Strange that he picked BMW for his example. He seems to be more of a Mercedes guy.
Steve actually drove a Mercedes SL55 AMG: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/10/steve-jobs-...
Steve Jobs, BMW & eBay
11–20 of 71 posts
Re: Steve Jobs, BMW & eBay
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s from memory. Details might be incorrect.
You know, I thought the same thing. Steve doesn't drive a BMW. But I'm almost 100% sure his example in the talk was BMW. I can only guess that it was because BMW market share (which was sub-2%) fit the example, since that was Apple's market share at the time.
Steve owned at least 1 BMW in the last 10 years that I know of specifically.
Re: Steve Jobs, BMW & eBay
#13I don't see how eBay is a fair comparison because its competitive advantage is its strong network effect and established ratings/community. Imagine if management was satisfied with only 2% market share..
Re: Steve Jobs, BMW & eBay
#14I don't see how eBay is a fair comparison because its competitive advantage is its strong network effect and established ratings/community. Imagine if management was satisfied with only 2% market share..
I agree there is a network effect to get critical mass, and certainly a winner-take all game in auctions.
But eBay lost its essence a long time ago as they absorbed too many MBAs and let them rather than the technologists run the show. The description in the OP of the process eBay went through was enough to know the reinvention would be a failure. It was.
Re: Steve Jobs, BMW & eBay
#15I don't see how eBay is a fair comparison because its competitive advantage is its strong network effect and established ratings/community. Imagine if management was satisfied with only 2% market share..
I agree there is a network effect to get critical mass, and certainly a winner-take all game in auctions. But eBay lost its essence a long time ago as they absorbed too many MBAs and let them rather than the technologists run the show. The description in the OP of the process eBay went through was enough to know the reinvention would be a failure. It was.
"I told them about Steve’s speech to the Rhapsody team, and asked: 'Does eBay want BMW market share, or Toyota market share?' At the time, eBay was more than 20% of all e-commerce, and all plans oriented towards growing that market share."
Where does MBA's versus engineers ever come up? Jobs' speech is about creating a competitive advantage by building a premium product and focusing on a specific user - something eBay doesn't have the freedom to do.
Re: Steve Jobs, BMW & eBay
#16Here it is 14 years later. The thing about that meeting, that strikes me, is that this is what Apple always was. Steve wasn't bringing a purpose to Apple, he was reminding Apple employees of Apple's purpose. Apple still has that purpose.
Every product cycle you see the blogs and the pundits speculating on what Apple will do, and exclaiming what Apple should do. Just today I saw an article along the lines of "now that Steve's dead, here's the four things that Apple MUST DO!" None of these people get it, and that's why they are always wrong.. and then after the fact, rather than learn from their errors, they start spinning why the iPhone 5 wasn't announced. Anyone paying attention knows the tick-tock pattern Apple is following.
People seem to think that apple has become microsoft-- some monolithic entity, focused on having a monopoly and controlling everything.
I can assure you, controlling everything is the last thing Apple wants. Apple is not proprietary. Hell, Mac OS X is the most popular open sourced operating system on the planet. The Safari web browser is just a thin shell around webkit. Apple could have kept both closed and innovated on them, instead they innovate on them and give them away (and yet so called "open source" fans actually complain about this.)
What Apple does care about-- the singular purpose that drives them to make the decisions they make-- is the best user experience for their customers.
IF you ever wonder why Apple did or didn't do something, that's why.
And that didn't go away with Steve's passing. Even in the years when Steve wasn't there, and the company suffered from bad management, they still operated in the Apple way, just not so effectively. Now they have great management, and though Steve is no longer there, it's a lot easier to keep to their purpose...
Maybe this is the real reason Apple accumulated so much cash. It will be a long time, and likely never, in a situation where outside investors and wall street can dictate the CEO position, and so Apple can operate without fear that people who don't get it can undermine its mission.
The real question, though, is why do so few people get it? There's nothing really secret about all this... but I'm unaware of a single other company that operates in this manner.
Re: Steve Jobs, BMW & eBay
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree there is a network effect to get critical mass, and certainly a winner-take all game in auctions. But eBay lost its essence a long time ago as they absorbed too many MBAs and let them rather than the technologists run the show. The description in the OP of the process eBay went through was enough to know the reinvention would be a failure. It was.
"I told them about Steve’s speech to the Rhapsody team, and asked: 'Does eBay want BMW market share, or Toyota market share?' At the time, eBay was more than 20% of all e-commerce, and all plans oriented towards growing that market share." Where does MBA's versus engineers ever come up? Jobs' speech is about creating a competitive advantage by building a premium product and focusing on a specific user - something eBa…
It doesn't - but the comparison is about quality of the product versus market share and money. The MBAs put the 2nd first, the engineers the first.
During the 2000s eBay increasingly focussed their business on the largest sellers, helping push the site from a many to many business to a more traditional fixed price eCommerce business. Along the way they forgot about the awesomeness of their tiny auction customers who liked the fun of both placing auctions and buying goods, and as a result the site 'lost it' for many. The right customer for eBay was not the big merchants but the masses.
Re: Steve Jobs, BMW & eBay
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know, I thought the same thing. Steve doesn't drive a BMW. But I'm almost 100% sure his example in the talk was BMW. I can only guess that it was because BMW market share (which was sub-2%) fit the example, since that was Apple's market share at the time.
Steve owned at least 1 BMW in the last 10 years that I know of specifically.
The famous footage of him riding his motorcycle was, I think, a BMW motorcycle.
Re: Steve Jobs, BMW & eBay
#19Re: Steve Jobs, BMW & eBay
#20Here it is 14 years later. The thing about that meeting, that strikes me, is that this is what Apple always was. Steve wasn't bringing a purpose to Apple, he was reminding Apple employees of Apple's purpose. Apple still has that purpose. Every product cycle you see the blogs and the pundits speculating on what Apple will do, and exclaiming what Apple should do. Just today I saw an article along the lines of "now that…
"Apple could have kept both closed and innovated on them"
Webkit is based on GPL code from KDE, so Apple had no choice but to release the source.