The North Star has always been the same, which for us, is about making insanely great products that really change the world in some way - enrich people's lives.
Tim CookRead
Most business models have focused on self interest instead of user experience. Those are the kinds of problems we solve to solve.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the need for businesses to prioritize user experience over self-interest.
Tim Cook highlights a shift in business models that have traditionally prioritized self-interest over the user experience. He suggests that by solving problems related to user experience, businesses can create value for their customers and ultimately succeed in the market.
In practice
In a keynote speech at a tech conference, a leader might use this quote to inspire a focus on customer-centric innovation.
The North Star has always been the same, which for us, is about making insanely great products that really change the world in some way - enrich people's lives.
There have been people that suggest that we should have a back door. But the reality is if you put a back door in, that back door's for everybody - for good guys and bad guys.
I don't subscribe to the view some people have in the industry that you should purposefully design products that do not last that long. I don't think it is good for anyone.
When technological advancement can go up so exponentially, I do think there's a risk of losing sight of the fact that tech should serve humanity, not the other way around.
Work takes on new meaning when you feel you are pointed in the right direction. Otherwise, it's just a job, and life is too short for that.
That has always been the objective of Apple: to do things that really enrich people's lives. That you look back on and you wonder, 'How did I live without this?'
Part of company culture is path-dependent - it's the lessons you learn along the way.
Business is what concerns us. If you care about something enough to do something about it, you're in business
No enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others; or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist.
My half-baked reading of history is that we continue to go through these waves of entrepreneurial explosion followed by merger mania and consolidation. Out of that come big sluggish companies that eventually collapse under the weight of what they've created, and are killed off by the next wave of entrepreneurs.
The business of America is business.
Our model is to develop each business separately with its own shareholder and management - this way we can concentrate on the job in hand, rather than be part of some enormous and faceless conglomerate.
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