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发帖数: 1782 | 1 http://www.businessweek.com/print/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2004/nf200
The Seed of Apple's Innovation
CEO Steve Jobs says among other practices, it's "saying no to 1,000 things"
so as to concentrate on the "really important" creations
In an era when most technology outfits have tightened their belts to adapt
to a slower-growing market, one company stands out for forging ahead on
innovation: Apple Computer (AAPL ). Others have slashed R&D and focused on
incremental advances to existing product lines. Not Apple.
By combining technical knowhow with a new concept for how to sell music
online, Apple's iPod music player has become the most influential new tech
product in years. At the same time, Apple has maintained its reputation for
making the most elegant, easy-to-use desktop computers as well.
Much of the credit for this performance is attributed to Chief Executive
Steven P. Jobs, who founded Apple in 1976 -- but was ousted in 1985 before
making a triumphant return in 1997. BusinessWeek Computer Editor Peter
Burrows recently talked about the nature of innovation with Jobs, who is
back to work part-time after recovering from pancreatic cancer surgery. Here
are edited excerpts of their conversation:
Q: Apple has long been an innovative place with lots of smart, passionate
engineers. But it seemed to fall off the map in the years before you
returned in 1997. What happened?
A: Let's start at the beginning. Both [Apple co-founder] Steve Wozniak and I
-- and I think I can speak for Woz -- got our view of what a technology
company should be while working for Hewlett-Packard (HPQ ) in the late 1960s
and early 1970s. And the first rule over there was to build great products.
Well, Apple invented the PC as we know it, and then it invented the
graphical user interface as we know it eight years later [with the
introduction of the Mac]. But then, the company had a decade in which it
took a nap.
Q: What can we learn from Apple's struggle to innovate during the decade
before you returned in 1997?
A: You need a very product-oriented culture, even in a technology company.
Lots of companies have tons of great engineers and smart people. But
ultimately, there needs to be some gravitational force that pulls it all
together. Otherwise, you can get great pieces of technology all floating
around the universe. But it doesn't add up to much. That's what was missing
at Apple for a while. There were bits and pieces of interesting things
floating around, but not that gravitational pull.
People always ask me why did Apple really fail for those years, and it's
easy to blame it on certain people or personalities. Certainly, there was
some of that. But there's a far more insightful way to think about it. Apple
had a monopoly on the graphical user interface for almost 10 years. That's
a long time. And how are monopolies lost? Think about it. Some very good
product people invent some very good products, and the company achieves a
monopoly.
But after that, the product people aren't the ones that drive the company
forward anymore. It's the marketing guys or the ones who expand the business
into Latin America or whatever. Because what's the point of focusing on
making the product even better when the only company you can take business
from is yourself?
So a different group of people start to move up. And who usually ends up
running the show? The sales guy. John Akers at IBM (IBM ) is the consummate
example. Then one day, the monopoly expires for whatever reason. But by then
the best product people have left, or they're no longer listened to. And so
the company goes through this tumultuous time, and it either survives or it
doesn't.
Q: Is this common in the industry?
A: Look at Microsoft (MSFT ) -- who's running Microsoft?
Q: Steve Ballmer.
A: Right, the sales guy. Case closed. And that's what happened at Apple, as
well.
Q: How did Apple recapture its innovative spark?
A: I used to be the youngest guy in every meeting I was in, and now I'm
usually the oldest. And the older I get, the more I'm convinced that motives
make so much difference. HP's primary goal was to make great products. And
our primary goal here is to make the world's best PCs -- not to be the
biggest or the richest.
We have a second goal, which is to always make a profit -- both to make some
money but also so we can keep making those great products. For a time,
those goals got flipped at Apple, and that subtle change made all the
difference. When I got back, we had to make it a product company again.
Q: How do you manage for innovation?
A: We hire people who want to make the best things in the world. You'd be
surprised how hard people work around here. They work nights and weekends,
sometimes not seeing their families for a while. Sometimes people work
through Christmas to make sure the tooling is just right at some factory in
some corner of the world so our product comes out the best it can be. People
care so much, and it shows.
I get asked a lot why Apple's customers are so loyal. It's not because they
belong to the Church of Mac! That's ridiculous.
It's because when you buy our products, and three months later you get stuck
on something, you quickly figure out [how to get past it]. And you think, "
Wow, someone over there at Apple actually thought of this!" And then three
months later you try to do something you hadn't tried before, and it works,
and you think "Hey, they thought of that, too." And then six months later it
happens again. There's almost no product in the world that you have that
experience with, but you have it with a Mac. And you have it with an iPod.
