The Macintosh Way

THE ART OF GUERILLA MANAGEMENT

GUY K A W A S A K I

# T HE
Macintosh
• W A Y •

Foreword by Jean-Louis Gassee

The
Macintosh

G U Y K A W A S A K I

Scott, Foresman and Company

Glenview, Illinois London

The quotation on page 151 is excerpted from FreclAstaire—His
Friends Talk by Sarah Giles. Copyright © 1988 by Sarah Giles.
Reprinted by permission of Doubleday, a division of Bantam,
Doubleday, Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kawasaki, Guy.
The Macintosh way / Guy Kawasaki.

Includes index.
1. Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh Division—History. 2.
Macintosh (Computer)—Programming—Marketing—History.
3. Computer software—Marketing—History. 4. Micro-
computers—Programming—Marketing—History. I. Title.
HD9696.C64A865 1989 89-10249
338.7'61004165'0973—dc20

2 3 4 5 6 KPF 94 93 92 91 90 89

ISBN 0-673-46175-0

Copyright © 1990 Guy Kawasaki.
All Rights Reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.

Scott, Foresman professional books are available for bulk sales
at quantity discounts. For information, please contact
Marketing Manager, Professional Books Group, Scott, Foresman
and Company, 1900 East Lake Avenue, Glenview, IL 60025.

Table of
Contents
A Brief History of Macintosh iv
En Guise de Foreword vii
Preface ix

Part 1. History
1. First Blood 1
2. Macintosh Days 15

Part 2. Doing the Right Thing
3. Environment 29
4. Great Products 49
5. Support 63
6. Marketing 73

Part 3. Doing Things Right
7. User Groups 87
8. Evangelism 99
9. To Market, To Market Ill
10. The Printed Word 123
11. Working With the Mothership 135
12. How to Give Good Demo 149
13. Presentation Manager 159
14. Trade Show Mavenship 169
15. How to Drive Your (MS-DOS) Competitors Crazy ... 179
16. The Macintosh Guide to Dating and Marriage 191
17. Sayonara 201

A Brief History of Macintosh

Year 1 Before Macintosh (B.M.)
1983 1984
September October November December January February

Started Introduction of
w o r k i n g at Macintosh
Apple ("1984" Super
Bowl commer-
cial) 1/24/84

August
100,000
Macintoshes
sold

"1 Q Q C Year 1 After Macintosh (A.M.)

Septerr iber M»T4> November January February
.•. • •
512KMac Test Drive a Introduction of
introduced Macintosh Macintosh Office
promotion (LaserWriter,
Lemmings TV
commercial)
1/23/85

March May July August
Macintosh XL Layoffs and re- PageMaker
laid to rest organization ships,
6/14/85 "desktop"
becomes an
adjective

Year 2 After Macintosh (A.M.)
1986
September October November December January February

Steve Jobs Introduction of the
resigns from Macintosh Plus and
Apple LaserWriter Plus
(no Super Bowl TV
commercial)

March May July
4th Dimension 4th Dimension Apple Program-
acquired by shown to Ed Esber mer's and
Apple Developer's
Association
(APDA) formed

Year 3 After Macintosh (AM.)
1987
September November December January
Turned down 4th Dimension Sculley tells Esber
for directorship meeting with that Apple won't
12/4/86 Ashton-Tate publish 4th Di-
12/12/86 mension. Esber
tries to rearrange
Gassee's anatomy.

March
Macintosh SE Made Resigned Last day ACIUS starts
and Macintosh II director from Apple at Apple 4/20/87
introduced 4/1/87 4/3/87 4/17/87

Macintosh II 4th Dimension dBASE Mac ships
ships ships

En Guise de
Foreword
The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense this book is not. The
Macintosh Way is the take-no-prisoners guide to guerrilla
marketing warfare in the personal computer software industry.
I trust it will upset and delight the right people.
Guy Kawasaki speaks from a position of authority. His
mission was equivalent to that of a Hollywood film producer's:
"I have $10 million out of the $20 million budget for this movie
with Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand. Will you invest one
tenth of the total, a mere $2 million?" You may have nothing to
start with except your belief that once you get enough people
committed, you'll finally get the stars. This was Apple's and
Guy's predicament—how do you convince the world of software
developers it is a good idea to invest their energy into writing
software for a computer with no installed base?
The rest is another proof that a few things at Apple (besides
some of its founders and executives) defy common sense. Mac-
intosh now enjoys abundant software—the best there is in the
business. This is to the credit of the designers of the Macintosh,
of the creative and patient software developers, and of Guy
Kawasaki and his fellow evangelists.
Guy himself is quite an improbable combination. The son
of two delightful and proud Japanese Americans, he speaks
the Yiddish he learned in the jewelry business and is an inveter-
ate francophile, a dedicated husband, and a trustworthy friend.
The last two items sound a little bit corny and conventional?

17

Well, read on and enjoy a not so corny and conventional paean
to great times, feisty people, and smart ways. And some tart
inside anecdotes too.
]ean-Louis Gassee
President, Apple
Products

vii

Preface
This book is about doing the right thing and doing things right.
It is meant for dreamers, revolutionaries, Macintosh aficionados,
and all the people who want to learn about the Macintosh Way.
It is aimed at the inner circle, and it is not meant to appeal to the
largest possible audience or the lowest common denominator.
The book is divided into three parts:

• Part I is an introduction to the Macintosh Way. It covers the
history of Macintosh and provides an analysis of what the
Macintosh phenomenon means.
• Part II is called "Doing the Right Thing." It covers the work
environment, products, marketing, and customer support;
these are the foundations of a great company.
• Part III is called "Doing Things Right." It covers the details
of running a business right, such as evangelism, distribu-
tion, user groups, trade shows, PR, demos, motherships,
competition, presentations, and of course, dating and
marriage.

This is not a gentle book—it celebrates passion, competition,
excellence, and hard work. The basic premise is that David can
defeat Goliath, that a teenager can fly into Red Square, and that
an ex-jewelry schlepper from Hawaii can eat pate with a French
philosopher at Jacques Cagna in Paris.
I used to work at Apple so I have many nostalgic and mixed
feelings about the place. In the book I take some shots at Apple
because I believe in the Macintosh Uncertainty Principle—you
must observe the foibles of Apple to change it.

viii

However, I also believe that most people who criticize Apple
couldn't possibly run it any better. Fundamentally, Apple is a
great company with great employees and great products. Most
of Apple's harshest critics couldn't run a lemonade stand on a
hot day and don't deserve to.
I will unveil to you the genetic code of the Macintosh Way
of doing business. For what it's worth, I release my ideas,
thoughts, and methods in this book for you to use. Let us not
compete on the knowledge of strategies and tactics. Let us
compete on execution.

Merci
I used to think that writing a book was a solitary endeavor. It's
not. Like any product, a book requires a team of testers, beta
sites, and supporters, and I would like to acknowledge the
people who helped me.
Marylene Delbourg-Delphis. She is a female, French Steve
Jobs. She pushed me higher than I ever thought I could go. One
should be so lucky to have a mentor like her. I wish she would
stop smoking.
David Brandt, Kyle Mashima and Terri Lonier. David, Kyle, and
Terri helped make my incomplete thoughts into a book. Without
their assistance, I'm afraid of what this book would have been.
Susie Hammond, Denise Caruso, Dave Winer, Jean-Louis Gassee,
Don "Perignon" Crabb, Steve Scheier, Dan Farber, Scott Knaster,
Henry Norr, Jerry Borrell, Laurie Flynn, Sue Jacoby, Duke Kawasaki,
Mitch Stein, Joanna Hoffman, Steve Bobker, Pauline Mashima, Dave
Graebel, Alain Rossmann, Robert Wiggins, and Tony Oppenheim.
They were my beta testers. Each tweaked the book in his or her
own special way.
Jo Ann Vandervennet and Karen Seale. Jo Ann and Karen
manage Jean-Louis. They gave me access to him to help me
finish this book in a timely manner. I guess it's who you know
at Apple.
Will Mayall, Kathryn Henkens, Todd Carper, Bruce Finch, Mark
Vernon, A.J. Jennings, Ron Dell'Aquila, Dave Terry, and Jaime

ix

Montemayor. This is the ACIUS team who politely read draft after
draft of the book and helped make it better. They also didn't
hesitate to point out where the book and ACIUS reality diverged.
Stephen Roth. Stephen Roth was the editor and producer of
the book. If you find an editor who understands what you are
trying to do, brings the best out of you, and doesn't botch up
your work, "marry" him as fast as you can.
Mei-Ying DeU'Aquila. Mei-Ying created the analog drawings
for the book. The samurai and chicken man and most of the
graphics were her ideas. I tried to keep her so busy that she didn't
have time to work on HyperCard stacks.
Amy Davis. Amy Davis is the editor at Scott, Foresman who
acquired this book contrary to traditional book publishing wis-
dom, which said, "There are two kinds of books: How to Use 1-
2-3 and How to be a Manager. Yours is neither. Sorry Mr. Kawasaki."
She did the right thing, IMHO.1
Olav Martin Kvern. Ole (that's pronounced O-lee) designed
and helped to produce the book, and created most of the elec-
tronic art. He also contributed a joke or two.
Beth Kawasaki. Thanks and love to my wife. She puts up with
immeasurable amounts of grief being married to me, and she
still loves me. If you find a woman who is smart, funny, honest,
beautiful, and loves you, marry her as fast as you can. She's not
a bad content editor, either.
Finally, I'd like to thank the developers who believed in
Macintosh from the beginning, stuck with it, made it great, and
were a pleasure to work with when I was at Apple.

CE Software West Des Moines, Iowa
Consulair Ketchum, Idaho
Creative Solutions Rockville, Maryland
Douglas Electronics San Leandro, California
Living Videotext Mountain View, California
Magic Software Bellevue, Nebraska
Magnus Corporation Mukilteo, Washington
1. IMHO is online talk for "in my humble opinion."

x

Mainstay Agoura Hills, California
Megahaus San Diego, California
National Instruments Austin, Texas
Odesta Corporation Northbrook, Illinois
ProVUE Development Huntington Beach, California
Silicon Beach Software San Diego, California
Softview, Inc. Camarillo, California
Spectrum Digital Systems Madison, Wisconsin
Solutions International Williston, Vermont
Survivor Software Los Angeles, California
T/Maker Company Mountain View, California
Telos Corporation Santa Monica, California
TML Systems Jacksonville, Florida
VAMP, Inc. Los Angeles, California
Working Software Santa Cruz, California

May they keep the spirit live.

