- Tim Kobe, founder and CEO of design firm Eight Inc., has been working with Apple on its retail experience since 1999.
- After working with Steve Jobs for more than a decade, Kobe says there's one big lesson he took away from the experience: how to create value for customers.
- Kobe also says that more recent changes to the Apple Store, like redesigns meant to make stores feel more like town squares, are an extension of the company's original vision.
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Tim Kobe, whose design firm Eight Inc. has been working with Apple on its retail program since 1999, spent more than a decade working with Steve Jobs. And over the course of those years, there's one important lesson he took away from working alongside the iconic Apple co-founder and former CEO - how to create value for customers that goes beyond just selling products.
"He would make things that mattered to people," Kobe recently said when speaking with Business Insider, adding that this is at the core of Apple's business. "But you know, he did it in a way that was very much around what the human outcome was rather than the technical tactics."
In the nearly two decades of its existence, the Apple Store has provided a blueprint for how to elevate the retail experience. Brands ranging from electric carmaker Tesla to AT&T, Kohl's, and Walmart have all drawn inspiration from Apple's shopping experience in one way or another, as Digiday reported in 2019.
Jobs' approach to retail, one that focuses on high-quality customer service and making the store a place where people wanted to gather even when they weren't shopping, was evident from Apple's very first store. When Jobs unveiled the original Apple Store in Virginia in 2001, he illustrated how the store was thoughtfully divided into specific areas for different intentions, like using Apple's computers, browsing its software offerings, and asking questions about products and services - i.e. the Genius Bar.
The Apple Store has changed quite a bit since its original debut in 2001, both in terms of the products it sells and the ways in which it showcases them. For example, Apple launched a program called Today at Apple in 2017 that offers free programs and educational sessions for how to use Apple products for photography, filmmaking, art, and more. That represented a departure from the One-to-One sessions it previously provided, which offered workshops on how to use Apple products for $99 per year.
The company in recent years also replaced some of its signature Genius Bars with Genius Groves, open tree-lined spaces meant to make the repair experience feel more personal.
Kobe doesn't see these updates as changes so much as a continuation of Apple's original goal with the store.
"We grew from, 'Would the stores succeed?' to suddenly an American iconic experience, and that progression naturally had to continue to evolve," he said.
One way Jobs' perspective on creating value for customers has stuck with Kobe is in the impact it's had on how he thinks about the decision-making process.
"Steve was very unique in the sense that he could look at things from an analytical perspective and just as naturally look at it from an intuitive perspective," Kobe said. "And so I think the combination of those kind of polarities of ways of thinking gave him a huge advantage in terms of creating experiences for people."
Do you currently work at an Apple Store? If so, we want to hear from you. Contact this reporter at leadicicco@businessinsider.com.
