“Think simple” by Ken Segall

The author 🖋

Ken Segall is a bestselling author and a seasoned advertising creative director with clients like IBM, Intel, Dell and BMW.

He’s also worked closely with Steve Jobs for 12 years - first at NeXT and then at Apple - where he led the team behind the legendary "Think different" campaign and set Apple down the "i” way by naming the iMac.

Key takeaways 🎓

1. Simplicity as a competitive advantage

We should embrace simplicity in all aspects of business (and life).

Being simple is simply better than being complicated.

Stripping away unnecessary complexity is what allows us to become more user-friendly, more agile, more efficient and outmaneuver larger competitors (just how Apple did).

2. Customers prefer simple too

People don’t want complicated. They want simple.

When our products/services are easy to use and understand, people like them more.

Simplicity in design and function leads to a stronger, more recognizable brand and better customer loyalty.

3. Focus on the essence

Segall stresses the importance of focusing on the most important things.

He believes we should worry about doing fewer things, but doing them exceptionally well.

Simplicity is about removing unnecessary distractions, not making things easy - this approach helps us stay focused on the 20% of key tasks that are usually responsible for 80% of the results.

Closing thoughts 🧠

The book demonstrates how making things simple and easy to understand can be a powerful driver of success because that’s what people actually want.

Segall shares his unique insider experiences working with Steve Jobs and many examples from other companies where simplicity made a difference.

Oh, and Ken was also kind enough to share a free chapter of the book with us ✌