Guy Kawasaki

xi

where the Ashton.
Tate shootout took.
j? la.ee
Smythe European Eep Center n
parking tor Lenta 1
Apple Division
OeAnid

"S-anctl

-OeA M.cro5crW-* A<;hton
I T^te

Macintosh intrroduc^d
j here
La5"C home of the
7
Macintoih. "P' V" 5ior Bubb
"Road.
-DeAnza. (Bandley of
College the'905)

2 APDA ^ r

AciuS

Apple buildings'.
o3 j they are wor|<in<r on
<" the really secret-sturt

First Blood
The higher a monkey climbs, the more
you can see of his behind.
General "Vinegar
)oe" Stilwell

Inside the Apple Board Room
"If Guy leaves, we all leave," replied Bill Campbell, the executive
vice-president of sales and marketing of Apple. Luther Nussbaum,
the president of Ashton-Tate, had suggested that I leave the
room because Ashton-Tate was going to provide an update
about dBASE Mac, their Macintosh database. Campbell spoke
very calmly and quietly yet everyone in the room knew that
Ashton-Tate had to back down. Nussbaum wanted me to leave
the room because I was the primary supporter of an Apple
database project called "Silver Surfer"1 that would compete with
his product.
It was December 18, 1986, and a large group of Apple and
Ashton-Tate executives had gathered in Apple's board room to
discuss the Silver Surfer project. Bill Campbell, John Sculley, Del
Yocam, Jean-Louis Gassee, and I represented Apple. Ed Esber,
Luther Nussbaum, Roy Folk, and Mike Stone represented Ashton-
Tate. I was the person in charge of the software published by
Apple and the relationship between Apple and its developers,
and I had spent about two hours explaining why Apple needed
to publish its own database.

1. 4th Dimension was code-named "Silver Surfer" because Silver Surfer is one
of the favorite comic book characters of the author of 4th Dimension, Laurent
Ribardiere.

History

Background—The Silver Surfer Project
At the time, Macintosh had a good selection of desktop 1
publishing, graphics, word processing, and spreadsheet software
but not high-end relational databases, and this shortcoming
prevented Macintosh from entering the mainstream of business

John Sculley
Chairman, President,
and CEO

Del Yocam
Chief Operating
Officer

Jean-Louis Gassee Bill Campbell
Senior Vice President, Executive Vice President,
Product Development Sales and Marketing

Guy Kawasaki
Manager, Software
Product Management

The Apple Team

computing. As a software evangelist,2 I had spent almost two
years unsuccessfully trying to convince developers, including
Ashton-Tate, to create such a product, and it was time for Apple
to take control of its own fate.
Two years before the meeting, the world was very different.
Macintosh was not selling well. It was not perceived as a
powerful computer. Most business people scoffed at it as a "cute,

1. Desktop is an adjective that Aldus originally applied to "publishing" because
a Macintosh and LaserWriter enabled people to bring the power of expensive
electronic composition to their desks. Desktop used to be a noun. Now it is an
adjective that Apple applies to every market because it worked once.
2. Software evangelism is a term coined by Mike Murray of the Macintosh
Division. It meant using fervor and zeal (but never money) to convince software
developers to create products for a computer with no installed base, 128K of
RAM, no hard disk, no documentation, and no technical support, made by a
flaky company that IBM was about to snuff out.

2

1 • First Blood

graphics toy." A lot of people didn't even think that Apple would
survive. Many large developers doubted that Macintosh would
succeed and were skeptical that our graphics toy could support
a high-end relational database.
During a trip to France in 1985, Steve Jobs saw a product

Ed Esber
Chairman

Luther Nussbaum
President

Roy Folk
Executive Vice-President,
Software Products Division

Mike Stone
Director, New Product
Marketing

The Ashton-Tate Team
called 4th Dimension and encouraged the programmer, Laurent
Ribardiere, and his partner, Marylene Delbourg-Delphis, to
create an American version. Steve told them to show it to me
and Alain Rossmann because we were Apple's software evangelists
in Cupertino and might be able to help them find an American
publisher. When Alain saw it in the Fall of 1985, he was thrilled
by the prospect that Macintosh would have a high-end, graphic
database. It was a product that would help change the perception
that Macintosh was not powerful.
Alain's first reaction was to matchmake Laurent and Mary-
lene with American companies like Microsoft and Ashton-Tate
because we preferred not to acquire products that would compete
with our developers. Most American companies, however,
weren't interested in a Macintosh database because of poor

3

History

Macintosh sales at the time. Instead of letting 4th Dimension
remain a Europe-only product, Alain and I decided to acquire it
for Apple because we both believed that 4th Dimension was a
great product. It became the Silver Surfer project.
Alain and I believed that Apple could not wait for Ashton-
Tate and other MS-DOS database companies to commit to
Macintosh—it was not until September, 1987 that Ashton-Tate
finally shipped dBASE Mac. The inside story is that Bill Campbell
had to promise Ashton-Tate $500,000 in co-marketing funds to
finish dBASE Mac. When Ashton-Tate finally shipped, a year
later than promised to Apple, it still had the gall to demand the
$500,000.1 think Apple eventually settled the matter by giving
Ashton-Tate some Macintosh lis. dBASE Mac was the best data-
base that Macintosh lis could buy.

Back to the Board Room
Ashton-Tate's Mike Stone was about to begin his presentation
when Nussbaum made the suggestion that I leave. I remained in
the meeting, and Stone's dBASE Mac update made all of three
points—beta1 sites were seeded, they were generally happy, and
they were concerned with performance. For this, Nussbaum
wanted me to leave the room. His suggestion was ludicrous. I
probably knew more about the state of dBASE Mac than
Nussbaum or Esber because the technical support group that
helped Ashton-Tate worked for me. Apple engineers like Jim
Friedlander constantly visited Ashton-Tate to give them house-
call care.
After Stone's presentation, Sculley, Yocam, Gassee, Campbell,
Esber, Folk, and Nussbaum adjourned for a private meeting
while the worker bees waited in Apple's board room. Esber told
Sculley, Yocam, and Gassee that he was not officially informed
of 4th Dimension until a few weeks before the meeting. That
1. Beta sites are people who get beta or prerelease copies of software so that they
can feel important. The term "beta" is an abbreviation for the phrase "beta than
nothing," which is exactly what beta software is. Software companies like to give
beta sites beta software because they think it prevents them from buying the
shipping versions of their competitor's products. When a company tells you a
ship date for beta software, you had better be able to read between the lies.

4

1 • First Blood

wasn't true. Alain told Mike Stone and Roy Folk before he left
Apple in July, 1986.1 told Esber in his office in June, 1986 when
Alain and I visited Ashton-Tate to make a Macintosh presentation.
Esber complained bitterly to Sculley, Yocam, and Gassee about
my competency and the handling of 4th Dimension. He tried to
ruin my reputation and my career at Apple. He drew first blood.

Post Meeting Blues
After the meeting Jean-Louis told me that Esber and Nussbaum
wanted Apple to give 4th Dimension to Ashton-Tate so that they
could "combine" 4th Dimension and dBASE Mac. The idea of
combining the two products was the most profound example of
not understanding Macintosh software development that I'd
ever seen. Macintosh software products are intellectual and
artistic works. Like painting, sculpture, or music, they cannot be
combined and remain either intellectual or artistic.
After the meeting, I was instructed to provide Ashton-Tate
with a prerelease copy of 4th Dimension. Giving Ashton-Tate a
copy would have been unfair to Laurent and Marylene. 4th
Dimension was their property, and we had no right to give it to
a company like Ashton-Tate who would probably kill it. I
couldn't refuse, but I could subvert. Kyle Mashima, the manager
of Apple-labeled software, and I searched for and found a way to
avoid giving Ashton-Tate a copy. We had previously executed a
mutual nondisclosure agreement1 with Laurent and Marylene.
We "couldn't" legally give Ashton-Tate a prerelease copy, and
they never got one.
Ashton-Tate's behavior towards 4th Dimension, Macintosh,
and Apple reminded me of bald men who take their last wisps
of hair and comb them unnaturally across their scalps to cover
their heads. In the process they only bring more attention to
their baldness. Ashton-Tate's baldness was a lack of allegiance to
Macintosh, lack of knowledge about what was going on in their
own company, and lack of understanding of Macintosh database
1. A mutual nondisclosure agreement means that you and Apple agree not to
divulge each other's secrets. In practice, it means that Apple can leak all it wants,
and you can't do anything about it.

5

History

needs. Ashton-Tate didn't drink from the Macintosh well; it
gargled.

I
/

Au Revoir, Apple
Two weeks before the meeting with Ashton-Tate, I was denied a
directorship at Apple because I had failed to manage Apple's
relationship with Ashton-Tate and Microsoft. This was the
Ashton-Tate that couldn't finish dBASE Mac, and the Microsoft
that Apple would sue for copyright violation. Frankly, I didn't
want to manage Apple's alliance1 with these companies because
they did business by holding a gun to Apple's head. I began to
think that it was time to leave Apple when the fleas started wag-
ging the dog.
In February, 1987, two months after the Ashton-Tate meeting,
John Sculley told Ed Esber at Esther Dyson's computer conference2
in Phoenix, Arizona that Apple would not compete with Ashton-
Tate by publishing 4th Dimension.
Jean-Louis' assessment of Ashton-Tate's victory was
1. "Alliance, n: in international politics, the union of two thieves who have their
hands so deeply inserted into each other's pockets that they cannot safely
plunder a third." —Ambrose Bierce
2. Esther Dyson's computer conference is an annual gathering where computer
industry people pay $1,000 to listen to other computer industry people brag
about how smart they are and to talk to people they can't stand seeing outside
of the conference.

6

1 • First Blood

December 4,1986

TO: Guy Kawasaki

FROM: Del Yocam /

SUBJECT: Review Commentary

Guy, I've read Jean-Louis' assessment of your performance during this review
period. Since you also worked for me during this time I wanted to add some of my
thoughts.

