Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs, made some surprising remarks in an interview. Wozniak says that Apple should spin-off its iPod business to a separate division because it distracts Apple from its core business-- computers. While acknowledging that the switch to Intel was a necessary evil, Wozniak says: "It's like consorting with the enemy. We've had this long history of saying the enemy is the big black-hatted guys, and they kind of represent evil. We are different, and by being different we're better. All of a sudden we're the same in this hardware regard, so it's a little hard to swallow your words from the past." Update: Wozniak now denies having made the claims. Just like politics, boys and girls!
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Member since:2006-01-01
Member since:2006-01-01
While you're at it you can:
Define the skills that you're talking about. Name ten people that have them in what order they have them if they do not have them equally. Provide a means for determining this skill set within the population and then provide some estimate. Let's try to keep me from enumerating all of the details necessary for reading your comment.
Member since:2005-07-06
Do you really need everything spelled out for you in such detail? Fine, I'll play along.
The skills necessary to be a successful CEO in the computer marketplace:
1) Knowing when to stay the course, and knowing when to change direction. SGI and Be are good examples of companies that did not know when to do what.
2) Knowing how to handle changes of course smoothly. The two-big Apple transitions, to OS X and to x86, happened under Jobs. They were well-timed, and well-executed. Either transition could have been fatal to Apple had they been botched.
3) Knowing what business directions to pursue. Apple had the foresight to avoid becoming just another vendor of Windows PCs, yet had the sense to diversify their core business into the consumer electronics realm. Apple branched out into creating a large body of first-party software for its platform. This gives them a lot of flexibility, and creates reasons for people to stay on the Apple platform.
4) Being able to effectively handle NIH-syndrome in the engineers. Apple under Jobs brought in a lot of outside software, from OS X (nee NeXTStep), to WebKit (nee KHTML), Final Cut Pro (nee KeyGrip), etc.
5) Being able to effectively manage your competitors. Apple has lots of competitors, and some particular complex relationships with them. They compete with Adobe in the video editing realm, but Photoshop is a crucial application on the Apple platform. Apple under Jobs has so far done an excellent job of juggling the various considerations.
I'm sure your're smart enough to look at the CEOs out there and figure out which ones display these qualities. I'd put Bill Gates at the top of the list, though.
Member since:2005-07-06
What's that ratio, again?
The ratio is very low. There are an enormous number of technically-competent ideas out there that failed because the company behind them couldn't hack it.
And what does the number of successful businesses have to do with skill set?
It takes certain skills as a CEO to build a successful business in the computer industry. It takes a lot of skill to survive a general consolidation of your industry. There are not a huge number of companies that made it out of the consolidation of the PC indusry alive. Apple is one that did it, and not only that, but did it without switching over to selling Windows-based PCs.
Member since:2006-01-01
Member since:
2005-07-06
The ratio of the number of successful businesses to the number of technically good ideas out there.