As you say, let's all hope I am right.
I'm not sure why you say the podcast sounded like something from a PowerPoint presentation to you. Clearly, the questions were not designed for this to be an "easy ride". We hear the people asking questions having concerns, our concerns, and be very direct about it, not confrontational but flirting with that in some cases. I felt like Brad gave answers that were honest and showed a good deal of humility. It did not seem rehearsed or to be the kind of answers we blame politicians for (answering a question while avoiding providing an actual answer seems to just be part of politicians brand I guess).
If Steve Jobs is your measure for that, we all know that of the Jobs/Wozniak duo, Wozniak was the gearhead of the two, not Jobs. I'm sure he was able technically speaking, but I don't think his vision stemmed from that. More generally, I think anyone can be a visionary, being technical is neither a requirement nor does it provide an "edge" over other less technical visionaries.
What is truly rare are visionaries who manage to rally people to their cause and execute and deliver on what the vision is.
I said I like the vision, but nothing is won yet. Implementation is where everything either "floats or sinks".
I'm not painting everything in pink. There are things that have been pretty "bumpy". For one thing, I was not happy when the Workplace Innovation Platform initiative was introduced. I am much happier now.
I would like to challenge that and say that we are betting our existence on the BRAND. Not the product. And this is what makes the vision so important.
Again, with Beta and VHS, let's say you are selling and servicing VCRs back in the day. By choosing to partner with the best of the two, Beta, you tell yourself you will have happier customers, fewer returns, fewer repairs to perform... all good things we want for a good business, but Beta, despite being a good product is not the winning brand. VHS is, and partnering with that brand back then was a better move because it simply had more market adoption. Despite not being as good a product as Beta, VHS was more than good enough for consumers, and they choose that BRAND over Beta, it was better for them in their eye.
Yes my expectations are super high also. Again, high expectations for the product, but much higher for the brand itself. I can play my hand with a product that has its quirks, I cannot stay the course with a failing brand. The product is part of the brand and influences it, but the brand is larger than the product. Actually, we know some bad products that have a thriving brand, and I'm sure people making a living in that space don't have too many problems about the product flaws (as long as it is not tarnishing the brand).
Yes indeed!