This week’s news was the decision of Jonathan Ive, head of Apple’s design division, leaving the company to start his own studio. I’ve been one of the few designers in the tech industry whose name most people in the middle know. His talent precedes him, he entered Apple on the brink of bankruptcy, he made a successful dumbbell with Steve Jobs to create the iMac, iPod, iPhone as well as other brand equipment, along with its peripherals and accessories.
You may be interested: Jony Ive, the Apple designer leaves the company.
If you have an Apple product, I invite you to study it carefully, see how each of the pieces fit perfectly, the feel of the touch, the quality of the graphics, the way it is taken, closes, catches on and works. It is no coincidence, it is a meticulous and long process, with thousands of sketches, dummies and tests before reaching the final prototype, which must then be replicated through processes of efficiency, productivity, taking care of materials, supplies and costs.
Then the packaging, packaging, transportation until reaching the consumer, who has a complete shopping experience. It is an entire design department in action, of first quality, made up not only of people full of knowledge, but of passion for what they do, of initiative to reach a point of excellence as few companies have. It is a process of years that was forged to denote a company with a focus on excellence in design.
As soon as Ive’s departure was announced, Apple lost 10 billion dollars, it is the collapse of 1.5% of one of the top 3 companies with the highest value on the planet. This produced one of those rare opportunities to calculate the value a designer places on a company. And it is that we continually live in this abstract world in which the work itself is the one that speaks for us: the colors, the typography, the formats, the efficiency of the information, but rarely is the power to evaluate and monetize the contribution that design bestows on a company.
Although an employee must contribute more than double the total salary to the company, the value that each person has within a commercial machinery is unique and is forged over time, with perseverance and individual quality. As you specialize and contribute to your company beyond what someone of your same rank is the moment when you start to become a unique, irreplaceable asset.
In the design studio we have seen several designers pass, each with their own unique characteristics, beyond their personality: a way of working, of relating to colleagues and clients, a style for solving projects so individual that we have chosen for not looking for an ideal substitute every time someone leaves, but evaluating what we gain and what we lose by hiring one candidate instead of another.
We often confuse, even, that our work cannot be done by anyone else with the wrong reasons, with the filling of a chair and the personal use of information, which is why many times, when someone is fired, one of the most common forms of revenge is to erase all the information or pour coffee over the computer, or speak to customers to speak up about the company, without realizing that each action like this is a mirror to what the next company to hire you will see.
The value is knowing how to capitalize the personal contribution to the companyAnd that many times they are unable to perceive pushing many designers to accept jobs elsewhere when they could well have a long and fruitful career.
To know this value, we must divest ourselves of the person and become an object to self-evaluate, be critical. Many times we only see the surface.
At our company, we ask questions every year so that everyone is evaluated, beyond feelings, about our work. Some questions that we ask and that I invite you to answer are:
- What good thing did I do this year that I think was not seen?
- What good thing did I do this year and was it recognized?
- What did I do wrong this year and I think it overshadowed my productivity?
- What is my personal goal for the following year?
- If they named me today CEO from the company, what would be the first change you would make? (it is not worth dismissing anyone)
Another way to get to know us better is to do a psychometric test (there are many professional sites on the web, focused on Mexico), so we can know our strengths, even I’m sure more than one would be amazed with the results.
Understanding our role within the company, seeking our value and setting clear objectives, even if personal, is undoubtedly an effective way to value ourselves, to transmit what we provide and to make our work a work of excellence.
