Buying Options

This title is not currently available for purchase

Share <Embed>

Loading recommendations for you

Recommendations for you

Adding to Cart...

Added to Cart

Not Added

Item is in your Cart

View Cart

Not Added

There was a problem adding this item to Cart. Please try again later.

Sorry, we're having trouble showing recommendations right now. Please try again later.

Continue shopping

Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success by [Segall, Ken]

Follow the Author

Ken Segall

Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success Kindle Edition

by Ken Segall (Author)

3 ratings

See all 6 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Amazon Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$14.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$40.78

—

Paperback

"Please retry"

$15.71

—

To Steve Jobs, Simplicity was a religion. It was also a weapon. Simplicity isn’t just a design principle at Apple—it’s a value that permeates every level of the organization. The obsession with Simplicity is what separates Apple from other technology companies. It’s what helped Apple recover from near death in 1997 to become the most valuable company on Earth in 2011. Thanks to Steve Jobs’s uncompromising ways, you can see Simplicity in everything Apple does: the way it’s structured, the way it innovates, and the way it speaks to its customers. It’s by crushing the forces of Complexity that the company remains on its stellar trajectory. As ad agency creative director, Ken Segall played a key role in Apple’s resurrection, helping to create such critical marketing campaigns as Think different. By naming the iMac, he also laid the foundation for naming waves of i-products to come. Segall has a unique perspective, given his years of experience creating campaigns for other iconic tech companies, including IBM, Intel, and Dell. It was the stark contrast of Apple’s ways that made Segall appreciate the power of Simplicity—and inspired him to help others benefit from it. In Insanely Simple, you’ll be a fly on the wall inside a conference room with Steve Jobs, and on the receiving end of his midnight phone calls. You’ll understand how his obsession with Simplicity helped Apple perform better and faster, sometimes saving millions in the process. You’ll also learn, for example, how to:
• Think Minimal: Distilling choices to a minimum brings clarity to a company and its customers—as Jobs proved when he replaced over twenty product models with a lineup of four.
• Think Small: Swearing allegiance to the concept of “small groups of smart people” raises both morale and productivity.
• Think Motion: Keeping project teams in constant motion focuses creative thinking on well-defined goals and minimizes distractions.
• Think Iconic: Using a simple, powerful image to symbolize the benefit of a product or idea creates a deeper impression in the minds of customers.
• Think War: Giving yourself an unfair advantage—using every weapon at your disposal—is the best way to ensure that your ideas survive unscathed.Segall brings Apple’s quest for Simplicity to life using fascinating (and previously untold) stories from behind the scenes. Through his insight and wit, you’ll discover how companies that leverage this power can stand out from competitors—and individuals who master it can become critical assets to their organizations.

Length: 234 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled	Language: English

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items when the Enter key is pressed. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Sam Walton

16

Kindle Edition
$6.99
John A. Allison

29

Kindle Edition
$27.92
Roger Staiger

10

Kindle Edition
$82.06
James Beshara

64

Kindle Edition
$5.84
Carmine Gallo

47

Kindle Edition
$29.52
Michael Moritz

23

Kindle Edition
$11.46

Product description

Review

A blueprint for running a company the Steve Jobs way ... should be required reading for anyone interested in management and marketing (The Times)

Punchy ... Segall gets inside Apple's branding and marketing to explain its directness and power (Financial Times)

Required reading (Observer)

Book Description

See all Product description

Product details

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 482 KB
Print Length: 234 pages
Publisher: Portfolio (26 April 2012)
Language: English
ASIN: B0064W5V5C
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray:

Enabled

Word Wise: Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Average Customer Review: 3 customer reviews

Customer reviews

5 star 0% (0%)		0%
4 star 0% (0%)		0%
3 star		100%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

Review this product

Write a customer review

3 customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Guitar Nutter

Comes across as a fanboy

30 October 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I took away from this book an appreciation of simplicity as was the authors intent and it did provide some insights as to hard hard making simplicity can be.
But the book reads as if it were written by apples PR team and that detracted from the overall reading experience.
If you like reading stories about how Apple operates then this book will be fun but otherwise there is way to much apple worship going on here.

Helpful

Comment

Rodd Banks

Not insanely simple writing.

8 September 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

NOT insanely simple writing. Conveys "simplicity" very well along with first-hand examples but often rambles. Including the views of other Apple employees would have given a more complete and interesting picture and made it a "book" rather than a high school essay.

Helpful

Comment

Rachel

simple this is not

12 March 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

there is so much filling in his book that i gave up.
the author did have some good points but they are drowned in complex stories: the exact thing the author was trying to inspire us overcome. pity.

