In a consumer market, design, reliability, simplicity, good marketing, and elegant packaging are key assets. It’s coming full circle—the company that does it all is the one best positioned to lead.
“It seems to take a very unique combination of technology, talent, business and marketing and luck to make significant change in our industry,” Steve Jobs told
Rolling Stone
in 1994. “It hasn’t happened that often.”
Acknowledgments
Many thanks for help and support from everyone who gave their time for interviews, shared their expertise and stories, and provided encouragement and support. The list includes but is not limited to: Gordon Bell, Warren Berger, Robert Brunner, Vinnie Chieco, Traci Dauphin, Seth Godin, Evan Hansen, Nobuyuki Hayashi, Peter Hoddie, Guy Kawasaki, John Maeda, Geoffrey Moore, Bill Moggridge, Pete Mortensen, Don Norman, Jim Oliver, Cordell Ratzlaff, Jon Rubinstein, John Sculley, Adrienne Schultz, Dag Spicer, Patrick Whitney, and other sources who asked not to be named.
Special thanks to Ted Weinstein for suggesting the book and providing constant encouragement.
Notes
Introduction
1
Alan Deutschman,
The Second Coming of Steve Jobs
(New York: Broad-way, 2001), pp. 59, 197, 239, 243, 254, 294-95; William L. Simon and Jeffrey S. Young,
iCon: Steve Jobs, The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business
(New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2005), pp. 212, 213, 254.
3
“Oh, Yeah, He Also Sells Computers,” by John Markoff,
New York Times
, April 25, 2004.
4
Private e-mail from Gordon Bell, November 2007.
5
Smithsonian Institution Oral and Video Histories: “Steve Jobs,” by David Morrow, April 20, 1995. (
americanhistory.si.edu/
collections/comphist/sj1.html)
7
“How Big Can Apple Get?” by Brent Schlender,
Fortune
, February 21, 2005.
9
Guy Kawasaki, personal interview, 2006.
10
Gil Amelio with William L. Simon,
On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple
(New York: Harper Business, 1999), Preface, p. x.
Chapter 1: Focus: How Saying “No” Saved Apple
2
“IBM had a 10.8 percent market share; Apple 9.4 percent; and Compaq Computer 8.1 percent, according to market research firm IDC,”
New York Times
, Jan. 26, 1995, Vol. 144, No. 49953.
3
“Apple’s Executive Mac Math: The Greater the Lows, the Greater the Salary,” by Denise Carreso,
New York Times
, July 14, 1997.
4
Amelio with Simon,
On the Firing Line
, p. 192.
7
“Steve’s Job: Restart Apple.”
8
In the first quarter of 1996, Apple recorded a loss of $740 million.
9
Amelio with Simon,
On the Firing Line
, p. 200.
11
Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference, May 11, 1998.
12
Don Norman, personal interview, October 2006.
13
Deutschman,
The Second Coming of Steve Jobs
, p. 256.
14
Jim Oliver, personal interview, October 2006.
15
Oliver said he was later amazed that Apple’s revenues did indeed bottom out at about $5.4 billion.
16
“Steve’s Job: Restart Apple.”
19
“Steve Jobs’ Magic Kingdom.”
22
“Steve’s Job: Restart Apple.”
23
Jim Oliver, personal interview, October 2006.
24
Seybold San Francisco/Publishing ’98, Web Publishing Conference, special keynote: Steve Jobs, Aug. 31, 1998.
27
“Thinking Too Different,” by Hiawatha Bray,
Boston Globe
, May 14, 1998.
31
“Steve Jobs at 44,” by Michael Krantz and Steve Jobs,
Time
, Oct. 10, 1999.
32
IDC, Top 5 Vendors, United States PC Shipments, Third Quarter 2007. (
www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp
;jsessionid=Z53BVCY1DTP R2CQJAFICFGAKBEAUMIWD?containerId=prUS20914007)
Chapter 2: Despotism: Apple’s One-Man Focus Group
1
Cordell Ratzlaff, personal interview, September 2006.
