The Importance of the Visionary

A month ago, when Steve Jobs announced he was taking a leave of absence from Apple, the market reacted almost immediately. While the market has become known for overreacting to the smallest tidbit of news, this reaction wasn’t the least bit surprising. After all, we are talking about the man who has raised his company’s worth 6400% since taking over in the mid-90’s. Read that again…. 6400%. What’s his secret? He has a vision.

Could it really be that simple? Could simply having a vision can turn a floundering niche computer company into a media giant? Absolutely. And Jobs isn’t the only example. Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, Oprah, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg all had pioneering, uncompromising visions of what they wanted to create.  These people exist outside the bargaining and appeasements of the board room, and beyond the restrictions and limitations of logistics. And while they may not have the business savvy of an MBA holding CEO, it is not their business sense that is important. It is their understanding of what the business is and should be that sets them apart.

As a designer and artist, the power of a vision is easy to understand. No great works of art were ever designed by committee, and some would argue the same holds true in business. For designers, we understand the difficulties of presenting ideas to clients without a marketing director, or without an overriding vision guiding their individual marketing endeavors. Since it’s impossible to appease everyone, the end-product of this crowd-sourced creative process is often beset by the loudest whinging of those dissenting from the consensus, and fighting for a different creative approach.  The result is usually a compromised, short-sighted piece of creative, which makes a less powerful impact on the audience.

To notice the difference, one simply needs to compare Apple and Google. Apple started out as a computer company, but as the computer has become the work and entertainment backbone of our lives, Apple has adapted their business accordingly. Google began as a search engine, and nowadays, they don’t even do that well. While Google began with a specific vision, they’ve become something entirely different, and right now, no one’s really sure what that is. They possess nearly all the tools, resources, and competencies of Apple, and are attempting to tackle the same markets, but no one would argue they are succeeding at it. Compare Apple’s iTunes with Google’s…. uhhh… Android Marketplace? You would never have seen Apple release a platform like Android without the proper infrastructure for users to easily maintain and support these devices, yet that’s exactly what Google did. It’s truly amazing that Google has failed so thoroughly in their approach, despite Apple showing them the exact method required to succeed.

And the biggest difference can be seen in the design of their products. Apple products are always sleek, simple easy, and intuitive. Google began by being the simplest, cleanest, and easiest search engine around, but now Google offerings are confusing, fragmented, difficult to use, and simply horrible to look at. By basing their creative decisions entirely on user A/B testing, and not the vision of a creative director, they’ve created a crowd-sourced Frankenstein of an identity. What does this say to the investing community? To their customers? It says that they don’t know who they are, or what they’re supposed to be doing.

This idea shouldn’t be lost on the small and medium-sized business market, as these companies were also started by people of vision. While this vision may be smaller in size or scope, it’s no less important to the success of the business. Just as the business has a vision, the marketing plan should reflect this vision just as powerfully.