Beauty sells. And sells big. Ask Apple. Everything about Apple is beautiful. From the white ear molds (they are more than just ear pieces), to their sleazy and smooth iPods (Read MP3 player). Apple is beautiful. Design is an understatement.  The best companies in the world are suckers for beauty. Engineers of fashion. Fusing Hollywood with product development. And customer care. It’s all beautiful.

There are so many products out there. We are in the age of abundance. We have more than we need. Three hundred and sixty five types of cereal. I mean how many different ways can you eat cereal? Or put better, how many ways can you eat wheat? Wheat. Yes, Wheat. Branding? May be a little of that. We consume brands not cereal. Forget cereal. Forget MP3 Players. I play my music on the iPod. Yes I know it’s an MP3 player like Sony’s S-Series, or do I? No I don’t. Five thousand songs in my pocket. That was Apple’s promise when they first came out with the iPod. And they delivered. It was beautiful. Then some other MP3 players came out promising Gigabytes. I am not a geek. I don’t understand Gigabytes. They sound like jiggers. But 5,000 songs in my pocket? That I understand. It’s beautiful. So beautiful. I love it.

Executive Vice President of Beauty? MBA in Beauty. Why not? Beauty sells. Forget functionality. KIS (keep it Simple). KIS is what the iPhone has been telling RIM (Research in Motion) for more than they can remember. Do you even know who RIM is? They are the folks who make blackberries. Those machines with one million buttons. Navigation? Nada. Keep it simple blackberry. Simply, simplify. Drop the unnecessary and create more beauty with simplicity. This is a message from Chapter 11.

What about you? Think about your product. Think about your service. Is it beautiful? No? Why not? Please clean up. Think beautiful systems. I am not trying to say that your accountant should be a graphic designer. But that could actually help. Charts of Accounts need beauty too. Have you seen those financial statements that can only be read by men from the moon? Keep your P&L simple. Keep it all simple. Design, design. Beauty, beautiful, fancy, amazing, great. Elegant.   BEAUTIFY.