space2scale

Last week I stumbled upon a fascinating TED speech.  Shawn Achor’s “The Happy Secret To Better Work.”  But instead of just liking, tweeting or sharing it for its intrinsic value – and I highly recommend you watch it for that – it points to the main skill of brand stewardship: escaping the average.

Here's to finding ways to escape from norm to outlier…from commodity to brand.

With all the speculation of who will run Apple after Steve Jobs' departure, consider that Steve Jobs only truly ran Apple from 1976 to 1983.  From 1983 to 1997 John Sculley, Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio ran Apple...almost into the ground.  And since that time, Apple wasn't run by anybody!

Instead, Steve Jobs understood that Apple (and for that matter any company who aspires to be a true leader) needs to be governed by a set of unique core values that strive for something much, much greater than a cult of personality.  And then, in 1998, he returned as "Interim CEO" that is, as the brand steward of those core values.

So who will run Apple now?  A team (and a leader) that "believes that people with passion can change the world for the better."  That's Apple's stand.  What's yours?