You have much to be proud of in the reputation you've established as a premier
evangelist. This has long been a strength of yours and it is one from which Apple
has greatly benefitted . I now look to you for a broader scope of responsibility. In
my mind you've always championed "the little guy" in the developer community.
Those developers have made a great difference to our success and I want Apple to
continue to be the personal computer company they look to first. But, I believe the
Product Management Software Manager needs to have established the same
reputation with the "big guys", most notably Microsoft and Ashton-Tate. In my
most recent dealing with these organizations I've had to depend on Jean-Louis to be
sure that Apple's relationship with these leaders was at a level which made me
comfortable. When I think about who the "program manager" for Apple's
relationship with Microsoft and Ashton-Tate is, I do not have the confidence that
you've made this a priority. I therefore look to Jean-Louis.

Guy, I think you are a great asset to Apple. But before I can support a move in
which you would join my senior management team, I need to be more comfortable
with your relationship with Apple's largest third party software developers, I am
willing to work with you and Jean-Louis to make this happen because both of us
believe in your potential.

DWY/sg

"sometimes you get what you ask for, and it's not what you
really want" because the Silver Surfer affair catalyzed the
formation of both Claris1 and ACIUS.2 In effect, Ashton-Tate
created two new competitors in the Macintosh market by
terrorizing Apple: ACIUS was formed to bring 4th Dimension to

1. Claris is Latin for "clarity." I have a real affinity for Claris because it was one
of the best ideas 1 ever had.
2. ACIUS stands for "Apple Computer, Inc. Unshipped Software." Just kidding.
The name of our French founding company is Analyses Conseils Informations
("ACI") so we are ACI in the US.

7

History

market in America, and Claris was spun off from Apple with the
Apple-labeled software to reduce competition between Apple
and its developers. I think that John and Jean-Louis secretly
hoped it would come out this way, and two more Macintosh
software companies would be formed.
On April 1, 1987 (an appropriate date), at the Apple De-
velopers' Conference, Jean-Louis promoted me to director of
software product management. It was too late for Apple to keep
me, but I've always appreciated the fact that Jean-Louis got me
a directorship. That night I gave my last speech as an Apple
employee at the Developers' Conference dinner. Some of the
audience knew that I was leaving because a long-term Apple
employee wouldn't dare say what I did.
I began with a roll call of people like Bill Gates, the chairman
of Microsoft, and Jim Manzi, the president of Lotus, because I
knew they weren't at our conference. They were at an IBM
Windows1 conference instead. I also read a list of people who
were at our conference, such as Mitch Stein of Spectrum Digital
Systems, Mary Evslin of Solutions International, Charliejackson
of Silicon Beach Software, and Sue Morgan of Soft View, because
they were the presidents of little companies who believed in
Macintosh from the start. It was not a subtle speech, and I hoped
that word would get back to the MS-DOS boys.
On April 3, 1987 I sent my resignation in a Federal Express
package to Jean-Louis in France. It was a desktop resignation
letter—multiple columns, integrated graphics, and bar charts. I
even had it framed for Jean-Louis. On April 17, I was out of
Apple. On April 20, ACIUS was born.

The Macintosh Way
For me, it was sad to see a once-fanatical company like Apple
successfully threatened by an MS-DOS developer—and an MS-
DOS developer with an extraordinarily ordinary product at that.
A little piece of me died because of the Silver Surfer affair.
1. Windows is an operating environment that attempts to turn a real computer
into a cute, graphics toy. It is also the subject of a lawsuit between Apple and
Microsoft.

8

1 • First Blood

Guy Kawasaki's

ResignationLetter
Jean-Louis, April 3. 1987

he time has come for me lo leave the It's clear that the keys for Apple are Clay. Tools, and
Apple nest and fly on my own. Evangelism...knock em dead.

I'm going to start a software My last day at Apple will be April I7th, but if I'm cut. 1 will always
company-a great software company, bleed 6 colors.
I'm going to change from an
Evangelist to a Holy Terror. Believe
me. I will terrorize the software
business.
thh-7
Signed

1 love Apple, and 1 will always
remember it fondly. Part of my fond
memories is working for you. I have
truly enjoyed our relationship, and I
will do you proud.

I want to thank you for all that
you've taught me-to think clearly Acius will be a philosophy, not a company. Our goal is to increase the
(even metaphorically), to personal productivity of our customers and to make our customers into fans.
communicate succinctly, and to work
the halls. I also appreciate what you We will provide full service, publish deep products, develop long-term
didn't teach me-reverence and relationships with authors, and employ people who love products.
adherence to authority.

Accomplishments Software Product

! Developer Services Tech Support
A
Tools and Compilers l ple-Labclcd

w, hen they take my career at Apple, throw it into a hole, and cover it with dirt,
please see that the testimonies are correct. Remember me for:

1) Building a group of great people
2) Creating the best third-party developer program in the industry
3) Ensuring that Macintosh has the best software of any personal computer
4) Preserving the Macintosh spirit
1985 1986 1987

Ptuducedon MacDraw Macintosh Software

Ashton-Tate did the wrong thing (an ordinary product) the
wrong way (by threatening Apple) at the wrong time (two years
too late). If Ashton-Tate had believed in Macintosh and created
a great database, we would not have acquired 4th Dimension.
There is a better way of doing business—it's called the
Macintosh Way.
The Macintosh Way of doing business is rooted in the 1940s
when Hewlett-Packard established a model for the high-tech
industries of Silicon Valley. The H-P Way meant giving people

9

History

the opportunity to do a good job, consensus decision-making,
and egalitarian organizational structures. Even the trappings of
autocratic management disappeared because open cubicles and
workbenches replaced closed, corner offices.
In the 1980s Apple grabbed the baton from H-P. This upstart,
arrogant, and vibrant company maintained the informality of
the H-P Way and added its own elements of flashy products,
splashy marketing, and reality distortion. This was the Apple
Way. Somewhere along the line, however, another change took
place, and the baton passed from Apple, the company, to
Macintosh, the computer.

Right Wrong
Way Way

Right
Thing

Wrong
X
Thing

The Macintosh Way of doing business means doing the
right thing and doing things right. It combines the informality
of the H-P Way and the flair of the Apple Way with an idealistic
faith in employees, customers, and products. It is a way of doing
business for people who are foolish or brave enough to try to
make a difference in a world of mediocrity.

Doing the Right Thing
The first part of the Macintosh Way is doing the right thing. It
means focusing on the four essential tasks of a company:
creating the work environment, developing products, supporting
customers, and implementing marketing.

• The right work environment is created by passion and
sustains action, risk-taking, and fun. The president or CEO
of a company determines the quality of the work environ-

10

1 • First Blood

ment. A Yiddish saying sums it up, albeit negatively: "When
the fish gets rotten, the head stinks first." Assuming your
head isn't rotten, the next steps are to hire the right people
and give them the freedom to do their jobs, because people
are the most important assets of a company.
• The right products reward their owners; they are deep, in-
dulgent, complete, and elegant. Canon EOS 35mm cameras
are deep—they appeal to parents and professionals. Macin-
toshes are indulgent—you could buy an IBM PC clone, but
it doesn't make you feel good (or guilty). WAMMs are
complete—they are stereo speakers that the manufacturer
comes to your home to install. The Macintosh Bible is another
good example of a complete product; it's a book that comes
with two free upgrades. Acura Legend Coupes are elegant—
for half the price of a Mercedes, you can have a better car.
• The right customer support concentrates on the customer,
not the corporate policy book or quarterly bottom line. The
best example of the right customer support is a department
store chain called Nordstrom. If every high-technology
company aspired to be the Nordstrom of their market, it
would be a better world. Nordstrom has fans, not customers,
because it provides the right support.
• The right marketing communicates the benefits of techno-
logy by getting the right information into the hands of the
right people. It is not dependent on expensive and impressive
advertising campaigns or slick PR. It is the marketing of
technology, not the technology of marketing. If you believe
that your customers are intelligent, it's a matter of finding
them and providing them with accurate, in-depth informa-
tion. They'll make the right decisions.

Doing Things Right
The second part of the Macintosh Way is doing things right. It
means paying attention to the details of running a business and
building success brick by brick. It's not always necessary or

11

History

glamorous to do things right, but Macintosh Way companies do
them instinctively. For example:

• Evangelism is sales done right. It is the sharing of your
dream with the marketplace and the making of history with
your customer. Evangelism is the purest form of sales. A
Macintosh Way company doesn't sell; it evangelizes.
• Giving information and support to user groups is word-of-
mouth advertising done right. User groups are a medium
like print or television, but you can't buy them. You have to
earn them.
• Demos are sales presentations done right. Demos show
customers why they should buy a product because they
show how the product can increase their creativity and
productivity.

Doing the right thing and doing things right are the two
components of the Macintosh Way. Now let's review the history
of Macintosh to build a foundation for understanding and
implementing the Macintosh Way. Then we'll move on to
discussing doing the right thing and doing things right.

12

•?s?^.—zga
r * * / / J
:

LL^T

gt

r V ffej
ti r r. ft f?
ft

I J

Macintosh Days
Q. How many Macintosh Division employ-
ees do you need to change a light bulb?
A. One. He holds the light bulb up and lets
the universe revolve around him.
The employees of the
Apple II Division

Back to the Future
Macintosh is an example of how a person can get disgusted with
mediocrity, do the right thing, and achieve extraordinary success.
Essentially, Steve Jobs couldn't stand existing personal computers,
did his own thing, and found (to his relief) that others agreed
with him. In retrospect he was a visionary, but when he was cre-
ating Macintosh, his actions were natural and obvious to him.
Mediocrity—the antagonist—was IBM and MS-DOS. They
stood for a status quo that few people noticed and most saw no
reason to change. Steve challenged the status quo and put
something into motion that grew larger than anyone envisioned.
Macintosh started as a computer. It became a cult. Then a phe-
nomenon. Then a standard. Now it is a way of doing business.
The development and introduction of Macintosh provides
many examples of doing the right thing and doing things right.
The history of Macintosh is conveniently documented
elsewhere,1 so I will provide the perspective of someone in the
Macintosh Division. Admittedly, I was captured by the Macintosh
phenomenon even as I was helping to create it.

