Lost Interviews Offer a Unique View of Steve Jobs

[AmpSkillz]

Pixar went through a couple of major transformations before it became profitable, but it did become a big money-maker long before the merger with Disney. That company was a success in business terms. So yes, the outcomes were very different.

Blah blah blah business terms...

You insinuated that Pixar thrived "while" NeXT failed, and insinuated it had to do with Jobs different approach to each. The problem is that they were both failures at essentially the same exact time and successes around the same time.

Next founded 1985 -> Failure for 11 years until being purchased by Apple 1996

Pixar bought 1986 -> Failure for almost 10 years until after partnering with Disney & going public 1995 (End of 1995)

Pretty sure Jobs considered both as successes. One made him rich again the other brought him back to Apple and in turn made him considerably richer again.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Blah blah blah business terms...

You insinuated that Pixar thrived "while" NeXT failed, and insinuated it had to do with Jobs different approach to each. The problem is that they were both failures at essentially the same exact time and successes around the same time.

Next founded 1985 -> Failure for 11 years until being purchased by Apple 1996

Pixar bought 1986 -> Failure for almost 10 years until after partnering with Disney & going public 1995 (End of 1995)

Pretty sure Jobs considered both as successes. One made him rich again the other brought him back to Apple and in turn made him considerably richer again.

I didn't "insinuate" anything, I said exactly what I meant to say. So stick to that and maybe we can have a discussion.

BTW, for the record, a partnership is not anything remotely like a buyout, and the Disney merger came ten years after the release of Toy Story.

 

[AmpSkillz]

I didn't "insinuate" anything, I said exactly what I meant to say. So stick to that and maybe we can have a discussion.

BTW, for the record, a partnership is not anything remotely like a buyout, and the Disney merger came ten years after the release of Toy Story.

i will try one more time

His total control-freak tendencies took over at NeXT and led to that company's lack of success. Curiously at almost the same time he ran Pixar with a much looser grip and it thrived.

Untrue because:

They were both failures for the same 10 years, then one became successful and the other was purchased within months of each other. There was never a significant period of time where one company thrived and the other failed under Steve's two different approaches as you either insinuated or said directly above.

 

[Fukui]

Success in business is defined as profitability. I don't think NeXT was ever profitable. It was kept afloat by repeated capital infusions, mostly from Steve himself.

Small correction: it was mostly capital from Canon and a bit from Ross Perot... Steve only invested (if you measure in dollars) 12 million...

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/13/business/canon-to-invest-100-million-in-next-inc.html

 

[Geekbabe]

Steve took very different approaches to his running of NeXT and Pixar during his out-of-Apple years. His total control-freak tendencies took over at NeXT and led to that company's lack of success. Curiously at almost the same time he ran Pixar with a much looser grip and it thrived. It it so difficult to reconcile this with his behavior on his return to Apple, which he ran much more like NeXT or Apple before 1985. What did Steve really learn during the NeXT and Pixar years that transformed him into one of history's great CEOs? I don't think the biography quite comes to grips with this issue. I'd like to know more.

Steve jobs was an age peer & I think that what tempered his attitude & approach was simple life experiences. we either learn from our mistakes or we perish. Steve learned & made adjustments better than most.

 

[tomsamson]

The new iPad is exactly like Apple, they are dropping the numbers just like every other product they sell (besides the iPhone).

Though I agree the dividends is kind of upsetting, but I don't think Apple actually had that much needing investing. They are a very focused company and aren't looking to become a mess by buying a bunch of companies and they already seem to have R&D down.

Well, they actually buy companies quite often, but usually it is the case that they have a clear plan for a product or feature and then buy up a company which helps em get there quicker (like for example buying the Siri makers or some map data creators etc), instead of doing it like some other large companies who seem to buy out others in soemtimes less sensible seeming manners or to massively expand their product palette in all sorts of areas in one go.

I do REALLY want to listen to those tapes though, I would just love to hear Steve in free flow. The only time's I really heard him speak was his keynotes everything else was transcribed.

Yeah, besides those i´ve seen some videos on youtube etc but yup, its very rare to see once where he is in free flow, so totally agree, would be great to see those. Hope they get released at some point.