2
Peter Hoddie, personal interview, September 2006.
3
“Steve Jobs: The Rolling Stone Interview. He changed the computer industry. Now he’s after the music business,” by Jeff Goodell, posted Dec. 3, 2003. (
www.rollingstone.com/news/
story/5939600/steve_jobs_the_rolling_stone_interview)
6
John Sculley, personal interview, December 2007.
8
Patrick Whitney, personal interview, October 2006.
9
“Steve Jobs on Apple’s Resurgence.”
10
Dag Spicer, personal Interview, October 2006.
11
Guy Kawasaki, personal interview, October 2006.
Chapter 3: Perfectionism: Product Design and the Pursuit of Excellence
2
Paul Kunkel and Rick English,
Apple Design
:
The Work of the Apple Industrial Design Group
(Watson-Guptill Publications, 1997), p. 22.
8
Andy Hertzfeld,
Revolution in the Valley
(Sebastapol, Calif.: O’Reilly Media, 2004), p. 30.
10
Quoted in Steven Levy,
Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything
(New York: Penguin, 1994), p. 186.
11
“Why We Buy: Interview with Jonathan Ive,” by Charles Fishman,
Fast Company
, Oct. 1999, p. 282. (
www.fastcompany.com/
magazine/29/buy.html)
14
John Sculley,
Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple: The Journey of a Marketing Impresario
(New York: HarperCollins, 1987), p. 154.
15
John Sculley, personal interview, December 2007.
16
“The Guru: Steve Jobs,” by Charles Arthur,
The Independent
(London, UK), Oct. 29, 2005.
17
“The Wired Interview: Steve Jobs: The Next Insanely Great Thing,” by Gary Wolf,
Wired
, Issue 4.02, Feb. 1996.
18
“The Observer Profile: Father of Invention,” by John Arlidge,
The Observer
(UK), Dec. 21, 2003.
22
“An Evening into Former Apple Industrial Designers,” public lecture, June 4, 2007, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California.
25
“The Observer Profile.”
29
Jonathan Ive interview, by Marcus Fairs.
31
Jonathan Ive interview, by Marcus Fairs.
34
Design Museum interview.
Chapter 4: Elitism: Hire Only
A
Players, Fire the Bozos
1
Smithsonian Institution Oral and Video Histories: “Steve Jobs.”
3
“If He’s So Smart... Steve Jobs, Apple, and the Limits of Innovation,” by Carleen Hawn,
Fast Company
, Issue 78, Jan. 2004, p.68.
4
Brent Schlender,
Cases in Organizational Behavior
(Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 2004), p. 206.
5
“How Pixar Adds a New School of Thought to Disney,” by William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre,
New York Times
, Jan. 29, 2006.
7
Smithsonian Institution Oral and Video Histories: “Steve Jobs.”
10
Rolling Stone
, April 4, 1996.
11
Smithsonian Institution Oral and Video Histories: “Steve Jobs.”
12
Sculley,
Odyssey
, p. 87.
13
Geoffrey Moore, personal interview, October 2006.
14
“Dieter Rams,”
Icon
Magazine, Feb. 2004.
15
Peter Hoddie, personal interview, September 2006.
16
“10 Years After ‘1984,’ ” by Bradley Johnson,
Advertising Age
, Jan. 10, 1994, pp. 1, 12-14.
17
“Apple Endorses Some Achievers Who ‘Think Different,’ ” by Stuart Elliott,
New York Times
, Aug. 3, 1998.
18
“Here’s to the Crazy Ones: The Crafting of ‘Think Different,’ ” by Lee Clow and the Team at TBWA/Chiat/Day. (http://www .
electric-escape.net/node/565
)
19
Sculley,
Odyssey
, p. 108.
25
Warren Berger, personal interview, October 2006.
26
Seth Godin, personal interview, October 2006.
29
“Apple Endorses Some Achievers Who ‘Think Different.’ ”