1. Check out The journey is the Reward by Jeffrey Young and Odyssey by
John Sculley.

History

Introduction—1984
On January 23, 1984, Apple ran a teaser ad during the Super
Bowl called "1984." It depicted a young, athletic woman dis-
rupting a Big Brother rally. The introduction of Macintosh, the
ad predicted, would mean that "1984 won't be like 1984."
The next day Steve Jobs, as only Steve Jobs could, unveiled
Macintosh to 2,000 rabid Apple employees, shareholders, and
fans at the Flint Center of DeAnza College in Cupertino. Steve
even decided that Macintosh would be the first computer
to introduce itself with digitized speech. Macintosh's first
words were:

Hello, I am Macintosh. It sure is great to get out of that bag.
Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I'd like to share with you
a thought that occurred to me the first time I met an IBM mainframe.
Never trust a computer you can't lift. Right now I'd like to introduce
a man who has been like a father to me, Steve Jobs.

The Macintosh Division had a seating area reserved in the
front of the auditorium. I'll never forget the special feeling of
being able to sit there with the people who created Macintosh
like Brian Howard, Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld, Burrell Smith,
Joanna Hoffman, Steve Capps, and Bruce Horn. I'll also never
forget the thrill of seeing my name on the screen when each
Macintosh Division employee was listed in slides at the end of
the presentation.

The Macintosh Division
Every story you heard about the Macintosh Division is true. We
were the hand-picked children of Steve Jobs. The industry joke
was, "What is the difference between Apple and the Cub
Scouts?" The answer: "The Cub Scouts have adult supervision."
It was like playing pinball only you were the ball.
On Thursdays and Fridays, masseuses came into our building,
Bandley 3, and gave us massages at our desks. There was a
Bosendorfer grand piano in the atrium of our building. It went

16

2 • Macintosh Days

along with $10,000 speakers and a CD player (back when CD
players were still exotic).
Unlike any other part of Apple, the Macintosh Division flew
first class if the trip was more than three hours long. I interpreted
the three hours to start from the time I left my apartment, so I
flew first class everywhere. We had unlimited supplies of freshly
squeezed orange juice. Not the kind made from concentrate—
this stuff cost $1.50 a bottle. There were Ansel Adams originals
in the lobby of Bandley 3.

*e&

„•
J i

S

Steve kept his BMW motorcycle near the lobby, though I
never saw him ride it. He regarded the motorcycle as "living
art"—not a means of transportation. We contemplated installing
a washer and dryer in the building so we could do our laundry
while we worked. We even thought about building a sushi bar
so we wouldn't have to go out for lunch.
Every member of the Macintosh Division who started before
the end of July, 1983 was given a Macintosh shortly after the
introduction. The Macintosh bore a personalized name plate
that said, "In appreciation" and the employee's name. I started
in September but got one anyway. Cary Clark, the technical
support engineer who started after me and single-handedly
helped 100 developers finish their software, got one too.

17

History

The Macintosh Dream
The Macintosh Division shared a dream, the Macintosh Dream,
of changing the world by bringing computers to more people so
that they could improve their personal creativity and enrich
their lives. We all thought we were going to change the world
with our little computer, and we worked 90 hours a week to do
it. We drank six-color1 Kool Aid every day.
A common misinterpretation of the excesses of the
Macintosh Division is that the special treatment motivated us.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Steve motivated us. He
wielded a unique ability to make you feel like a god or like a
bozo. (In Steve's eyes, there are only two kinds of people.) The
excesses—fresh orange juice, massages, and flying first class—
merely reinforced the importance of our mission.

Exercise
Give the employees of your company fresh orange juice.
Buy a grand piano for your foyer. Let them fly first class.
Give them massages every Friday afternoon.

Did they create a Macintosh?

Working for Steve was a terrifying and addictive experience.
He would tell you that your work, your ideas, and sometimes
your existence were worthless right to your face, right in front
of everyone. Watching him crucify someone scared you into
working incredibly long hours.
Working for Steve was also ecstasy. Once in a while he would
tell you that you were great, and that made it all worth it.
Watching him sanctify someone motivated you to exceed your
capabilities. It wasn't exactly Theory Z, but it did produce
Macintosh. We would have worked in the Macintosh Division
even if he'd given us Tang.

1. "Six-color" refers to the six-color Apple logo. People who love Apple see six-
color sunsets, eat six-color ice cream, and bleed in six colors.

18


Exercise
It may be said of men in general that they are ungrate-
ful and fickle, dissemblers, avoiders of danger, and
greedy of gain. So long as you shower benefits upon
them, they are all yours; they offer you their blood,
their substance, their lives and their children, provided
the necessity for it is far off; but when near at hand,
they revolt.
The Prince

Machiavelli

Why was Machiavelli wrong?

A. He didn't give stock options to his employees.

B. The market for IPOs1 was poor at the time.

C. The capital gains tax in Italy was too high.

D. He never met Steve jobs.
Steve's idea of Management By Wandering Around (MBWA)
was to go up to a person and say, "I think Guy is a bozo. What
do you think?" If you agreed, he'd go on to the next person and
would say, "I think Guy is a bozo. Mike agrees with me. What do
you think?"
If you disagreed and said that Guy was great, Steve would go
to the next person and say, "I think Guy is great. Mike does too.
What do you think?" It wasn't exactly what Tom Peters would
prescribe as a management feedback process.

1. Most people think that IPO stands for Initial Public Offering. Really it stands
for Initial Premature Offering. An IPO typically occurs when the founders of a
company realize that they had better cash out because they won't ship a new
product for several years. Usually it's premature because the company and its
products are untested, but there's a sucker for everything. As a venture capitalist
once said, "Do what makes money, and the fun will come."

lc>

History

We were totally convinced, though, that we were doing the
right thing. George Crow, a hardware engineer, and Bob Belleville,
director of engineering, were so convinced that they risked their
careers by subverting Steve. They believed that the right disk
drive to use in Macintoshes was a 3 1/2-inch Sony drive and con-
tinued to work with Sony despite Steve's decision to use an
alternate manufacturer called Alps. George and Larry Kenyon
once hid the Sony disk drive engineer ("a little Japanese guy"
according to Andy Hertzfeld)1 in a closet when Steve popped
into the lab at an unexpected time. (Right thing, right way.)

Test Drive a Macintosh
We were having a great time, but Macintosh wasn't selling that
well. The Apple II was paying our way. Although 250,000
Macintoshes were sold in the first year, we forecast total first-
year sales of 425,000 units and monthly run rates of
40,000-65,000 by the end of 1984. Also, the university market
accounted for about 35 percent of sales, and developers bought
another ten percent. Business clearly did not accept a 128K
Macintosh with no software as an alternative to the IBM PC. It
took four years—until 1988—to achieve the 1984 sales forecasts.
In the fall of 1984, we introduced a marketing promotion
called "Test Drive a Macintosh" to improve sales. This promotion,
conceived by Mike Murray, enabled Apple dealers to loan Mac-
intoshes to customers for a test drive. In splendid Macintosh
arrogance, we believed that Macintosh would seduce customers
overnight. It was a good idea, but the timing was all wrong
because dealers didn't want the hassle of administering the
loaner units during the busy Christmas season. (Right thing,
wrong way.)
Looking back on 1984, the amazing thing was not our
optimistic projection, but that we were able to sell 250,000
units of a 128K computer with no software and no hard disk. If
history is recorded correctly, Mike Murray and other Macintosh

1. Andy Hertzfeld is a Macintosh software wizard and the purest form of the
Macintosh dream.

20


Month Total Sales
January 20,000
60,000 hebruary 13,000
March 17,000
April 23,500
May 24,000
June 27,500
July 35,500
August 40,500
September 49,000
40,000
October 53,000
November 58,000
December 64,000

total 425,000

20,000

I)
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Original 1984 sales forecast from the Macintosh PIP (Product Introduction
1
Plan), November 7, 1983.

Division zealots like Joanna Hoffman, Barbara Koalkin, Steve
Scheier, and John Rizzo will be remembered as people who
changed personal computing forever with innovative ideas
like Test Drive a Macintosh. Within six months of the introduc-
tion, the whole world knew about this easy-to-use computer
with a graphic interface called Macintosh.

^xercise
Ask anyone f r o m t h e Macintosh Division if they w o u l d do
it all over again.

The Macintosh Office
During the 1985 Super Bowl, Apple ran another commercial.
This one was called "Lemmings." The commercial antagonized

1. A Product Introduction Plan or PIP is a document that is circulated throughout
Apple to ensure that everyone approves of a product introduction. In practice,
it adds two months to the delivery of a product because no one is around to sign
it. Also, n o one reads it—everyone just sees who else signed it and signs it too.

21

History

many business people because it portrayed them as lemmings
jumping off a cliff unless they "looked into the Macintosh
Office." Rather than stunning the audience like "1984," it
displayed Apple's self-delusions to millions of viewers. The
commercial bombed, but the 49ers won and everyone at the
Super Bowl in the Stanford Stadium got to keep an Apple seat
cushion. Two out of three ain't bad.
The Macintosh Office was our vision of business people
working in small groups of 5 to 25 people. It was made up of four
primary components: Macintoshes, the AppleTalk network,
peripherals like laser printers, and productivity applications.
These "workgroups," as we called them, would be able to work
more productively by sharing information and resources when
tied together by a network. Until then, workgroup communi-
cation usually involved "SneakerNet"—carrying diskettes to
each other on foot.
The problem with the Macintosh Office was that it was
missing a fileserver—a device that acts something like a traffic
cop and a shared storage device for a network. Early prototypes'
were shown, but the fileserver was not even close to being
completed. Because of this, Jean-Louis Gassee, then general
manager of Apple France, refused to introduce the Macintosh
Office in France. In his words, it was the "Macintosh Orifice."
Apple didn't ship a fileserver until 1987.
The LaserWriter was the best part of the Macintosh Office.
More than any other piece of hardware, it showed the distinct
advantage of owning a Macintosh, and it saved Macintosh and
enabled Apple to reemerge from 1985. Everyone takes the
LaserWriter for granted today, but most of Apple fought against
its creation. Many people, myself included, thought it was nuts
to design a $ 7,000 printer—a Lisa2 without a monitor if you will.
1. A prototype is a new piece of hardware or software that hasn't been officially
released to the marketplace. Typically, it is a 10-20 percent improvement over
the existing model with a 30-40 percent price increase. Often prototypes are
sold as "version 1.0" to enable a broader population to pay for the privilege of
testing the product.
2. A Lisa is a computer that was sold by Apple from 1983 to 1985. It represented
much of the technology that eventually appeared in Macintosh, such as a one-

22


Bob Belleville championed the LaserWriter. He designed
laser printers for Xerox and knew John Warnock, the creator of
the PostScript1 page description language and one of the founders
of Adobe Systems. Though Apple marketing and the market
demanded a daisy-wheel printer (the status quo thing), he
pursued a laser printer for the rest of us. Bob, Steve, and Burrell
Smith finished the LaserWriter despite strong resistance from all
levels of Apple. (Right thing, right way.) Ironically, most of
Apple fought against the very thing that probably saved it.

