Updated: May 21, 2020
The departure of Apple's legendary chief design officer Johnny Ive from the technology behemoth has sparked renewed interest in not only Apple's future, but how Ive arrived at the company in the first place.
Ive, then a London-based independent design consultant, was hired by Steve Jobs in 1997. His specialty was in designing home appliances, which was a strange background for someone to start designing computers. When faced with the challenge of hiring a design role today, hiring managers tend to look for previous experience in the same field.
That hiring philosophy was not the one used by Jobs; instead, he looked to the future. As an innovator, Jobs knew that to be different from the other computer manufacturers, Apple had to be designed differently. In other words: "The lesson: When choosing an innovator, look to the future, not the past." In retrospect, hiring Ive was fundamental to Apple's success.
When looking to the future of your company, do you decide based on history, or on possibility? Elements of both perspectives will come into play, but it is important to be driven by the future, not determined by the past.
Look at your business today and its key components: