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Quotations About Innovation from Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple Corporation

Quotable Quotes From a U.S. Retail Industry Leader and CEO About Innovation

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Quotations About Innovation from Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple CorporationGetty Images
Updated October 10, 2011
Steve Jobs is known for his rebelliousness, his vision, and his creativity. But most of all, the name Steve Jobs became almost synonymous with innovation. To see an Apple product is to see the results of Steve Jobs' innovation. To read the quotes from Steve Jobs about innovation is to know how thoughts become things.

Steve Jobs showed the world that truly valuable innovation starts first with a belief, which frames a perspective, which inspires an idea, which eventually becomes a tangible reality. The innovative beliefs of Steve Jobs can be adopted and adapted by anyone who desires to be a true master of innovation as well.

Quotable Quotes From Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple Corporation, About Innovation:

  • "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."

  • "A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.

  • “The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.”

  • “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

  • "Pretty much, Apple and Dell are the only ones in this industry making money. They make it by being Wal-Mart. We make it by innovation."

  • "To turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines.

  • "You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.

  • “It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do.
 We just want to make great products.

  • “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

  • “So when a good idea comes, you know, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, argue with people about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different people together to explore different aspects of it quietly, and, you know – just explore things.”

  • “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”

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