On this platform, we’ll look at a great many companies and cultural touchstones with a special focus on some of my favorite companies and interests, one of which is Apple.
welcome to the collision of church leadership and pop culture. (part three – apple.)
At its best, Apple is what happens when a company decides to do fewer things better – and has the courage to disappoint people who want them to do everything.
Apple’s story is filled with drama (founders, ego, power struggles), but it’s also filled with leadership lessons that can apply to churches. Apple’s products, headquarters, advertising, branding, retail stores and websites reflect the company’s cultural emphasis on simplicity and design.
In 1997, Apple was on the brink of insolvency. But in February of that year, they bought NeXT – the computer company started by Steve Jobs. By September of that year, Jobs would be named “iCEO.” But by October, Michael Dell, whose Dell Computers were the 4th largest PC manufacturer worldwide with 5.5-6.5% market share would famously suggested Apple should “shut it down and return the money to their shareholders.” Within 15 years, Apple’s market value would surpass Dell’s by more than 30x. How?
Apple was mostly directionless in the 12 years that Steve Jobs was away from the company he founded. Their only real strategy was to do what all the other computer companies were doing: make beige boxed computers, handheld devices, digital cameras, printers, monitors, software and accessories. Apple had more than 350 products and projects, many of which were redundant.
Enter Steve Jobs.
Jobs drew a 2×2 grid on a white board and outlined his project strategy with just 4 primary product categories: consumer desktop, consumer laptop, pro desktop, and pro laptop. In total, Jobs would cut 315 distinct products, including 64 different models of one desktop computer, down to 10 total products.
As Apple filled in Jobs’s grid focusing on stunning design with the Bondi Blue iMac, the iBook, Power Mac, and Powerbook, their laser focus on these major categories paid off in a big way, returning Apple to profitability, setting trends that defined the era, and paving the way for the more robust product line up we see from Apple today. None of which would have been possible when Apple was trying to be everything to everyone.
Apple didn’t become Apple because they had better specs. They became Apple because they had a vision for how technology should feel – and they built a culture to support that vision.
They obsessed over simplicity. They sweated details. They protected the core.
They weren’t afraid to cut things. Sometimes brutally.
Church leaders, you’re going to hate this, but it’s true:
- Your church probably doesn’t need more ministries.
- It needs more clarity.
- It needs more alignment.
- It needs leaders who can lovingly say, “That’s a good idea… but not our idea.”
How much time, staffing, resources, finances, and promotional effort do you put into ministries that are no longer produce fruit? What if you took inventory and started making adjustments to put more resources into what matters most and what your church is called to? What are the key areas you’re going to get laser focused on? What are you saying “no” to?
Apple reminds us that focus isn’t limiting – it’s liberating. Because when everyone knows what matters most, people stop competing for attention and start moving in the same direction.
As an aside, if Apple can motivate people to camp outside overnight for a phone, shouldn’t we at least be able to get volunteers to confirm their availability on Planning Cente? (Kidding. Kinda.)
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