Where is the Puck?

Apple is a great company. According to Fortune they are America’s and world’s most admired company in 2008!

Ever wondered what made Apple such a great company? What makes them so admired both by customers but also by their investors (with total annual return to investors of 94% over the past five years)?

It is because they never set goal to “MEET customer’s expectations”. They go extra mile, they EXCEED expectations, they WOW their customers. They love what they do. They are passionate. They excel. They DELIGHT! In a word, they have great KNOW-WOW!

Still not sure? Here are the excerpts of in interview with Steve Jobs illustrating Apple’s culture (interview done by Fortune senior editor Betsy Morris). Note how many times Jobs mentions words “GREAT” and “LOVE”:

- “We all had cell phones. We just hated them, they were so awful to use…It was a great challenge…. Let’s make a great phone that we fall in love with…”
- “We did iTunes because we all love music”.
- “We do no market research. We don’t hire consultants… We just want to make great products”.
- “When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself.”
- “We made more. We worked harder. We said: ‘This is great. Let’s do more’.”
- “We do put our heart and soul into these things.”