Q: What's the CEOs role in all of this?
A: I don't know. Head janitor?
Q: Seriously, a lot of people give you much of the credit. How much of it is
you?
A: Look, I was very lucky to have grown up with this industry. I did
everything in the early days -- documentation, sales, supply chain, sweeping
the floors, buying chips, you name it. I put computers together with my own
two hands. And as the industry grew up, I kept on doing it.
Not everyone knows it, but three months after I came back to Apple, my chief
operating guy quit. I couldn't find anyone internally or elsewhere that
knew as much as he did, or as I did. So I did that job for nine months
before I found someone I saw eye-to-eye with, and that was Tim Cook. And he
has been here ever since.
Of course, I didn't tell anyone because I already had two jobs [CEO of Apple
and of movie maker Pixar Animation Studios (PIXR )] and didn't want people
to worry about whether I could handle three [jobs]. But after Tim came on
board, we basically reinvented the logistics of the PC business. We've been
doing better than Dell (DELL ) [in terms of some metrics such as inventory]
for five years now!
Q: With the iPod, Apple moved beyond the PC into consumer electronics. But
you're still considered a niche player that picks its spots in bigger
markets. Will you try to expand to become a more full-line player, like a
Sony (SNE ) or Samsung?
A: The fact that you're comparing us to Sony is a statement in itself. I'm
flattered. We really respect those guys and what they've accomplished over
the years. But we're just trying to make great products. We do things where
we feel we can make a significant contribution. That's one of my other
beliefs.
I've always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything
we do. Take audio. For years, the primary technology was the [marking
mechanism] inside a CD or a DVD player. But we became convinced that
software was going to be the primary technology, and we're a pretty good
software company.
So we developed iTunes [Apple's music jukebox software that later morphed
into the iTunes Music Store]. We're a good hardware company, too, but we're
really good at software. So that led us to believe that we had a chance to
reinvent the music business, and we did.
Q: Many people say we're in a period in which advances in various digital
technologies -- from drives to chips to screens to networking gear -- is
going to change the nature of innovation. Rather than inventing something
from scratch, innovation will be the art of putting all of these
capabilities together in new ways.
A: Of course, you're never going to invent everything. But what's the
primary technology? And what's the concept of the product? Where does the
conceptualization come from? I guarantee the 1.8-inch hard drive was not
invented for iPods. But that's not the primary technology in an iPod.
Q: How do you systematize innovation?
A: The system is that there is no system. That doesn't mean we don't have
process. Apple is a very disciplined company, and we have great processes.
But that's not what it's about. Process makes you more efficient.
But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each
other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something
that shoots holes in how we've been thinking about a problem. It's ad hoc
meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the
coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his
idea.
And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the
wrong track or try to do too much. We're always thinking about new markets
we could enter, but it's only by saying no that you can concentrate on the
things that are really important.
Q: How much do you have to do with Apple's innovations?
A: We go back and forth a lot as we work on our projects. And we've got such
great people [in the top executive team] that I've been able to move about
half of the day-to-day management of the company to them, so I can spend
half my time on the new stuff, like the retail effort. I spent and continue
to spend a lot of time on that. And I meet weekly for two or three hours
with my OS X team. And there's the group doing our iLife applications.
So I get to spend my time on the forward-looking stuff. My top executives
take half the other work off my plate. They love it, and I love it.
Q: So the key is to have good people with passion for excellence.
A: When I got back here, Apple had forgotten who we were. Remember that "
Think Different" ad campaign we ran [featuring great innovators from
Einstein to Muhammad Ali to Gandhi]. It was certainly for customers to some
degree, but it was even more for Apple itself.
You can tell a lot about a person by who his or her heroes are. That ad was
to remind us of who our heroes are and who we are. We forgot that for a
while. Companies sometimes forget who they are. Sometimes they remember
again, and sometimes they don't.
Fortunately, we woke up. And we're on a really good track. We may not be the
richest guy in the graveyard at the end of the day, but we're the best at
what we do. And Apple is doing the best work in its history. I really
believe that. And there's a lot more coming.
Q: You're back at work on a part-time basis. Are you going to come back full
-time?
A: Yes. That was one of the things that came out most clearly from this
whole experience [with cancer]. I realized that I love my life. I really do.
I've got the greatest family in the world, and I've got my work. And that's
pretty much all I do. I don't socialize much or go to conferences. I love
my family, and I love running Apple, and I love Pixar. And I get to do that.
I'm very lucky. | Q*K
发帖数: 3464 | 2 very very good reading. thanks for sharing. |
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