A couple of weeks ago, Anil Dash published a post about “vision” in business, specifically citing the widely reported-on comments from Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, who said, at the unveiling of Amazon’s new Kindle 2, that “every book, ever printed, in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds,” was the goal. It was interesting to see that Anil’s first link went to an article that “noted the audacity” of that particular vision-bearing statement, and it was good to get that out of the way. He goes on to discuss how some of the bigger companies “should have clear goals about how to make money,” (read: making plans for the future – or the future where we’re putting our dollars / mindshare / time / eyeballs where they want them to be), but when discussing how Apple gets cred for Steve Jobs’ apparent “visionary”-ness, it’s because he is “the best showman” we see of late (he most certainly is, at least in the consumer goods area).
The discussion then goes into how Apple could, if it wanted to, adjust its “vision” – or perceived vision, really – while Jobs is on leave from the company for health reasons. I’m not sure this is the case, or even necessary. Is the argument here that Amazon’s Bezos has taken a stand on what he / the company sees as the future for the Kindle, and Apple carries such a significant mindshare that it, too, can set the bar if it wants to? Personally, I see some of the “vision” for an Apple in that it can pretty much release products it sees as a good idea, and figure out how to get us to buy, use, download from, whatever them. I see their vision in adapting, moving on, finding a way to replace a product with a similar, sometimes slightly upgraded model, and get people – maybe not the “mass,” but enough to cause a stir and make some cash – to buy a new one once a year. You know that one person you’ve come across that leases a new BMW / Jaguar / insert luxury car here once per year? Well let’s take that to a $100-$500/year scale, and you’ve got Apple customers. If that isn’t vision, then I don’t know what is.
To me, what’s most interesting about Bezos’ statement is how absolutely spot on it is with something that ran in 1999/2000 or thereabouts, from telecommunications provider Qwest.
Remember that commercial? It’s been ten years since you saw it, or somewhere thereabouts. For those of us already addicted to the Internet (I say that in a nice way, natch) at that time, it was a big idea, most certainly not outlandish, but it certainly caught the attention of a lot of people. Think about it, though. While the ad hasn’t “come true” in the literal sense, we’re pretty damn close, a decade later. For the average person with a computer or Web-enabled cellphone, you can probably dig up most songs you’d want to listen to, find clips from (or a torrent to download) of most movies you would want to watch, and so on. This doesn’t mean you have to get all hardcore and try and do a “six degrees” test to see how far you can take it, putting in silent Russian films from the 1920’s to see if you can find a recording, I just wanted to point out that what might have been perceived as outlandish a decade ago is almost where we’re at.
And while we’re at it, it should be pointed out that while ten years ago, the precursor to today’s FTTP/H (fiber to the premises / home) was part of a “vision” authored by Qwest via a clerk at a motel in a television commercial, that doesn’t mean that said brand has to be the one to get it there, as evidenced by these comments from the company a year ago last month.
Bezos didn’t say “…by next Thursday” at the end of that statement, so again, it’s open to interpretation. Is it “audacious” for the “every book” statement to be made in public, associated with a product? Certainly not. Is it visionary to have done so, in this particular case? Absolutely. Does every company need to come out and make a “blanket” statement about a particular product / service / marketplace? I certainly don’t think so, but that’s probably why we aren’t seeing this every single day.