Several observers, including Christopher Bonanos and Erik Calonius, have pointed out that Steve Jobs was greatly inspired by Edwin H. Land, the inventor of instant photography and founder of Polaroid. Walter Isaacson, in his biography of Steve Jobs, quotes Jobs as saying that Land was one of his childhood heroes. A Polaroid veteran’s recent accounts detail the lessons that Jobs took from Dr. Land. These lessons would shape Apple’s culture and fuel Jobs’ determination to help that culture survive his own death.

The insights on the Jobs/Land connection were offered in a recent column at Ad Age, by Carl Johnson that is well worth reading and in subsequent conversations. Johnson should know; he learned them himself from Edwin Land when he became VP of worldwide advertising at Polaroid in the early 1980s

Read the entire article at Forbes.com.

Anticipation is building for the iPad3, with rumors flying that the next generation of Apple’s tablet has moved into production and will go on sale later this year or early next year. Whenever it arrives, the iPad3 is sure to be regarded as another masterstroke by the late Steve Jobs.

While the details of the iPad3 are shrouded in Apple’s signature secrecy, its broad shape can be easily discerned. That’s because Apple laid out an amazingly prescient vision of the iPad3 23 years ago. That earlier effort was also a marvelous example of how, even in the most disruptive domains, companies can craft articulate visions of the future.

Cue the video, and I’ll point out a few things.

Read the entire article at Forbes.com

As you read the flood of articles and books celebrating Steve Jobs’ success, just remember: Please don’t try this at home.

Like the golfer who hits from the back tees and consistently carries bunkers 280 yards down the fairway, Steve Jobs made most other business leaders look like weekend hackers. His devotion, drive, skills, and intuition led to unparalleled success. But, just as trying to imitate great golfers won’t enable you to hit over those far-away bunkers, mimicking Steve Jobs’ management style won’t transform you into him or your company into Apple.

Resist, therefore, the natural urge to be like Steve. Know that the most visible elements of his style were just surface manifestations of his genius, not the secrets to his success.

Read the entire article at Forbes.com.

I recently drank water from a tank full of pond scum, desert detritus and coyote scat. It was a stark view into the hardship facing the billions of people that live in water poverty and the danger that everyone faces when disaster destroys access to clean drinking water.

Luckily, my water was clean and delicious. Michael Pritchard, a British inventor, served it to me after running it through his Lifesaver ultra filtration water bottle. Pritchard’s invention is a thrilling example of human ingenuity, and offers hope that a better solution to the life-threatening lack of clean drinking water faced is within reach.

Read the entire article at Forbes.com

Guy Raz talks to Chunka Mui, who co-wrote Billion Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years, about the successes and failures of companies that present to the public a product that changes from what people are used to. Netflix has withdrawn a plan to mail DVDs to people under a new name. Coke tried to market New Coke. What will the public accept? What won’t they? And how do you know it’s time to reverse course?

Listen to the interview at NPR.

In a concession to the flurry of customer complaints that accompanied the recently announced separation of its DVD and streaming businesses, Netflix just notified its customers that it would not be separating the streaming and DVD customer service websites.

In the midst of all the encomiums for Steve Jobs — and they are well-deserved — I find it fascinating that his successes of the past 15 years occurred on a razor’s edge. Without Gil Amelio’s desperation and Jean-Louis Gassee’s overreaching, the Jobs legacy would be far less than it is. Despite what was clearly genius, many of his breakthroughs came so close to not happening.

Read the complete article on my HBR blog.

On the Netflix blog and in an email to customers this morning, Reed Hastings, Netflix’s chief executive, announced the separation of his company into two business, one for DVDs and another for streaming. The separation solidifies Netflix’s pricing changes of two months ago, when the company unbundled its streaming service and raised prices for customers. As Hastings describes it, the plan and pricing changes were in preparation for this structural change, and he apologized for not better communicating its rationale to customers.

Reed Hastings has been masterful in his development of Netflix, including the way he nurtured his streaming business without leaving an opening for competitors. But his handling of this episode is a misstep. His instinct to separate into two businesses has merit, but he should have taken the awful customer and investor reaction to the initial plan changes as a signal to stop, or at least wait, on the reorganization. Instead, he is rushing ahead to double down on a bad bet.

My friend, Paul Carroll, is peeved at Best Buy. It stems from the time his daughter’s puppy chewed up her laptop’s printer cord. Paul knew he could get the really simple cord for $2.50 on Amazon, but he had to buy it at Best Buy for $30 because she needed the cord immediately. Best Buy extracted a tremendous premium that day, and lost Paul’s good will forever.

So, for Paul and many other observers, it came as no surprise when Best Buy announced that sales had dropped for a fifth-consecutive quarter. Profits took an even bigger hit, as they dropped 30 percent. It was a surprise for many investors, however, who had the audacity to hope for a trend reversal. But that hope vaporized, and investors drove shares to their lowest level since 2008.

Read the entire article at Forbes.com

Reforming K-12 education is a wicked problem. Even the best ideas are inevitably incomplete and contradictory. All fly in the face of entrenched interests and are beaten around by opposing ideologies. Not only are there no silver bullets, there isn’t even a common view of the target. Rather than hope for reform, parents should consider opting out of the mess and focus instead on their own kids’ learning.

Read the full article at my Forbes blog.