Wonderful article which puts a lot of Apple’s success in perspective. But you kind of buried the lead, IMHO. Your next to last paragraph is what really separates Apple from most other companies and absolutely explains why it helped create the era we now live in— it brings diverse viewpoints and skills to almost all it does. It uses systems-based thinking to find innovatuive solutions for complex problems in order to produce a personal device for millions of customers. Most companies use the old, process-driven approach geared to simplify complexity in order to produce millions of the same device for consumers.

Organizations that understand systems approaches, that use distributed and diverse principles to solve complex problems, are the ones that will help solve the complex problems facing humanity in the 21st century.