Exercise
Connect a daisy-wheel printer t o a Macintosh. Create a
newsletter w i t h PageMaker. 2 Print the newsletter.

In June, 1985 Apple was ripped up and changed from a
product division structure (Macintosh, Apple II) to a functional
organization (development, marketing, and manufacturing). In
the process 1,200 employees were laid off. The Steve & John
Show also ended in a Greek tragedy.
I survived the 1985 purge because I wasn't hitched to the
Jobs wagon and because I managed (or had most of Apple
convinced that I managed) the relationship between Apple and
Macintosh developers. I was one of the middle managers who
sculpted the reorganization, including selecting the employees
who would be laid off and those who would stay.
We brought our org charts to a large conference room in
DeAnza 2, the Apple building that housed most of the Apple
executive staff, and wrote names on a white board. The people
whose names weren't on the board at the end of two days of
button mouse, graphic user interface (pull-down menus, windows, desktop
metaphor), bitmapped graphics, and integrated applications. In January, 1985,
Lisa became a "Macintosh XL." XL stood for "Extra Large," "Extra Late," or
"Extra Lisas" (in inventory). After the inventory was depleted and write-downs
were avoided, it was discontinued in April, 1985.
1. Postscript is the technical term for a lucrative royalty stream from Apple
to Adobe.
2. PageMaker is the Aldus product that launched desktop publishing. The
creation of PageMaker was an act of God specifically intended to save Apple.

23

History

meetings were laid off. It was like being a master of ceremonies
at a massive funeral, and I never want to go through an
experience like that again.

The Glory Years
The Lemmings commercial was run backwards (wrong thing,
right way) at the Apple sales conference in August, 1985 in San
Diego, California. The tag line this time was, "1986 won't be like
1985." It was correct because the introduction of PageMaker in
July, 1985 and the introduction of the Macintosh Plus in
January, 1986 catalyzed the Ascension of Macintosh.
The creation of a new market called Desktop Publishing
along with a faster, larger capacity Macintosh sparked an
acceleration in Macintosh sales. Also, the amount of Macintosh
software was doubling every year. After that, it was easy. How
hard could it be when you had the best computer and the best
collection of software?

Looking Back
Many people have written about the development and intro-
duction of Macintosh by conducting interviews and background
research.1 Their books and articles focused on the intriguing and
controversial problems—Steve and John, negative "Steve-isms,"
and the internal politics. I guess that stuff sells, but they miss the
point. They try to tell you what happened, not what it means.

Typically, this is the story line:
Sfeve was bored at his own company. He needed something to do. He
formed this exclusive club called the Macintosh Division. They (and
he) pissed off everyone (and each other). Somehow they shipped a
remarkable computer called Macintosh.
1. On page 279 of West of Eden, Frank Rose writes about a dinner party at Al
Eisenstat's house (Apple's general counsel at the time). He describes Al's den as
having "a view of the driveway and the tree-shaded streets of Atherton." Al's den
at the time overlooked a deck which overlooked his pool which overlooked a
grove of eucalyptus trees in his neighbor's backyard, and the driveway was on
the other side of the house. Where do these guys come up with stuff like this?
There is a difference between writing and typing.

24


It didn't sell very well. The Macintosh Division crumbled because
Steve wasn't a manager, his troops were bickering, and customers were
antagonized. The Macintosh Division couldn't revise and enhance
Macintosh and developers couldn't deliver software and peripherals.
For the good of the company John 86ed Steve. Steve started NeXT.1
Things started to turn around for Apple.

This is what actually happened:
Steve, the Macintosh Division, and Apple blew a hole in the side of the
invincible IBM ship. Along the way, we suffered through calamities,
in-fighting, and strife. After the introduction, we were physically and
emotionally exhausted. Bringing Macintosh to market was an
impossible act to follow, and this, combined with our physical and
emotional fragility, caused us to stumble and fall. Nevertheless, a core
of true believers—Apple employees, developers, and early Macintosh
owners—sustained Macintosh and made it successful.

This is what it means:
A small team of bright, fearless, and ambitious punks led by a
charismatic high priest trying to do the right thing can defeat
mediocrity and the status quo. The battle can cost a lot (even the life
of the high priest), but it is so magnificent that the toll almost doesn't
matter. Winning the battle doesn 't require huge resources if people buy
into your dream. Afterward, it's all worth it, and the revisionist
historians say, "I knew that they would succeed."

Exercise
This one is for Macintosh aficionados only. I g o t t h e idea
f r o m a current Apple employee whose identity I shall keep
confidential (thanks, JD).

The idea is t h a t Apple should employ Andy Hertzfeld as

1. NeXT is the computer company that Steve started after he was purged from
Apple. Almost everyone hopes he succeeds (some only secretly). A few Apple
employees have gone to NeXT to relive their youth. Some of them returned to
Apple because youth is overrated.

25

History

Keeper of The Way. All of the Apple engineers would have
to explain their projects to Andy and then listen to his
feedback. They wouldn't have to do what he said, just
listen to him.

If you agree, send this mail-in card to Jean-Louis:

Jean-Louis Gassee
Apple Computer, Inc.
20525 Mariani Ave.
M/S 271
Cupertino, CA 95014

Dear Jean-Louis,
I agree with Guy. I think that you should employ Andy
Hertzfeld as Keeper of The Way.

Name

Company

Address

City State Zip
L

26

Doing t h e
Right Thing

Part 2

Environment
/ don't want yes-men around me. I
want everybody to tell me the truth
even if it costs them their jobs.
Samuel Coldwyn

Perspective
This chapter is about creating the right environment in a high-
technology company. It is the most important chapter of the
book because people are the most important asset of a company.
The right company environment is the first essential ingredient
of the Macintosh Way.
The right environment is created by passion and sustains
action, risk-taking, and fun. It is necessary because the high-
tech marketplace changes so rapidly. For example, in 1984
Macintosh was a toy that was dismissed by IBM. Three years later
it was a powerful workstation that IBM was trying to imitate.
IBM is still trying, but without much luck.
In high technology you never have enough data to make a
completely informed decision, there are few precedents to copy,
and the landscape changes as you try to paint it. It's like
shooting at a moving target from a moving platform in pitch-
black darkness. Because of the rapid change, you need an
organization that can quickly move, decide, change, and adapt.

The Top Guy
The starting point for the right environment is the guy1 at the

1. The top guy doesn't have to be a man. For simplicity's sake and only for
simplicity's sake, I use masculine pronouns throughout the book. If you don't


top. Every organization reflects the personality of the top guy,
and if the top guy changes so does the organization: people who
don't share his vision leave, those who stay act differently, and
a different kind of person gets hired.
The founder is often still running a Macintosh Way company
so there's no need to worry about finding the right top guy. Mike
Boich (Radius), John Warnock (Adobe Systems), Paul Brainerd
(Aldus), and Bill Gates (Microsoft) are founders who are still the
top guys of their companies. This means that you don't always
have to replace the founders with professional managers as the
company gets larger.
In status quo companies, the founders have often left and
the current top guy was recruited from a competitor. The logic
was "he was there when they went through tremendous growth
so he can do it for us, too." He probably had little to do with
anything good that happened at the other company. Correlation
seldom equals causation in high-technology businesses.
Let's assume, though perhaps we shouldn't, a baseline of
intelligence, honesty, and diligence. Beyond that, being the top
guy of a Macintosh Way company requires five special charac-
teristics. If your top guy has all of these qualities, he can inspire
your company to greatness.

1 • Passion for products. Whether the top guy is a founder or
not, he must have a passion for products. This kind of top guy
creates a company that brings great products to market. Charlie
Jackson of Silicon Beach Software told the Dark Castle 1
development team to create a game so great that "when
competitors saw it, they would give up." It took a year and a half
to finish Dark Castle, and over 60,000 copies have been sold.
When Bill Gates created the product specification for Excel,
he told the programmers to write the "best spreadsheet possible
for a personal computer." His kind of passion inspires great
like it, I'll send you the file and you can replace all the "hes" with "shes." Sexism
is how you feel about the roles of men and women, not the use of pronouns.
1. Dark Castle is a game that has caused the loss of more productivity than any
other Macintosh product to date.

30

3 • Environment

achievements. Imagine working for a company whose chairman
told you to create the best possible product and then was smart
enough to know when you did it.

2 • Strong sense of security. The right top guy hires people
who are better than he is because it is impossible for anyone to
be good at sales, marketing, engineering, finance, and operations.
Steve Jobs was a good example of someone with a strong sense
of security (what an understatement!) who wanted to hire only
the best people. He used to rant and rave whenever a candidate
was beneath his standards. He would scream, "A players hire A
players. B players hire C players. You want to hire him? Are you
brain damaged?"

Exercise
If A players hire A players and B players hire C players, how
do B players get hired?

An insecure person would not have recruited John Sculley.
Sculley was president of Pepsi at the time, and quite well known
in American industry. He had his picture on the cover of
Business Week at age 34. In retrospect, Steve was so secure that
he hired a person who was strong enough to throw him out of
his own company. He couldn't conceive of anyone taking his
power. That's pretty secure.

3 • Willingness to give employees rope. The right top guy fo-
cuses the company on the end results and gives his employees
enough rope to accomplish great things. There is too much
going on in a high-technology company to control everything,
and giving people rope is the only way to make them grow.
My job at Apple was to "get Macintosh software." Steve and
Mike Murray established the goal and got out of the way. They
didn't tell me how to do it, nor did they care what I did so long
as I delivered. It was their willingness to give me the rope that
forced me to learn and grow.

31


4 • Ability to live vicariously. Being secure enough to hire good
employees and open enough to give them rope is a fine start.
Being able to live vicariously through their accomplishments
guarantees success. This means that the top guy should get as
much satisfaction from his employees getting glory as he would
from getting glory himself.
The ultimate top guy believes that the success of a company
is because of his employees. The failure of a company is his fault
alone. It's very hard to find an example of this because the
people who start companies often have strong egos and cannot
share the glory.

