There's A Huge Difference Between How Apple Deals With Failure And How Amazon Deals With Failure
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was the keynote speaker at the Business Insider Ignition conference a few days ago. A few of his comments about failure jumped out to me.
Last month, Apple SVP Design Jony Ive gave a talk on Design Museum and the topic of failure was discussed.
Both men accept failure and I suspect nearly every human needs to accept failure in some capacity. What is interesting is where Bezos and Jony are willing to accept those failures. For Jony and Apple, the goal is to fail behind closed doors.
For Amazon, failure out in the public marketplace is thought to have little consequence and is even encouraged. For Apple, failure is actually minimized by taking bigger risks. Amazon does the exact opposite, by not taking big risks, failure is more acceptable and manageable.
I'm intrigued by Amazon's hardware strategy. While the Kindle found its niche, subsequent versions that were more akin to iPad never saw the same level of success, while every other Amazon consumer tech hardware product hasn't lived up to the hype (Amazon has never released sales numbers, but share/sales data and surveys all point to the same conclusions).
For Amazon, public failure with the Fire Phone is acceptable, and even applauded, as the thought process is that things can be learned about a failure, and then future versions may have a better chance of success. Do consumer habits support such a stance? Will consumers forget about past product shortcomings, and give subsequent reiterations a fair chance? I'm not so sure.
Over the past 10 years, Apple has had very few hardware failures, with the iPod Hi-Fi speaker system standing out as maybe the biggest flop. While Apple has its fair share of hardware blemishes or minor flaws that are rectified in subsequent versions, the public has come to expect Apple's best when it comes to hardware, as most of the company's failures have been kept hidden in Jony's labs, with the public seeing only the big hardware bets.
Brand equity is built in consumers' minds, while public perception and anticipation remain elevated. I suspect consumer tech hardware failures take a much bigger long-term toll on a company than Jeff Bezos would like the world to believe.
Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.