throughout the lifespan of the product. The goal was to
make every customer love being an Apple customer and
we did everything possible to make that happen. This
customer centric focus took Apple from being almost
bankrupt in 1997 to being the most valuable company in
the world today and being “customer experience focused
first” has stayed with me throughout everything I do.
You’ll be speaking to a room filled with hundreds of
Realtors® who all run their own individual businesses.
What will the focus of your speech be?
My presentation will focus on what went on in the
background at Apple, Tesla and GAP that helped them all
grow into being among the most recognized companies
on the planet. I will dig deep into how we “thought about
things” at Apple and Tesla and how that turned into
groundbreaking new ways to address current customers
and attract new ones. I will talk about the successes
and challenges enco untered along the way and how we
overcame them. And lastly, I will show results achieved by
each company as they worked through the process.
“The best advice I ever received came
straight from Steve Jobs”
What would you consider your biggest accomplishment(s)
in your career?
The best advice I ever received came straight from Steve
Jobs as we were working through the layout and design
of the very first Apple Retail stores. Steve said, “Start
with the customer experience first, then back into the
technology.” Steve was always focused on design and
innovation, but was obsessed with delivering a great
customer experience. To Steve, the experience started
before the customer even made a purchase, and lasted
Opening the very first Apple Retail stores on May 19,
2001 and helping bring Tesla to profitability in Q1 of
2013 were two very big events in my career, but the real
accomplishment in both situations was the level of effort
and commitment from the team behind the scenes that
made both of these things happen. Everybody these days
likes to say, “it was a team effort” because that sounds
very politically correct, but I have always viewed my
position in a very different way than most. As I see it, I
have never really accomplished anything significant as an
individual. The most impactful thing I have ever done was
to enable others to do their best work. When you hire
and inspire a great team of committed people, there is
nothing they cannot accomplish and that is where I have
always been very, very fortunate... I have been surrounded
by terrific teams and all I tried to do each and every day
was to enable them to do their best work. And when they
did, great things happened!
Interview continued on next page...
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