Helpful

Comment

Most helpful customer reviews on Amazon.com

Amazon.com: 186 reviews

Dallas Marks

Just because it's simple doesn't mean it's easy.

7 December 2013 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

Apple goes to great lengths to create products that are simple for users; however, this quest for simplicity doesn't make life simple for the people that create the products. Instead, Apple employees expend a great deal of time and energy on the smallest details of the iOS user interface, the machining of iPhone frames from aluminium, or fusing iMac LCD screens to glass. But the reward for this pursuit is passionate customers who appreciate not only Apple products but the values behind them.

In addition to how to pursue simplicity as a corporate philosophy, Insanely Simple provides additional glimpses into the life of Steve Jobs and the inner workings of Apple. The book will be equally at home on your bookshelf next to business classics like Jim Collins' Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't or Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs autobiography.

2 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Good Read

17 October 2016 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

I am currently a student at the University of Baltimore and this book was required reading for an Entrepreneurship survey class that I'm taking this semester. I truly enjoyed the ideas about minimalism and how process can often stifle creativity and true productivity. Much of the book is a chronicle of the professional life of the late Steven Jobs. It follows his progressing from Apple to NeXT to Pixar and back to Apple. While the familiar story of Jobs' life as a CEO is enjoyable, it almost takes away from the teachings of simplicity and streamlining processes. At the same time the stories of Steve's time at Apple and the way he conducted meetings, contributed to multiple projects across his organization and was always brutally honest all attest to Segall's claims that simplicity was the driving concept behind Apple's unprecedented success under Jobs' reign as CEO. I really enjoyed the comparison of Apple's organizational culture against those of other tech giants such as Intel and IBM. There was a good bit of reflection that noted each businesses operating model was directly tied to they way that they were founded. Apple began as a small start-up company with just a few smart guys, nurturing a great idea. Apple operated with this same idea of of small groups, focused solely on one objective, with those few talented, creative individuals being responsible for the success of the project.

I was able to tie many of the ideas presented in the book into my everyday life. I work in a rather large organization that could benefit from a few lessons on simplicity and a few doses of minimalism. During the middle sections of the book, we see how overcrowded meetings, overpopulated projects and unclear communication can be huge killers of creative productivity. I agree with these examples and plan to lend concepts of minimalism to my own education and professional career.

One person found this helpful

Jason Wadas

“Insanely Simple…” was recommended to me as a complimentary reading

3 November 2014 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

As a current student at the University of Baltimore enrolled in its Entrepreneurial Experience course, “Insanely Simple…” was recommended to me as a complimentary reading. After reading, it was clear to see why as this book gives good insight into how Apple revolutionized its industry as well as influencing countless others with its model of simplicity. Each chapter breakdowns a point in Apple’s system of simplicity with ideas being conveyed such as think brutal, think casual, think human, etc. It also gives a good look into how meetings took place with then CEO Steve Jobs, and how these meetings would differ from other companies which not only was entertaining to read about, but also very insightful as it really almost teaches that meetings do not have to be conducted in the status quo. The only thing that I didn’t like about the book was it seemed repetitive at times with its message about simplicity, but even this drawback in my opinion serves a purpose as the author is trying hard to convey that the model of simplicity is the way to run a business. I would recommend reading this book if you are interested at all in Entrepreneurship or a current student, and also any other current students or anyone interested at all in business or Apple in general. It’s a nice, easy read and easy to digest the numerous knowledge that is within. This book is especially helpful to entrepreneurship students as it breaks down a great model of how to start up and run a business while maintaining simplicity. As evidenced by Apple’s enormous success this model should not be taken lightly.

4 people found this helpful

Robert Ellis re@elliscpa.us

not just another Steve Jobs book.

13 August 2013 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

This book does more than any other, and I know this because I have read most of them, to explain Steve Jobs' managed Apple. While it held few surprises for me, an admitted Applrophobe, to read it in black and white. This may sound silly, but I always felt that innovation wasn't secret of Apple's success. Nor was it Job's leadership and drive. Although each played major roles. I have come to the conclusion the author is right, the primary reason was Apple' slavish to simplicity. The author makes a compelling case and illustrates the book with many vivid examples pulled from his memory banks. When I first decided to buy this book, I assumed I assumed I was wasting my money on another fluff book. Unfortunately the Apple genre is full of them. But fortunately I eas proved wrong. This book presents the opportunity for an opportunistic manager to give his bottom line a shot of steroids.

Buying Options

Adding to Cart...

Added to Cart

Not Added

Item is in your Cart

Not Added

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success Kindle Edition

Customers who bought this item also bought

Product description

Review

Book Description

Product details

Customer reviews

Review this product

3 customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Most helpful customer reviews on Amazon.com