Source: Apple Love them or hate them, there is no denying that Apple’s annual events generate a lot of attention. While they’ve lost a bit of their shine in the post-Steve Jobs era, they still do an excellent job of taking something as mundane as the release of a new phone model and transform it into something newsworthy.
However, the last event on September 7th stood out. While the technological updates introduced can be best described as incremental, Apple did make a bold announcement: the decades-old headphone jack is now a thing of the past.
It was a move bound to cause controversy and conspiracy theories, but Apple insisted that it represented a natural progression towards a more sophisticated long-term view of the product. The real controversy, however, came when Phil Schiller, head of Apple’s marketing team, said that the decision took “courage.”
Almost immediately, the collective eye-rolling began. The internet reacted as it often does, with righteous indignation and snark. Schiller and Apple were mocked for claiming to be courageous and were met with examples of true courage throughout history.
No one is arguing that making a product decision is in the same realm as fighting for your country, for example. However, I believe that Apple was right. It does, in fact, take a certain degree of courage for organizations to make unpopular decisions that have a long-term payoff.
Change is always painful
Consumers are a finicky bunch. They demand innovation yet have a largely unfounded fear of drastic change. Sometimes, they can be placated with small, incremental improvements. However, eventually more dramatic steps are required for products to move forward.
About two years ago I had to deal with a similar scenario at my company, BodeTree. Since our inception in 2010, we were dependant on Intuit’s QuickBooks Desktop as our primary source of data.
However, the connections with the accounting platform were tricky to maintain and not consistently reliable. Almost 90% of all customer support tickets received were centered around problems connecting to QuickBooks Desktop.
As we grew, we had to make a difficult decision: continue to support QuickBooks Desktop (and a large number of users) or take a different path altogether. Ultimately, we decided to abandon the channel entirely and instead focus our efforts on drawing data directly from bank accounts.
The right path isn’t always the easy one
The decision cleared the path for a better user experience and the ability to serve the entirety of the small business market. However, that meant painful change for thousands and thousands of users.
We were tempted to try and implement a workaround, but I felt that would simply be a distraction. We were moving the product forward in new and exciting ways, and that meant that our support of Desktop had to go. Still, as a relatively young company, the prospect of angering your entire base of hard-won customers was daunting.
Phil Schiller was right: It took courage. Courage to do what was right in the long-term, even though it meant pain and uncertainty in the near-term. In the end, it proved to be a good decision.
Sure, we had some drop-off and more than a few angry users, but in the years since that decision we have grown tenfold. Had we lacked the courage to move forward with our decision, I doubt we would be in the position we are today.
Remember that entrepreneurship is deeply personal
It’s easy to make fun of a famous marketing executive describe something as mundane as the removal of a headphone jack as “courageous.” Courage is a word we set aside for members of our armed forces, or people who stand for what is right in the face of societal pressure.
However, it’s important to remember that entrepreneurs pour their heart, soul, time, and resources into their businesses. Rocking the boat and angering customers in the hope of doing what is right in the long-term can be a truly terrifying prospect.
Is it the same as jumping on a grenade to save your comrade or marching for civil rights? No, of course not. But when it comes to making deeply personal and high-risk decisions, entrepreneurs show their own form of courage, and that shouldn’t be mocked.
Credit: Chris Myers is the Cofounder and CEO of BodeTree and the author of Enlightened Entrepreneurship.
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