Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
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Jobs made this claim in a 2001 Fortune interview, during Apple's turnaround. It is less a compliment to innovation than a definition of leadership — and a deliberately uncomfortable one.
By this measure, market share, size and revenue do not make an organisation a leader; they only record past success. Leadership is continuously re-earned by producing something others have not yet produced. The moment a company optimises what already works instead of creating what does not yet exist, it has quietly changed category.