"Keep in touch with the intended customers and avoid the pitfall of anerobic isolation; do not assume that the customers will pay any price to secure the lastest computer technology; ease the way for customers to adopt a new standard by providing software and hardware bridges that help connect older machines to the new ones."
When talking about some of the great business leaders, we can be overwhelmed because of their seeming knack to be able to touch anything and it will turn to gold, or make very rare mistakes.
Just like anybody else in life or business, Jobs took his eye off of things when he made the comment above.
One of his biggest, if not the biggest mistakes he made in his business career was with the NextStep computer, which he so missed it on and had no one to blame but himself.
The entire statement he made above, according to developers in Apple (AAPL), were completely disregarded when it came to NextStep.
In the end, through a number of reasons, the NeXt computer was offered at a price of $9,950, far beyond what the mass market could afford. From 1989 to 1992 only about 50,000 units were sold. In the end Jobs had to shut the project down and lay everybody off.
Job made the classic error of not sticking to his knitting. He knew logically how to develop and introduce products or services, but he let something else get in the way of seeing realistically that the NeXt computer never had a chance to make it.
In this case, I think Jobs started to believe his own marketing hype, which didn't line up with the realities facing him with this project.
As Jobs has proved many time over, he's one of the great marketers in business today. The problem he had with NeXt is he marketed to himself in a way that didn't line up with the reality of the product. So he continued on bulldogging ahead with no one able to stop him from going on to its unfortunate, but inevitable conclusion.
The statement made by Jobs at the beginning of this post was correct and accurate; he knew how to go about developing and introducing new products. He became so fixated on the product he wanted so bad to be successful with, that he couldn't be taken off the track until he ran it into the ground.
The lesson is we have to remember where we came from and truly believe in. Jobs said the right things, but ignored his own comments and advice. It was about a $250 million lesson.
The other lesson? Anybody can make a mistake. We just need to learn from it and go on.
Other Steve Jobs Resources:
You've got to find what you love
Steve Jobs, Business Personality
Steve Jobs' Greatest Presentation
Remember to Sign up for my feed!
Sponsored link: The outsourcing every manager requires - Tampa Locksmith
Comment Preview