Apple or Stephen Hawking or Harvard University: Which is the most intelligent brand?

Apple or Stephen Hawking or Harvard University:  Which is the most intelligent brand?: by Jason Li 2012 ©

A bit of fun....

Which brand is the best representation of intelligence?...

Where humankind can say this is how clever we are?

Contenders

I thought of Garry Kasparov as a definite contender – the man is a chess genius and it’s pretty much impossible for any human to beat him. But then, the only thing that can spoil his credentials, if you can spoil his credentials, is to say that chess people play for hours-on-end every day going over the same situations and practice moves. I know how practice can improve your performance from playing football as we used to practice free kick routines sometimes to mix things up, and even those who were not the brightest seem to look like they did something clever.

However, this definitely does not detract from Kasparov as a proven chess genius over a very long period of time as he has beaten other dedicated professionals fair and square.

Sir David Attenborough is possibly the world’s most famous natural history film-maker. Whether it involves plants, global warming or prehistoric dinosaurs... Sir David Attenborough can tell you the facts. Every programme he presents is absolutely fascinating.

However, his brand is based on learning facts and regurgitating natural history facts in the most interesting way. As much as I love and admire his work and style, a memory expert could well copy Sir David Attenborough and provide a credible imitation. Again, this is not to take away from his deserved super brand status in this subjective question. Sir David Attenborough is an excellent and close contender too (beating millions of other worthy intelligent brands).

The top three intelligent brands

Many people judge success based on money and funny enough – success. Apple is therefore the most successful product brand in the world. At the time of writing, Apple was the company with the largest capitalisation in the world. The business world is occupied by very motivated, dedicated, clever, educated, smart and ambitious people in the world. Apple is ahead of all competitors at the moment and so must be in the top three.

Smart people go to university as a norm. You do get exceptions, but in general, if you’re smart you go to university. HarvardUniversity is well known around the world as a destination where many of the world’s smartest people go to take in more information in their specialists interests.

Most of us are aware Harvard University had two mega successful commercial students – Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. Even though they left before completing their degrees, they still choose Harvard which means there will be other students like them at the university.

Stephen Hawkins is world renown as a leading physicist at Cambridge University. Cambridge University itself is pretty much on par with Harvard, just not as glamorous. Hawkins has to be in the running as he develops new theories which mathematicians and physicists are playing catch up to understand. To develop new ideas explaining the universe and put your reputation on the block as other physicists test your ideas for holes (pardon the pun) is both brave and smart if the world has to wait for you to provide a theory to advance everyone else’s knowledge.

My vote

People at Harvard University can replicate what Apple do, and likewise those at Apple could easily create a university like Harvard.

I believe if Stephen Hawking learnt to programme, he would have the capacity to programme software or design products at Apple, and of course lecture at Harvard. If Stephen Hawking dedicated to chess he would definitely beat some of the top pros.

However, I’m not sure if there are more than only a handful of the people at Harvard University or Apple who have the original thinking in science and mathematics on the same level as Stephen Hawking. There will be brilliant specialists in design, art, science subjects and mathematics. However, Stephen Hawking is advanced in all these and more. Original thinkers who can explain black holes and quantum gravity in the universe only come along once in a generation.

For me Stephen Hawking is the most intelligent brand in the world.

(Stephen Hawking wins £1.8 million Fundamental Physics Prize - December 2012)
Daily Mail article, Universe Today article.

Maybe a mathematician will work out a formula to work out which is the most intelligent brand one day.

Do you agree? Ask this one question to someone you know as it will be fun to find out what people think. How did they arrive at their chosen intelligent brand?

If you liked this article, you will really make my day if you forward it on. J