Reading List: Think Simple

UPDATED: May 14, 2016
PUBLISHED: May 14, 2016

Simplicity isn’t simple, says Ken Segall, but it is “arguably the most potent weapon in business.” An advertising creative director who worked closely with Apple for more than 12 years, Segall named the iMac and wrote the iconic “Think Different” campaign. His appreciation for simplicity comes directly from Steve Jobs. “His obsession with simplicity was not just visible with Apple’s products. You could see it in the way the company organized, innovated, advertised, sold at retail, and provided customer service.”

Related: The Anatomy of a Killer Brand

Segall sets out in search of other “heroes of simplicity,” such as Ben & Jerry’s, Whole Foods, The Container Store and even the Blue Man Group. Jerry Greenfield, for example, discusses how a focus on simplicity allowed Ben & Jerry’s to grow from a local ice cream company to a top worldwide brand without sacrificing the company’s original values.

Think Simple
By Ken Segall
June; Portfolio; $28

 

This article originally appeared in the June 2016 issue of SUCCESS magazine.

Chauncey Mabe is a freelance writer, book critic, and blogger in Miami, Fla. For 23 years he served as Book Editor and Senior Entertainment Writer at the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. He was Book Blogger for the Florida Center for the Literary Arts, the parent organization of Miami Book Fair International, from 2009 to 2012. He also blogs for the Betsy Hotel South Beach hotel, which sponsors literary events year round. His reviews and feature stories have appeared in publications such as the Toronto Globe & Mail, the Serving House Journal, Inspicio, the Palm Beach Arts Paper, the Baltimore Sun, the Juneau Empire, and the Chicago Tribune.