Tristan Louis posted a wonderful piece comparing Apple circa 1997 and Puls’ recent launch. Either will.i.am is an astute student of history or he and his team have no sense of history.
While the post cites the eerie parallels, there are two key differences:
1) Apple was around 20 years old when it launched that campaign in 1997 and Jobs came back to save the company; so it had some cache and history. There was an effort to build an expand the company, ideally maintaining cutting edge innovation. As the article inferred, the bigger you get, the harder it is to innovate, be leading edge. You have to buy new ideas while preserving what you have. Institutionalization sets in.
2) I think Puls is a product/business that is being built to be sold (a la Beats). The mindset and preference of will.i.am is to create, build and flip, so he can continually create and not have to worry about maintaining a business long-term; that is not in his DNA.
Which brings me to a key takeaway from the piece – stick with what you love and do best. There are very few people who have the whole package – the dynamic depth of intelligence, managerial skills, business savvy/people skills, product expertise and vision – and the PASSION to take a company from start-up to Fortune 100 company. In this case, will.i.am just wants to create.
More power to him.
sbjopinions by Andy Harrison 