Buying In - (Page 68) 68 rob walker the ring of office buildings. Along one side of this hermetic oasis are a bunch of tables set just outside the company cafeteria, and a sign that read “Cafe Macs.” I sat with my PR minder in this pleasant spot and watched Steve Jobs, in shorts and a turtleneck, approach in long, energetic strides. My visit happened to coincide with the publication of a pessimistic installment of The Wall Street Journal’s “Heard on the Street” column, which noted that some on Wall Street were waiting to see what would happen to the iPod once Dell came out with its combination of music store and music player, the Dell DJ. Was this the moment when history repeated itself and the innovations of Apple were aped by a competitor and taken mass in a somewhat dumbed-down iteration? One investor quoted in the Journal article implied as much, saying that this was the rival with the greatest chance of success: “No one markets as well as Dell does.” This was causing some eye rolling in Cupertino. Dell, to the Apple insiders, was a mere merchandiser, a shiller of gigs per dollar. A follower. Dell had not released its product when I met Jobs, but he still dismissed it as “not any good.” Actually, Jobs seemed a little annoyed in general. Looking back at my notes, I found it remarkable how many of his answers began with some variation of “No,” as if my questions were out of sync with what he wanted to say. After half an hour of this, my inquiries really did start to fall apart, so I didn’t expect much when I resorted to asking, in so many words, whether he thinks consciously about innovation. “No,” he said peevishly. “We consciously think about making great products. We don’t think, ‘Let’s be innovative!’ ” He waved his hands for effect. “ ‘Let’s take a class! Here are the five rules of innovation let’s put them up all over the company!’ ”
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