Jonathan Ive: Apple’s goal isn’t to make money

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s London-born senior vice president of industrial design, gave a talk at the British Embassy’s Creative Summit event yesterday. In his presentation Ive spoke about the creative process at Apple, and how the company’s goal isn’t to make money, but to make great products.

According to Wired UK, who attended the event, Ive said:

We are really pleased with our revenues but our goal isn’t to make money. It sounds a little flippant, but it’s the truth. Our goal and what makes us excited is to make great products. If we are successful people will like them and if we are operationally competent, we will make money

He also explained the importance of focusing on a manageable number of products:

“We say no to a lot of things that we want to do and are intrigued by so that we only work on a manageable amount of products and can invest an incredible amount of care on each of them.”

Ive, who has been employed by Apple since 1996, told the assembled audience that he still gets excited by the creative process:

“To me I still think it’s remarkable that at a point in time on a Tuesday afternoon there isn’t an idea and then suddenly later on there is an idea. Invariably they start as a tentative, barely-formed thought that becomes a conversation between a couple of people.”

He ended the talk by reiterating the Cupertino company’s notorious stance of not carrying out market research:

“It will guarantee mediocrity and will only work out whether you are going to offend anyone.”

Head on over to Wired UK to read more quotes from Ive’s presentation.