Both Apple and Nintendo were built on the genius of a single extraordinary creative mind. For over three decades Steve Jobs and Shigeru Miyamoto have been the innovating and guiding forces in their respective industries. In the case of Nintendo we’ve all come to love the Super Mario Brothers franchise invented by Miyamoto and of course the Apple Macintosh being the brainchild of Steve Jobs. While Miyamoto never served as CEO of Nintendo, he was the acknowledged face of the brand for several decades.
A brief history of the two companies is in order. Nintendo is a 100 year old company that started as a manufacture of hanafuda playing cards. Being a family operated business, Nintendo was able to handpick its leadership from within the ranks. In 1949 Hiroshi Yamauchi took over the company from his ailing grandfather. Once in control of the company he quickly consolidated power into his hands only. After signing a lucrative licensing deal with Disney and taking the company public Yamauchi decided to steer the company in a new direction.
Apple Computer was established in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne to sell the Apple 1 personal computer. Facing personal financial issues Ronald Wayne sold his stake in the company back to the other founders for a mere $800. The turning point for Apple Computers design philosophy occurred in 1979 when Steve Jobs and several Apple employees made a visit to Xerox PARC to spend three days examining the Xerox Alto. While at Xerox, Steve Jobs came to realize the Alto’s (GUI) graphical user interface was the future of personal computing.
In the years since its founding Apple has gone through a series of CEOs. The Apple we know today came about once Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997 with the mandate of returning it to profitability.
Yamauchi and Jobs set out to take their respective companies in a new direction. Nintendo rose to be the dominant player in the videogame industry due to the creative leadership Shigeru Miyamoto. Likewise, Steve Jobs set the creative vision for the post PC era Apple that we know today.
Where the two companies diverge is in the approach to differentiating between management and creative talent. Hiroshi Yamauchi invested in his designers placing them front and center as the face of the company. Hence most people know Miyamoto and not Yamauchi.
Apple on the other hand placed all of its eggs in one basket. Steve Jobs served as the company head, lead evangelist and thought leader of the company.
Hiroshi Yamauchi, Saturo Iwata, Shigeru Miyamato,Masahiro Sakurai
In 2002 Nintendo began the transition process between CEOs, to his credit Yamauchi chose game designer Saturo Iwata to head the videogame manufacture. Since then the company has gone on to highlight the key designers of its franchise titles, giving equal industry exposure to Eiji Aonuma, Takashi Tezuka, Masahiro Sakurai etc. Sharing the company’s success story among multiple designers lessens the need to be dependent on a single charismatic CEO.
For the most part Apple gave all media time to Steve Jobs; he is the face of the brand. His iconic black long sleeve Tee and blue jeans are now what people come to expect at a major Apple unveiling. Now Apple must find a way to convince the masses that Tim Cook is a suitable replacement as CEO. While Cook’s business acumen is without question, his showmanship is question. Can he alone create the Jobs like distortion field necessary to convince Apple fans that they need the next latest and greatest iGadget?
I strongly doubt that he alone can undertake the herculean task. Instead I suggest an approach similar to Nintendo’s branding. Apple needs to put more emphasis on the designers and engineers that make iOS devices a success.
Steve Jobs, Time Cook, Jony Ives, Scott Forstall
In the coming months Apple’s media briefings should be aimed at ensuring that anyone who owns an iDevice becomes familiar with the contributions of Jonathan Ives- Senior Vice President of Design and Scott Forstall- Senior Vice President iOS Software. It is imperative that Apple conveys to its shareholders and customers that an entire team of people are responsible for companies success, and that the ultimately departure of Steve Jobs won’t spell doom for Apple’s future.
