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Steve Jobs: Apple Almost Went Bankrupt Because It Failed to Innovate

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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In 1996, just before Steve Jobs returned to Apple and made it the business-school case-study success story it is today, the biggest thing in Jobs' life was Pixar, which had recently launched Toy Story. He also had NeXT, which wasn't the world-changing computer company Jobs wished it would be.

Jobs appeared on PBS' Wall $treet Week program with Louis Rukeyser who first asked him about Pixar and then asked Jobs what went wrong at Apple.
Oh gosh. You know I haven't been there in a long time. My perception may not be complete. But from the way I see it, Apple was a company that was based on innovation. When I left Apple ten years ago, we were ten years ahead of anybody else. It took Microsoft ten years to copy Windows.

The problem was that Apple stood still. Even though it invested cumulatively billions in R&D, the output has not been there. People have caught up with it, and its differentiation has eroded, in particular with respect to Microsoft.

And so the way out for Apple -- and I think Apple still has a future; there are some awfully good people there and there is tremendous brand loyalty to that company -- I think the way out is not to slash and burn, it's to innovate. That's how Apple got to its glory, and that's how Apple could return to it.
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In the interview, Steve Jobs, always the marketer, talks up Pixar's Toy Story CD-ROMs as "dynamite" and says they will "set a new benchmark" for what CD-ROMs could be.

Jobs' performance speaks for itself. Disney bought Pixar for $7.4 billion in stock, which made Jobs the largest shareholder in Disney and gave him a spot on the Disney board.

Apple is now the most valuable company in the world, and its stock price just today hit an all-time high of $411.50, valuing the company at more than $380 billion.

Article Link: Steve Jobs: Apple Almost Went Bankrupt Because It Failed to Innovate
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/19/steve-jobs-apple-almost-went-bankrupt-because-it-failed-to-innovate/
E

EiriasEmrys

macrumors member
Oct 21, 2010
58
42
Leadership

I'm not in the path to become a CEO, nor do I ever hope to be one, however, I am film director and I take a lot of inspiration from Steve's philosophies on creative project management.

The problem with leadership is that we need leaders, and the best leaders are visionaries, but most leaders do not have clear vision. I see it all the time in the film world, where all of us thrive off of the creative vision of directors and producers above us, but so often they lack in vision and inspiration that what comes out is not innovation, is not creative storytelling, but a copy of something else.

"Put a ding in the universe." -SJ
 
E

Exponent

macrumors 6502
Jul 17, 2002
262
634
Silicon Valley
Ah, when Steve was plump, Louis Rukeyser (master of biting wit delivered via incredibly dry puns) was still with us, and the internet was young.

Look closely at that, and compare to the screeching heads, hype-a-palooza, and edgy-edits of current TV. A different, and dare I say, better era altogether.
 
Mad-B-One

Mad-B-One

macrumors 6502a
Jun 24, 2011
789
5
San Antonio, Texas
Pixar Story

If you are interested in how this all went down with Pixar and how generous Steve Jobs was to keep them running, you should watch The Pixar Story (2007). It shows that the apple concept is basically a Steve Jobs concept - or - Steve copied it very well from Pixar. Either way, Steve proved that he has a nose for where innovation happens and where you can make a load of money with it. The movie was on Netflix, might as well still be available through their streaming service.

For all the ones which want to have the main scope: The people who founded Pixar were thrown out by Disney for trying new things and Disney almost had to close doors for their animation studios and the share switch with SJ basically rescued the Disney animation branch by being incorporated into the new subsidy Pixar. It is a very enjoying documentary.
 
mdriftmeyer

mdriftmeyer

macrumors 68040
Feb 2, 2004
3,809
1,985
Pacific Northwest
usptact said:
In 1996 I was playing the DOS games on a 286 or 486...
Click to expand...

In 1996 I was demoing NeXTStep/Openstep in the University IT Department/Store, selling Apple's entire product line, DEC PCs, Gateway PCs, IBM PCs, HP PCs/Routers/Switches/Printers, and much more.

