Apple Store creator Ron Johnson shares timeless lessons about innovation, leadership, design, creating winning cultures, and the future of retail through the power of relationships.
When Ron Johnson began as vice president of retail at Apple in 2000, the dot-com revolution was in full swing and common wisdom predicted that the internet was going to put retail stores out of business. By the time he left Apple in 2011, Johnson had created the most respected and profitable retail stores in the world. And even then, prominent pundits like Marc Andreesen were still predicting the death of physical retail.
In Shop Different, Johnson shares the stories and secrets of how Apple became America’s best retailer. From developing a vision for the stores, to building a world-class retail team, to launching game-changing innovations like the Genius Bar, Johnson redefined the very purpose of a store and now reveals how it happened. But Shop Different isn’t just about looking back. It’s about looking forward.
The internet provides a great way for brands to launch and deliver digital convenience, but ultimately, they can only reach their fullest competitive potential through physical stores. Thriving in physical retail, meanwhile, requires constant evolution as new technologies like AI change how we shop. Johnson’s success at Apple provides a blueprint for the type of thinking companies need to build dynamic, enduring retail experiences around new, transformative technology in an omnichannel world. Shop Different is a must-read guide to success as we learn to navigate the technological developments shaping our world. It’s about not just succeeding, but creating a better world—now and in the years to come.
The store you know. The story you don’t.
When Steve Jobs hired Ron Johnson to create the Apple Store in 2000, conventional wisdom said that the internet would put stores out of business. By the time he left Apple in 2011, Johnson and his team had created the most respected and profitable retail stores in the world. And even then, skeptics were still predicting the death of physical retail.
In Shop Different, Johnson reveals how it happened: how he earned Jobs’s trust, how they developed a vision for a store that would win not by selling but by serving, and how he convinced Jobs that the store’s service philosophy should be rooted in something as intangible as love. Johnson then gives readers a new look at Apple’s ascent to the most valuable company in the world; offers an inspiring vision for a future in which retailers win on connection, service, and experience; and shares an honest look at what leads to success—and what can follow.
Shop Different is not a traditional business book. It is an insider account of one of the most important retail successes of our time, a guide for anyone trying to lead through technological change, and, in the age of artificial intelligence, a profound reminder of what it means to be human.
