Interesting Forbes article

Yahoo Archive
1
Tim wrote:
> Yes, Apple has great market changing products, but I would have loved to have sit in with Jobs during a design review. While other companies are constantly trying to reduce cost...any many times features as a result, Steve seemed to stick to his guns when it mattered. Yes, Apple is always able to charge a premium, but the thoroughness of their designs are extraordinary.
>

And not just products but service as well. I was at the Apple Store in
Lincoln Park (Chicago) this weekend. The khaki-wearing-red-shirted
people out numbered customers 2 - 1 while I was in there on Black
Friday.

I'm with you Tim - I'd love to be in the room when he stood up for the
product. It makes you wonder:

Who are the Apple-Like companies that support your company?

Who's the Steve Jobs at your company?

Mark
2
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/19/peggy-noonan-on-steve-jobs-and-why-big-companies-die/
...
What’s interesting is that Steve Jobs lived long enough to show us at
Apple [AAPL], in the period 1997-2011: what would happen if the firm
opted to keep playing offense and focus totally on adding value for
customers? The result? The firm makes tons and tons of money. In
fact, much more money than the companies that are milking their cash
cows and focused on making money. Other companies like Amazon [AMZN],
Salesforce [CRM] and Intuit [INTU] have demonstrated the same
phenomenon and shown us that it’s something that any firm can learn.
It’s not rocket science. It’s called radical management.

Fifty years ago, “milking the cash cow” could go on for many decades.
What’s different today is that globalization and the shift in power in
the marketplace from buyer to seller is dramatically shortening the
life expectancy of firms that are merely milking their cash cows. Half
a century ago, the life expectancy of a firm in the Fortune 500 was
around 75 years. Now it’s less than 15 years and declining even
further.
...
3
Yes, Apple has great market changing products, but I would have loved to have sit in with Jobs during a design review. While other companies are constantly trying to reduce cost...any many times features as a result, Steve seemed to stick to his guns when it mattered. Yes, Apple is always able to charge a premium, but the thoroughness of their designs are extraordinary.

--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, Mark Wonsil <mark_wonsil@...> wrote:
>
> http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/19/peggy-noonan-on-steve-jobs-and-why-big-companies-die/
> ...
> What's interesting is that Steve Jobs lived long enough to show us at
> Apple [AAPL], in the period 1997-2011: what would happen if the firm
> opted to keep playing offense and focus totally on adding value for
> customers? The result? The firm makes tons and tons of money. In
> fact, much more money than the companies that are milking their cash
> cows and focused on making money. Other companies like Amazon [AMZN],
> Salesforce [CRM] and Intuit [INTU] have demonstrated the same
> phenomenon and shown us that it's something that any firm can learn.
> It's not rocket science. It's called radical management.
>
> Fifty years ago, "milking the cash cow" could go on for many decades.
> What's different today is that globalization and the shift in power in
> the marketplace from buyer to seller is dramatically shortening the
> life expectancy of firms that are merely milking their cash cows. Half
> a century ago, the life expectancy of a firm in the Fortune 500 was
> around 75 years. Now it's less than 15 years and declining even
> further.
> ...
>