he has made shipping new products an art form

Great execution is every bit as important to innovation as empathy and creativity are. Now is the time to bring ideas to life faster. To make changes that let great things happen. To develop a bias for action. As Stanford University engineering professor Jim Adams once noted, 'Good companies reward success, punish failure, and ignore inaction. Great companies reward success and failure and punish inaction.' Since Steve Jobs returned as Apple's CEO in 1997, the company has been celebrated for its design-driven approach to innovation. What's rarely discussed is the well-oiled execution machine that gets Apple's products out the door. Soon after his arrival, Jobs unleashed operations whiz Tim Cook on Apple's troubled supply chain. For years, Apple struggled to clear out older models. Cook reduced Apple's inventory from 54 days to less than a day, going from near-worst in the industry to leaner than cost-leader Dell. Fixing the supply chain and slashing nonessential businesses freed up resources for new ideas, such as the iPhone and the iPad. Steve Jobs is renowned for saying that 'real artists ship.' And he has made shipping new products an art form."

Dev Patnaik, "The Fundamentals of Innovation," BusinessWeek, 10 Feb 2010,
www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2010/id2010028_823268_page_2.htm.