5 • Chutzpah.1 The final special characteristic is chutzpah. The
perfect market has no established competitors, it's growing at 50
percent a year, and there are high barriers for entry for everyone
except you. Wake up and smell the silicon. There are no such
markets. A Macintosh company makes up for a lack of capital
and brand-name awareness with chutzpah, and chutzpah starts
at the top.
Steve is off the scale when it comes to chutzpah. He used a
slide in the 1985 shareholders' meeting showing a mock-up of
The Wall Street Journal with the headline, "Apple Proposes
Detente with IBM." Most Apple employees admired Steve's
chutzpah. Macintosh Division employees even believed him.
The great thing about chutzpah is that it inspires people to
exceed their capabilities. Steve wanted to defeat IBM, not
"achieve 18 percent market share." Epic battles are not measured
in market share percentage points, and people will fight to the
death if they are led by a top guy with chutzpah. That's why we
worked 90 hours a week in the Macintosh Division.

Hiring the Right People
The next step to the right environment is finding and hiring the
1. Chutzpah is a Yiddish term for something daring that you did. It should not
be confused with "unmitigated gall" which is a goyish term for something
daring that your enemy did. A low-level example of chutzpah is someone who
pirates software then calls the company to complain that there are bugs in it.

32

3 • Environment

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•
'
right people. These are the qualities to look for in the right
employees:

1 • Passion. Passion should be flowing through the arteries of
every employee in a company, not only the top guy. Not every-
one believes in passion—during the Silver Surfer affair Mike
Stone of Ashton-Tate went into father-hoses-best mode and told
me, "Guy, you shouldn't get so upset about Silver Surfer. Don't
take it personally. Step back and look at the big picture. It's better
for Macintosh that Apple give Silver Surfer to Ashton-Tate."
He didn't understand how passionate I felt about Macintosh,
evangelism, and 4th Dimension. To me, the big picture was
making Macintosh successful. To do that, Macintosh needed a
high-end database. Ashton-Tate wasn't going to deliver one, so
Alain and I found another way: acquiring 4th Dimension.
People are not always passionate. That's okay—but don't hire
them. Try not to let them upset you either.

2 • High bandwidth.1 A high bandwidth is necessary to under-
stand a rapidly changing marketplace, make decisions, and keep
I. Bandwidth refers to the ability to assimilate data as it is about to make your
head explode. It should not be confused with "bandwagon" which is something
that everyone jumps on after the risks are over.

33


moving toward a goal. In a choice between high bandwidth and
experience, high bandwidth is preferable because experience is
frequently a false god. It's better to hire people who can get you
to where you want to be than people who profess to have been
there before.
Marylene made me president of ACIUS although I had never
run a software company before and didn't know much about
databases. (Let me burst a bubble: I never really used 4th
Dimension before I resigned from Apple. I tried to twice. The
first time I took it home on 800K disks, but the drive in my
Macintosh at home could only read 400K disks. The second time
I had it loaded on a hard disk that couldn't be connected to my
Macintosh at home). Marylene believed that I had the bandwidth
to understand how to start a company and sell a database.

3 • Ability to deal with stress and ambiguity. Working in a
high-growth company is stressful because of the pace of change.
If the stress of fast growth, changing technology, and bitter
competition weren't enough, there is also a great deal of
ambiguity. There is only enough data to cause paralysis—never
enough to make a perfect decision—so your employees must be
able to deal with stress and ambiguity.

4 • High energy. The tasks will be difficult, and the hours will
be long, so sustained bursts of high energy are required in high
technology. Steve made sweatshirts for the Macintosh Division
that said "90 hours a week and loving it" to commemorate our
work style. If Steve had built a sushi bar and installed a washer
and dryer, we would have never left the building. All of the
passion, bandwidth, and ability to deal with stress is for naught
unless your employees have enough physical and mental energy
to apply them.

Macintosh Values
The final step to the right environment is establishing the right
company values. When Steve and Mike Murray told me to "get

34

3 • Environment

software. We don't care how," I went charging off like a wild
elephant, and in my fervor and zeal antagonized many people
in the Apple II Division, Apple corporate, and field sales.
The atmosphere in the Macintosh Division was rather Cali-
fornian and Machiavellian. Californian because we wanted to
make the world better. Machiavellian because this end justified
the means. These were the values of the Macintosh Division:

1 • Ask forgiveness, not permission. When red tape and cor-
porate policies get in the way, Macintosh Way employees do
the right thing and ask for forgiveness later. As one example,
Mike Boich and I created a mail-order business to sell prere-
lease copies of Inside Macintosh to Macintosh developers. It was
not published in book form until 1985, so we had to sell photo-
copied versions to enable developers to write software.
At one point, we were selling 1,000 copies a month at $150
a copy despite an Apple policy not to sell anything via mail
order. (This policy was put into place because Apple had filed a
number of lawsuits against dealers who were selling Apple
hardware by mail. Apple's legal contention was that Apple
products require support and set-up and therefore shouldn't be
sold through the mail. Selling Inside Macintosh through the mail
would make Apple look hypocritical.)
As a second example, we loosened up the requirements to
qualify for the Apple Certified Developer Program.1 There were
strict limitations on who could qualify as an Apple certified de-
veloper and how much equipment one could buy at 50 percent
discounts for development purposes. Apple instituted these
rules to protect the dealer channel. We loosened up the rules to
cast as wide a net as possible, and developers bought more Mac-
intoshes than the Apple national account and value added
reseller channels for years. Many of the Macintoshes were

1. The Apple Certified Developer Program was implemented to encourage
developers to create hardware and software products for Apple's computers.
When a company became certified, it could buy equipment at a discount,
receive informational mailings, attend conferences, and generally get their
reality distorted by us.

35


bought for friends and relatives, but in 1984 and 1985 any
Macintosh in the field helped sell more Macintoshes.

2 • Placate the people you can't avoid and avoid the people
you can't placate. In 1985 one of the reasons for the delay in
Macintosh software was the difficulty programmers had
obtaining technical documentation and tools. There were about
five different channels inside and outside of Apple that sold
these products, but each channel was poorly publicized and
provided little or no customer contact. The process of "shrink-
wrapping"1 Apple's development tools also added 3-6 months
of delays because of meaningless things like pretty packaging
and bound documentation. In addition, Apple dealers were not
interested in selling products that were low-volume and low-
margin but required high support.
Dan Cochran and Lyn Termeer of Apple made it their goal
to create an effective distribution channel for these kinds of
products by placating some people and avoiding others. These
are the problems they had to overcome:
First, Apple had recently gone through the layoffs of the
Summer of 1985, and no Apple executive would seriously think
of adding headcount to create an association for nerds. Dan and
Lyn wanted to ensure that the association wouldn't be dismantled
in the heat of earnings-per-share paranoia if Apple's sales
dropped and 1985 happened again.
Secondly, they were proposing a mail-order business on a far
larger scale than selling copies of Inside Macintosh. Apple's legal
position that hardware required the face-to-face support of deal-
ers would be weakened by selling technical products, develop-
ment tools, and documentation.
Thirdly, many Apple sales and marketing people did not
want to upset dealers. They were afraid dealers would conclude
that Apple would start selling other things like application soft-
ware and computers through the mail later.
1. Shrink-wrapping refers to the process of wrapping plastic around a software
product, shrinking the plastic, and shipping it out. It's something like a bar
mitzvah (a rite of passage for you goyim) for software.

36

3 • Environment

Dan and Lyn created the Apple Programmer's and Developer's
Association (APDA) to create a distribution channel for
development tools and documentation. They found a user
group called A.P.P.L.E. (Apple Puget Sound Program Library
Exchange) that operated a software mail-order business in
Renton, Washington and convinced A.P.P.L.E. to operate APDA.
Apple incurred start-up costs of $200,000 and $50,000 worth of
Apple equipment.
I n the process of creating APDA, Dan and Lyn had to placate
the people they couldn't avoid and avoid the people they
couldn't placate. They convinced Jean-Louis and me that
A.P.P.L.E. could start APDA for only $250,000 without adding
significant headcount or costs to Apple.
They assured the Apple legal department that these prod-
ucts weren't for general consumption and were being offered
to a select group of people with special needs that could not be
served through traditional channels. (That's why people had to
join APDA and sign an agreement that they were nerds, didn't
need technical support, and wouldn't expect any.)
Finally, they avoided the people they couldn't placate.
Simply put, they ignored Apple sales and marketing people until
APDA was a done deal. APDA was formed in August, 1985, and
20,000 people joined APDA in the first year. APDA was
immediately a $6 million a year business. Beyond these numbers,
APDA also significantly accelerated the development of Mac-
intosh software.1

3 • Implement before anyone changes his mind (or catches
you). As Dan and Lyn proved, sometimes the best path is to do
what's right before anyone catches you. Often you don't need
to ignore or avoid people—you have to take their instructions
and implement like hell. For example, Mike Murray told me to
change the perception that Macintosh didn't have software so
I bought 1,500 copies of products like ThinkTank 128K, Helix,
1. In early 1989, Apple ended the contract with A.P.P.L.E. and began to operate
APDA as a part of Apple in Cupertino. As of this writing, it's not clear if this was
the right thing.

37


Filevision, OverVUE, Front Desk, and MegaForm to give them to
Apple sales reps and dealers.
In the process, I almost got fired for exceeding my purchasing
authority by a mere $747,500. (I had signature authority for
$2,500, and the total cost of all the software exceeded $ 750,000.)
Not even Steve had this level of signature authority. Only John
Sculley could authorize this large a purchase. Susan Barnes, then
the controller of the Macintosh Division, tried to fire me. Now
she's at NeXT—I wonder what Ross Perot1 would say. I wonder
if $750,000 matters to Perot.

4 • Do what's right for the customer. This is the easiest value
to agree with and the hardest to follow because doing what's
right for the customer is often scary. For example, software com-
panies are tortured by decisions to send out bug2 notices that
could ruin the reputation of their product and decrease sales.

(

u
•

!

1. Ross Perot is the founder of Electronic Data Systems and a major investor in
Steve Job's latest company, NeXT. Recently, he sold EDS to GM. For a while he
worked for GM, then GM paid him about $750 million to go away and not
compete with them. He went away, but some people think that he is still
competing with them. Maybe he's been sticking around Steve too much.
2. A bug is an imperfection in your competitor's program. Imperfections in your
program are called various things depending on who you are: ACIUS—anomaly,
Claris—unexpected result, Microsoft—wrongful termination, Apple—
undocumented feature.

