the word “software” in a red circle with a slash through it on every ad, on its website and any other bit of material associated with the company. Benioff wore a trademark pin of the image everywhere he went, including on the stage that day. It is difficult to find an article or presentation by him that does not espouse his point of view on this topic.
Steve Jobs, Marc Benioff, and Fred all had an obsession. What are you (and your company) completely devoted to?
Act Now: Start with These Three Questions
- Within the context of your central theme, what topic are you (or is your company) obsessed with? [Or what should/could it be obsessed with?]
- What would literally and figuratively demonstrate your obsession with and passion for this topic (expertise, symbols and branding, uniforms, activities, etc.)?
- Which trade organizations, publications, and other industry or consumer entities would you need to be part of as a person or company obsessed with this topic?
I’ve been studying Go-To companies for almost two decades and have noticed that there are seven core elements that make the difference for a Go-To vs. a Me-Too: focus, beachhead, obsession, ownership, conviction, results and change. I’ve codified these into a four-phase, step-by-step approach called the Apollo Method for Market Dominance (because the Apollo Space Program used this same approach to win the space race).
This is the third of eight articles I will publish in the coming weeks on these seven elements, followed by articles about the method for implementing them. Let me know what you think.
The first two articles were:
- The Power of Being the Go-To Brand in Your Space
- What Can Focus Do for Your Business? I Asked an Apollo Astronaut...
Want to cut to the chase? Get all of the strategies in one place by downloading the free eBook, 7 Things a Go-To Does Differently .
My forthcoming book, The Apollo Method for Market Dominance: How to Become the Utterly Unique, Premium Go-To in Ridiculously Competitive Markets is a step-by-step playbook for implementing these strategies. If you’d like a free executive summary when it launches, sign up here.
I am the founder and president of Lina Group, Inc., a strategic marketing consulting firm that specializes in market dominance and differentiation strategy, primarily for technology companies. The firm’s specialty is complex enterprise and analytic solutions in competitive or emerging markets. I am a frequent speaker, workshop presenter and executive-team coach on topics such as vision development, strategy, marketing, thought leadership content, message development and pitching. I am also involved in the School of Engineering at Stanford University and I advise the student-led Stanford Marketing Group. I have served as chief marketing officer for technology startups and began my career at Accenture. After several years there as a management consultant, I helped found the firm’s Communications Industry Group. I served as its Director of Worldwide Marketing and helped lay the foundation for what has become a multi-billion-dollar business.
I visited Airbnb's headquarters yesterday for a meeting, and the kind of obsession described in this article is apparent even in the design of Airbnb's work environment, right on down to the Airstream camper shipped in from Australia that now serves as a "conference room." Throughout the space, there are replicas of actual Airbnb listings from around the world. It is a visual wonderland and constant reminder to employees as to the company's raison d'être.