3 lessons smart grid pioneers can learn from Steve Jobs

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By Judith Schwartz

Judith Schwartz is one of North America's top experts in how to message the smart grid to the consumer. She's also someone who worked with Steve Jobs during the early days of Apple. That makes her the perfect person to suggest what the utility industry can learn from the man many consider the greatest technology product visionary of all time. – Jesse Berst

This week Steve Jobs announced he was stepping down from his post as CEO of Apple. His example of building a company that would truly “change the world” has lessons for all of us working in the smart grid space.

Lesson 1: Intuition plays a critical role in technology innovation

A front page story — "Jobs’ Exit Ends an Era” — in the San Jose Mercury News describes Steve’s ability to “know intuitively what consumers needed in their lives, even before they themselves could put a finger on it.”  That quality is true of many Silicon Valley innovators.  The lesson for our industry is that the killer apps of smart grid will require that same ability to make intuitive leaps. Quantitative research cannot anticipate future trends.

Lesson 2: Learn from the bumps in the road

Today Apple is seen as an amazing success story. Yet the company (and the man) had their share of missteps and false starts. The nature of the utility industry is rightfully more careful, for safety and economic reasons.  Even so, without the ability to rapidly prototype, test and revise, we won’t discover the policy and technical innovations we need for a sustainable energy economy.  If our industry is to do its best work, advocates and regulators need to join the innovators in embracing creative solutions.

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