One Last Lesson Steve Jobs Can Teach the Solar Industry

Last week, I reposted a blog titled "5 Lessons Solar Companies Can Learn from Steve Jobs and Apple." There is one last observation that I only touched on in that post, and that is Jobs' ability to be "ahead of the curve." Solar, too, needs that ability, but I believe there is something in the way. And it may be ourselves.

Jobs didn’t invent mp3 players, but he did popularize them with the iTunes store and the iPod. He didn’t invent the smart phone, but he did stretch smart phones way beyond Blackberries with the introduction of the iPhone.  In short, Jobs had a “vision” for not only seeing future trends, but also creating products to address those trends.

To illustrate this ahead-of-the-curve mentality, Jobs liked to quote Hall of Fame hockey great Wayne Gretzky, who said, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”

The good news is that I believe that we all have this part of Jobs in us. Around the water cooler and at lunch, we can see where our solar industry puck is going, but back at our desk, we become too frightened to act on those insights. We are afraid to talk to our supervisors or bosses, fearing criticism or the loss of our jobs in a shaky economy and a “let’s not be another Solyndra” mentality.

Some may argue that Jobs could afford to take risks since he was a multimillionaire. I think that’s true to some extent, but don’t forget that Jobs didn’t just keep his millions in the bank for a rainy day. Instead, he invested millions into his visions of where he saw that puck was going to land. For example, he invested millions of dollars in Pixar years before Toy Story became a megahit. He also created NeXT computers, a company that faired poorly on its own, but later helped to create the basis for Apple’s comeback when Jobs was asked to return.

I think the missing link that creates a Steve Jobs is the permission to speak out and to fail. That is, Jobs gave himself, his designers, his engineers, and his marketers this permission. He didn’t give the permission to fail lightly, however. In fact, many thought his management style was nasty, though people say that he changed and mellowed after returning to Apple.

So let’s learn from this Jobs example too. Let’s give permission to our solar employees in all departments to make creative suggestions that are risky and may fail. We can still hold these risk takers to high standards, as Jobs did, but drafts and ideas should be constructively critiqued and the employee thanked for their courage to suggest innovations and efficiencies.

The alternative is a solar company culture of fear and company stagnation. It’s each employee and department head playing defense and protecting past ideas instead of encouraging a culture of Jobs-ian employees who are always attempting to see where the solar industry puck is going.

I especially want to point out that Apple’s company culture did not develop out of nowhere. It came from Steve Jobs. Likewise in solar, this type of permission-to-risk-and-fail company culture must come from the Solar CEO, and this permission must be explicitly demonstrated to everyone inside and outside the company.

Be bold for solar. Stand out and educate. And, of course, as I always say, UnThink Solar. 

Tor Valenza a.k.a. “Solar Fred” advises solar companies on marketing, communications, and public relations. Contact him through UnThink Solar or follow him on Twitter @SolarFred.