38

3 • Environment

This macho book-writing stuff aside, it scares me when I have to
make a decision like this. Some companies never do it—they
wait until the customer calls. The Macintosh Way is to do what's
right for the customer and believe that everything else will fall
into place. Most companies concentrate on the press and
analysts, not the customer—that's watching the scoreboard
instead of the rim. If you concentrate on the customer, the press
and analysts will follow.

Exercise
The press and analysts think that MS-DOS compatibility is
necessary for all computers, but your new computer is
radically different from MS-DOS computers.

What should you do?

A. Announce that an MS-DOS add-in card will be available real
soon now.

B. Claim that the new computer can connect to IBM mainframes.

C. Form a strategic alliance'' with DEC.

D. License your interface to Microsoft so that MS-DOS will look
like your computer.

E. Build the best computer you can to fulfill what your customers
need and evangelize like hell.

F. All of the above.

1. A strategic alliance in high technology means getting someone to announce
that they are going to do what you know you would lose money doing. Typically
it is heralded as a brilliant move by the press and analysts until nothing comes
of the alliance for two years.

39


Exercise
Rank the following choices in order from most desirable to
least desirable. Explain why.

A. The right answer.

B. The wrong answer.

C. No answer.

5 • Co with your gut. Just this once I'll give you the right an-
swer. The correct ranking for the previous exercise is: the right
answer, the wrong answer, no answer. In most cases, you won't
have all the information you need, and the target is moving
anyway. You must go with your gut. A wrong answer at least
provides data and helps you make better decisions in the future.
No answer provides nothing at all.
Software developers like Living Videotext, Solutions Inter-
national, Silicon Beach Software, Spectrum Digital Systems, and
Aldus went with their gut and undertook Macintosh development
in 1983 and 1984. They believed that Macintosh would succeed,
and they didn't wait until the data was collected. Indeed, the
data for three years indicated that Macintosh wasn't selling well.
The Macintosh Way is to weigh the risks, but not be afraid to take
a shot.

6 • Burn, don't bleed, to death. Doing the right thing and
doing things right does not guarantee success or survival. In
1986, Dave Winer and Living Videotext almost burned to death
trying to finish MORE.1 He was nearly done with the product
but was almost out of cash. MORE was a great product, and I
admired Dave and the efforts of Living Videotext, so I bought
1,000 copies of MORE and paid $150,000 in advance. He
1. MORE is an outline processor for Macintosh. It started life as ThinkTank
128K, but was enhanced so much that Living Videotext decided to call it, and
charge, MORE.

40

3 • Environment

shipped it and became one of Apple's most vocal supporters. It
was some of the best money I ever spent.
The Macintosh Way is to make your best effort, put everything
on the line, and swing for the fence. Even when Macintosh Way
companies fail, they do it with a sense of style and the knowledge
that they gave it their best shot. In the end, it doesn't matter
anyway because all men are cremated equal.1

From the Outside Looking In
This section is for people who want to work for the right
company. Here are ways to get noticed and hired if you are on
the outside of a Macintosh Way company looking in.

^
' >
• m
vjjjk
-••

X>•^
1 • Love and understand their product. A Macintosh Way
company wants to hire people who love their product because
they make enthusiastic, happy, and long-lasting employees.
Therefore, the starting point for a successful job search is to learn
all you can about a company's product. If you love the product
and can envision working 90 hours a week to make it successful,
proceed. If not, stay put selling soap.
Here's a guerrilla job search tip for you. Separate yourself

1. This funny thought is attributed to someone named Goodman Ace. I don't
know who he is either.

41


from the other applicants by sending in a sample of what you've
done with a company's product. Adobe, Aldus, or Microsoft
won't be able to resist interviewing anyone who knows how
to use their product. It also shows initiative, an understanding
of their product, and a desire to set yourself apart from the
other applicants.

Exercise
A computer company with a computer that boasts a
graphic user interface hired several marketing executives
with consumer goods backgrounds. The theory was that
computers were becoming more like soaps and less like
technology, so brand management, packaging, and
promotions were the key. They tried to sell computers like
soap and failed.

W h i c h statement best describes w h a t this passage means?

A. The company used the wrong recruiters.

B. Computers are not soap.

C. Consumer goods companies are lousy training grounds for
high-technology companies.

D. You've got to love a product to sell it.

E. All of the above.

2 • Show that you want to change the world. M a c i n t o s h Way
companies want to change the world, so they want to hire
people who want to change the world. Working for a Macintosh
Way company is a cause, not a job, so when you submit your
resume or interview, express a world-changing desire.
Of all the employees that I hired at Apple, Moira Cullen best
personified the desire to change the world. When she interviewed

42

3 • Environment

for the K-12 educational software evangelist job, I was instantly
convinced that she wanted to change the educational software
world forever. Her interview with me lasted about ten minutes.
I asked her two questions: "Can you deal with controversy? Do
you want to change the world?" Today she is the manager of the
evangelists who work with Apple's largest developers.

3 • Skip the personnel department and have a current employee
carry your torch. The most effective way to get noticed by a
Macintosh Way company is to have a current employee carry
the torch for you. This advice would be in the "goes without
saying" category except that few people do it. Almost everyone
sends in resumes or responds to classified ads and hopes that
someone in personnel calls them.
Current employees have credibility with their company and
can help your application rise above the noise level. (Apple gets
about 10,000 unsolicited resumes a month.) I got my job at
Apple because Mike Boich was my college buddy. The human
resources person handling my recruitment actually asked Mike,
"If he weren't your best friend, would you still hire him?" My
resume would have never attracted any attention if Mike hadn't
been carrying the torch for me.

4 • Perfect your cover letter and resume. This is obvious too,
but many people don't do it. Your resume and cover letter are
your marketing pieces. They are going to get about ten seconds
of attention from a busy executive. In those ten seconds, they
better sell you. This is how a Macintosh Way company interprets
resumes and cover letters.

Description Interpretation
Typed Behind the times
Dot matrix Doesn't care enough to
use a laser printer
Multiple-page resume Trying to hide something

43


Spelling mistakes Too lazy to use a spelling checker

Includes a picture Ego problems

To "perfect" does not mean to go overboard. When ACIUS
first started, we received a leather-bound folio that included a
cover letter, a resume, and an 8-by-10 color photo of the appli-
cant. We didn't hire him.

Exercise
Match the type of resume to the appropriate action:

LaserWriter Hire

Dot matrix Discard

Selectric Scan

Hand written Read

Linotronic Laugh

5 • Demonstrate passion and people skills. The most import-
ant things in an interview at a Macintosh Way company are pas-
sion for their products and the ability to work with other people.
A great strategy (or at least one that would work with me) is
to demo the company's product in the interview. You'd probably
get a job at Aldus if you gave them an incredible demo of Page-
Maker. For that matter, you'd probably get a job with Aldus'
competitors if you gave them an incredible demo of PageMaker.
The ability to work with other people is also crucial. Macin-
tosh Way companies hate internal friction, so prepare for an
examination of your people skills during a job interview. Do the
next exercise because you'll probably be asked a question like it
in an interview at a Macintosh Way company.

44

3 • Environment

Exercise
In a job interview you are asked, "What would you do if
you cannot get another person in the company to work
with you?" What is the best answer?

A. Write a memo to your supervisor to elevate the issue.

B. Complain to the person's supervisor.

C. Install a virus on his hard disk.

D. Meet with the other person and work it out as peers.

6 • Don't brag about having an MBA. If an MBA matters, the
interviewer will see it on your resume. If it doesn't, don't bring
it up because Macintosh Way employees despise MBAs. MBAs
use white-out on their monitors to correct mistakes. Where
MBAs go to class reunions, engineers endow chairs. Honestly, I
have an MBA, and I'm doing okay. This proves it's possible to
correct even the worst mistakes.

7 • Don't be proud; just get in. Don't make the mistake of
setting your mind on a particular kind of job when you are
interviewing. Get into the company anywhere you can. If you
are as good as you think and the company is growing, other
opportunities will open up soon enough, and you may get your
dream position. The hard step is getting into the company, not
switching jobs. So don't be proud; just get in.
When Jean-Louis started in the Macintosh Division in the
summer of 1985, he lowered himself to director of marketing.
(He was, after all, the king of Apple France.) A week later he was
vice-president of product development. In 1989 he became
president of Apple Products. Not bad for a French immigrant.

45


Once You're In
If you get a job at a Macintosh Way company, here's a tip to help
you rise to the top. Do what your boss asks right away—no mat-
ter when he says he really wants it. Nothing shows that you are
on top of things as much as doing what the boss asks first.

40

Great Products
Genius is an African who dreams up snow.
Vladimir Nabokov

The Foundation
During the layoffs, reorganizations, and turmoil at Apple in
1985, a core of employees, customers, and developers believed
in Macintosh, and one thing remained the same—Macintosh
was a great product. A great product is the second essential
ingredient of the Macintosh Way. This chapter examines the
qualities of great products, the right product development
process, and the right development people.
The Macintosh Division realized the value of product super-
iority when competing with a giant like IBM. In the Macintosh
Product Introduction Plan, the Macintosh Division clearly
stated the importance of creating the right product:

...Yet when weighing the competitive strengths of Apple and IBM,
we win in one key category: PRODUCT SUPERIORITY. It is our
preemptive Lisa Technology at a recognizable price/performance
advantage that will allow us to successfully compete with IBM for the
next 18-24 months.
Macintosh Product
introduction plan
October 7, 1983

"PRODUCT SUPERIORITY" is in all caps in the original—I
did not add it here for emphasis. As Macintosh got better (permit
me to include the selection of software as a part of a computer),


sales increased, and Apple became successful. By 1988, Apple
was selling about 800,000 Macintoshes per year.

