Insanely Simple starts with the author sharing his experience at Apple and at Dell and why in certain situations something worked while in others it didn’t. One of the main reasons I liked Insanely Simple was that the author shared how life was at Apple at the marketing and leadership level. Ken Segall didn’t hold back about how rude and mean Steve Jobs was if he strongly disagreed with you. He also talks about how Steve Jobs brought back the company when he returned after beforehand being “thrown out” of his own company. Before Steve’s return Apple had a couple of CEOs who were typical CEOs, by that I mean they focused only on numbers and the “status quo”. For example, they focused on the number of models of a certain product. The research on human behavior done by neuroscience now shows why Jobs’ strategy of minimizing the number of varieties of the same product worked and why having numerous varieties of the same product doesn’t. Apple simplified what it offered to its customers, it minimized the range of product models, and by doing so it prevented choice overload with its customers. At the same time, the products were of high quality and elegant visual design. There was also a big shift in marketing when Jobs returned. Everything in Apple now was based on user experience and emotions, the numbers were just an obvious consequence.

The main takeaway from the book is to make things high quality but simple. That is hard to achieve, it takes more dedication than you can imagine to achieve this. It is not enough that you find the right solution for your customers, you need to work at this solution to make it as easy to use as possible. Another strong case Ken made was about the importance of investing in your company’s culture and brand. Only when everyone you need is onboard the same ship and paddles in the same direction will you get ahead and create added value for your customers. How that was achieved at Apple when Ken was there you can learn when you pick up Insanely Simple.