It’s been a bit over two weeks since my last post, and a lot has happened in the industry. We saw the passing of the iconic CEO of Apple Computer, Mr. Steve Jobs. Some would say that key executives come and go in and out of the limelight, and while that’s true, few would argue that Steve was simply a “key executive”.
My impression of him was that he was a complex man, with significant strengths and weaknesses like the rest of us. Without a doubt, though he was passionate about the company that he created, and passionate about the customer experience. Did he always do everything right? Don’t think so, and if he were around he’d likely freely admit that. But I have to say that I admired his passion. Even the people whom he routinely offended had to admire his passion.
The company that he created built products that have always appealed to me–their elegance, and even more important, their “creation philosophy”, though I have to say that sometimes the execution fell short. But the idea of digital tools that would do stuff intuitively and allow one to do things never done before was what Apple was all about.
I began working for a small telephone switch manufacturing company based in the Rocky Mountains in 1983 as Director of Customer Service. I had a staff of three people, who were chartered with documentation, customer education (technical and operational), switch installation and maintenance, software configuration and control, and other tasks required to maintain a loyal customer base. Our customers were some of the early pioneers in the interexchange carrier business–those companies competed with ATT to provide long distance services at discounted rates. A number of these companies are still in business, though morphed significantly as the business has changed.
We began our efforts in documentation on a simple text editor associated with the OS we were using at the time. To say it was basic was being generous–a single monospaced font, left hand justification only, fixed tab lengths–no enhanced features of any kind. Illustrations were (literally) a cut and paste into a blank spot left in the text.
Along came Apple’s Lisa. Proportional spaced fonts, real word processing and page layout functions, and an intuitive GUI that made everything happen. Just slower than cold tar. But we loved it, because the finished product looked professional, and Lisa allowed us to update information in that fast paced environment without breaking the bank in printing costs, which other high tech companies struggled with at the time. I knew then that we were on the verge of something special.
When the “Fat Mac” came out (512K of ram memory, hence “fat” when compared to the 128K common in the computers of the time), I bought one of those for my personal use. In retrospect, it probably would have been a good thing to have invested that money in the company instead 
Will Apple be alright without Jobs? Sure. Steve surrounded himself with good, capable people, and those who worked closely with him admired and emulated his strengths. In the years Apple has been in business, it has created a culture of creativity and customer focus which, if adhered to, will serve the company and its customers well into the future. Not even John Scully could completely stamp out that seed.
Until next time….
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