Then I left to work at NeXT during the tail end of my second engineering degree.

We had just released a slew of WOF/EOF/Openstep updates when he gave that interview.

Around 6 months later the merger happened.

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Mad-B-One said:
If you are interested in how this all went down with Pixar and how generous Steve Jobs was to keep them running, you should watch The Pixar Story (2007). It shows that the apple concept is basically a Steve Jobs concept - or - Steve copied it very well from Pixar. Either way, Steve proved that he has a nose for where innovation happens and where you can make a load of money with it. The movie was on Netflix, might as well still be available through their streaming service.

For all the ones which want to have the main scope: The people who founded Pixar were thrown out by Disney for trying new things and Disney almost had to close doors for their animation studios and the share switch with SJ basically rescued the Disney animation branch by being incorporated into the new subsidy Pixar. It is a very enjoying documentary.
Click to expand...

How does one copy from PIXAR when it's one's own creation? Steve Jobs handled and modeled every business transaction at PIXAR. Catmull did all the technical management of R&D along with Lassetter running the Movie Creation.

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*LTD* said:
@ 1:37

"Differentiation has eroded."

This is such an important concept.
Click to expand...

How about they play this 24/7 to the Business leaders of today about Innovation instead of Slash n' Burn? That sounds like a plan.
 
A

accessoriesguy

macrumors 6502a
Jul 8, 2011
891
0
EiriasEmrys said:
I'm not in the path to become a CEO, nor do I ever hope to be one, however, I am film director and I take a lot of inspiration from Steve's philosophies on creative project management.

The problem with leadership is that we need leaders, and the best leaders are visionaries, but most leaders do not have clear vision. I see it all the time in the film world, where all of us thrive off of the creative vision of directors and producers above us, but so often they lack in vision and inspiration that what comes out is not innovation, is not creative storytelling, but a copy of something else.

"Put a ding in the universe." -SJ
Click to expand...

that's cool, i really need to work on my creative product management!
 
ghsDUDE

ghsDUDE

macrumors 68030
May 25, 2010
2,921
740
That interviewer is an idiot.
I guess were all a bunch of "computer nerds."
 
D

dimi94941

macrumors regular
Oct 25, 2010
118
0
I don't mind being called a computer nerd. I love software, I love computers, so, what's wrong with that? That doesn't mean I'm behind my computer 24/7, or that I have long hair and pimples all over, I have a girl and go out and stuff, but yes, I do love engineering, software and computers!
 
Mad-B-One

Mad-B-One

macrumors 6502a
Jun 24, 2011
789
5
San Antonio, Texas
mdriftmeyer said:
How does one copy from PIXAR when it's one's own creation? Steve Jobs handled and modeled every business transaction at PIXAR. Catmull did all the technical management of R&D along with Lassetter running the Movie Creation.
Click to expand...

I wasn't talking about the management. I was referring to the company culture, the being "different" from companies in the same branch. It was more a coaxing comment. In reality, both companies have that kind of integrity and company culture natively, has actually not really something to do with SJ. It might have something to do with his decision to support Pixar financially because he felt that the employees are sincere and have integrity and the company had potential. But I doubt that SJ was bringing this into Pixar nor Apple (when he took over again).
 
DrMotownMac

DrMotownMac

Contributor
Jul 11, 2008
383
207
Michigan
Wow. It's amazing how prophetic that was. In 1996, Steve Jobs was basically saying that Apple COULD still be saved if they would only innovate. He was iCEO the next year, and released the iMac the year after that. Then the iPod. Then the iPhone. Then the iPad. And, of course, Mac OS X, iTunes, iLife, iWork, the Apple Retail Stores, and now iCloud. The man THRIVES on innovation. He is the Thomas Edison of the modern age. He recognizes what the people want, and figures out a way to produce it.

Who is John Galt? Answer: He's Steve Jobs.
 
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