Today morning I woke up to be greeted with iPod shuffle – and Apple has released a simple but very useful feature ( unlike the shuffle feature they bragged about in shuffle’s first release ).

Now shuffle can talk to you about the song or the playlist name – very neat. Most of the time when you are working out or driving – it is hard to switch playlists – now this feature has made it really easy to use an iPod. I hope Apple updates its firmware so my iPod classic gets this feature.

But it makes me wonder how Apple can consistently come up with “cool” features. Is it the culture, is it because of Steve Jobs, is it some magic potion they put in the employee’s food? I really wish Steve Jobs writes a book on Apple.

Nintendo is in the same league as Apple. Their graphics is rudimentary when compared to PS3 or XBOX 360. But Nintendo consistently captures the imagination of gamers – with their innovative products like Wii or a DS. Why is that Nintendo alone is able to rewrite the rules, while Sony,Microsoft keep staring like lost puppies.

SAP is another company I admire – they have built this really complex software that runs heavy business and does complex transactions – between continents, between various industries and suppliers, between various systems, databases. How did they achieve it? What is the secret process they follow – is it XP, Waterfall, RUP or some unique Technik.

There are so many successful companies and each one of them have a secret sauce.

What is the secret sauce my startup has?