Rolling the DICE
A great product is based on insight and inspiration, and it is an
accomplishment—particularly in a world that tolerates and
buys mediocrity. A great product is like pornography—you'll
know it when you see it. There are four characteristics on which
to base your judgement: a great product is deep, indulgent,
complete, and elegant (DICE).

igti—

V

•
-Q1

•-.
. ••
•• a
1 • Deep—the product appeals to both passengers and sailors
(as Jean-Louis would say). Great products are deep—they appeal
to both passengers and sailors, and the passenger and sailor in
all of us. A passenger gets on a ship, plays shuffleboard, and eats
at the captain's table. A sailor weighs the anchor, goes into the
engine room, and gets grease under his fingernails. Some people
use a Macintosh to do what crayons do. Some people use a
Macintosh to do what mainframes do. A deep product enables
you to do both. Owning a deep product is like finding money in
the pockets of your coat.
Canon EOS 35mm cameras are another example of a deep
product. These cameras are auto exposure, auto focus, auto load,

SO

4 • Great Products

auto everything, but you can also manually control almost all
aspects of a photograph. The passenger can take pictures of the
kids. The sailor can use it as a professional tool. You can even
hook it up to a personal computer. You don't need to spend $400
for a camera to take snapshots, but you will.

Exercise
Choose the set of words that best reflects the relationship
between the two words in all capital letters.

PASSENGER : SAILOR

A. Policeman : Criminal

B. Chef: Waiter

C. Teacher: Student

D. Hacker: Nerd

E. Novice: Expert

2 • Indulgent—feeling good (and guilty). Great products are
indulgent. They make you feel delighted and a little guilty
because they are overkill for the tasks at hand. A Mont Blanc
fountain pen is overkill for signing books. A seventy-five cent
ballpoint would do, but it doesn't make you feel good. Nor,
frankly, does it work as well.
Macintosh is one of the most indulgent computers a person
can buy. A fully configured Macintosh II costs about $10,000. A
basic IBM PC clone can be had for $1,000. Many people think
that a clone can do everything that a Macintosh can do and
almost as well. It's not true, so people buy a Macintosh and feel
good (and guilty). A NeXT computer is the most indulgent
computer you can buy today, especially if you have a burning
desire to model bouncing balls.

51


3 • Complete—support, enhancements, and infrastructure.
Great products are complete. The concept of a complete product
is thoroughly discussed by William Davidow in his book, The
Marketing ofHigh Technology, and I recommend that you read it.
According to Davidow products should include technical
support, a stream of enhancements and upgrades, and an infra-
structure of power users, consultants, VARs,1 and developers
that can help a customer achieve maximum satisfaction.
Great products are more completely defined than physical
parts like disks and manuals. Dave Wilson of Novato, California,
sells a stereo speaker called the WAMM (Wilson Audio Modular
Monitor) for about $80,000. When you buy a WAMM, Dave
comes to your house and installs it, aligns it, and voices it for
you. It doesn't matter if you live in "Bombay, India or the Bay
Area," according to the person who answers Wilson's phone.

Exercise
Buy $80,000 of Apple equipment from your dealer. Does
he install it for you?

Another example of a complete product is The Macintosh
Bible, edited by Arthur Naiman. It contains over 700 pages of
tips, tricks, and shortcuts for Macintosh owners. It covers mate-
rial from basic Macintosh hardware to using specific applica-
tions. Since Macintosh information changes so quickly, owners
of the book are entitled to two free upgrades. That's a complete
book. The Macintosh Bible is probably the bestselling book there
is on the Macintosh, with more than 180,000 copies in print.

4 • Elegant—ready and waiting. Great products are elegant.
They may have many features, but the features are tastefully and
transparently implemented. An elegant product will remind
you of Fred Astaire. He could sing, dance, act, and charm the
ladies with almost no discernible effort. And he looked great in
1. A "value-added reseller" is a rare (like the Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot) form
of reseller that adds value to a product.

52


a tuxedo. That's elegance.
It's very easy to find products that are not elegant. Microsoft
Word is not elegant. It has an incredible number of features, but
you almost need the manual by your side when you use it. Its
features are one step beyond where you think they should be.
People use Word for lack of a better word processor, not because
they like it.
VCRs are not elegant. People never program their VCRs to
record a week in advance, and the little 12:00 is blinking in
millions of homes because no one can figure out how to set the
clock. People only know how to play, rewind, and eject. There's
a guy in California who charges $ 70 an hour to come to people's
homes to set up their VCRs. He's particularly busy in April and
October when daylight savings time changes. Someone could
sell a lot of VCRs that don't have clocks.
The Macintosh Ilex is elegant. It weighs only 14 pounds.
There are only two screws in the whole system. You can take it
apart and put it together in a couple of minutes because the logic
board, speaker, drive carrier, and power supply are all self-con-
tained modules. It has rubber feet that you can place on the bot-
tom or side of the case depending on how you like to position
your Macintosh. There are even grooves in the case so you can
slide it into brackets and hang it from the underside of a desk.
Acura Legend Coupes are elegant. They are $30,000 cars that
successfully compete with $75,000 Mercedes and BMWs. They
combine high tech (anti-lock braking, airbags, four valves per
cylinder, and variable-assist power steering) with high touch
(leather interior, clean lines, and four coats of paint). Mercedes
and BMWs show how much you make. Acuras show how much
you know. Allantes show how little you know. Porsches show
how much you lied on the lease application.

Exercise
Call a Mercedes or BMW dealer. Ask him why his cars cost
twice as much as an Acura.

53


The Process
The right way to get great products is a five-step process. The
process is easy to explain but very difficult to implement. This
is how it should work:

Status Quo
Identify Ccl Design
Ship Go public
market funding product

Apple
Order Produce
lead Deny
t-shirt video

Listen Respond

The Macintosh Way
I,IK. Lead
Listen Respond
I •:,:./•
. a shot again

1 • Lead the market. The first step is to lead the market by
satisfying needs, not wants. Macintosh wasn't what the custom-
er wanted in 1984. Most people told Apple that it had to create
an MS-DOS clone if it wanted to survive. The genius (or luck) of
Macintosh was understanding that people needed an easy-to-
use, what-you-see-is-what-you-get computer that integrated
text and graphics.
The problem with listening to customers when creating new
products is that they often have no vision or context. Ask a
WordStar1 user to review WordStar, and you'll get the gushiest
review imaginable, saying that WordStar is the hottest thing
since sushi replaced Cajun food. They don't have anything to
compare it to.
Marketing-driven companies that go out and ask users what
they want don't produce great, ground-breaking products. By
contrast, in 1984 Macintosh gave people what they needed, not

1. WordStar is an IBM PC word processor. It is an incredibly deep product—so
deep that most people drown trying to use it. But it has sold a lot of copies.

54


what they wanted. The status quo wasn't asking for these
features in a personal computer:

Feature Benefit

Graphic user interface Ease of use and learning
One transportable box Mobility
Bundled mouse Consistent, mouse-based
interface
Black on white monitor Easy to read, simulates real life
AppleTalk built in Inexpensive means to share
peripherals and share
information
3 1/2-inch Sony disk drives Larger capacity floppy storage,
protected media, and small size

2 • Take a shot. You can anticipate the market, but you have to
take a shot to verify your insight. This is the difference between
Xerox and Apple. Xerox can innovate, but it cannot ship
products. Take a shot as quickly as you can. Lisa was a shot, albeit
unsuccessful, that verified a lot of the Macintosh vision. Truly,
the Zen of the right development process is, "Ready, Fire, Aim."
Do the product, then the research.

3 • Listen. The third step is to listen closely. Macintosh, for all
its brilliance, initially lacked features like mass storage, slots,
color, networking, and communications. The market com-
municated these needs to Apple, and eventually Apple listened.
After you've led the market, then you listen to it (a smart
revolutionary listens to the people after the gunfire ends).
It takes a great deal of humility to understand that some of
the best ideas don't come from within your four walls. At the
1988 National Apple User Group Conference in Ann Arbor,
Michigan, for example, Bill Gates was seen writing down sug-
gestions after he gave a demo of the beta version of Excel.

55


4 • Respond. The fourth step is responding. Macintosh suc-
ceeded only after Apple responded to what it heard. The
Macintosh II made up for nearly all of the shortcomings of the
128K Macintosh, and it clinched Macintosh's viability as an
alternative to the IBM PC in business. This didn't happen very
quickly, but it did happen.

5 • Lead Again. The last step is the hardest. When a company
achieves success it carries the baggage of backward compatibility
and a customer base. It becomes unwilling or unable to break
with old products, and blood-thirsty revolutionaries turn into
blood-sucking evolutionaries. A Macintosh company has the
courage to break with how a customer wants a current product
enhanced and focuses on leading again.

The Artists
It's not hard to describe the characteristics of a great product. It's
not hard to describe the process of making a great product. It is
very hard to actually find the right people and do it. The most
important factor may be luck. Some people went to college with
Mike Boich. Some people worked at H-P with Mike Murray.
Some people helped a French philosopher and historian.
Four types of people are required to understand people's
needs and to develop great products. They are: Visionary, Archi-
tect, Producer, and Grunt. The Visionary anticipates the wants,
needs, and dreams of the market. The Architect figures out how
to build the product. The Producer keeps the team together and
moving forward. The Grunt implements features. Sometimes all
four people are combined in one—that's called genius.

Type Function Quality
Visionary Anticipate market Inspiration
Architect Design structure Organization
Producer Catalyze team Cooperation
Grunt Implement features Perspiration

56

4 * Great Products

Whether you are lucky or not, this is how to improve the
probability of gathering the right Who of product development:

1 • Respect the artist. Often a company considers product
development to be an assembly-line process. In reality, it is an
intellectual and artistic endeavor that very few people ever
master. For example, 4th Dimension is the work of one genius—
Laurent Ribardiere. Products are intellectual and artistic accom-
plishments. They are not Lego toy houses to be rearranged by
sales and marketing MBAs. If you are lucky enough to find
people who understand what customers need and can create
great products, encourage, protect, and respect them at all costs.

Exercise
If one programmer can finish c product in one year, then
i
a six-programmer team can finish the product in:

A. Two months

B. Never

C. One year

D. Two years

E, Time for the board of directors meeting.

2 • Create an environment that appreciates product
development. Product development requires an environment
that appreciates great products. By contrast, Modern Jazz is an
example of MBA analysis suffocating a product. One of the
primary reasons for killing Modern Jazz was its inability to run
1-2-3 macros.1 This is like killing CD players because they won't
1. No footnote is necessary. If you knowwhat 1-2-3 macros are, I don't have to
explain them. If you don't know what 1-2-3 macros are, just buy a Macintosh
and Excel or WingZ and don't worry about it.

57


play records. I heard that Lotus sold 60,000 copies of Jazz, the
precursor to Modern Jazz, and got 80,000 back. Even the people
who pirated it returned it.
A good environment creates an upward spiral. Where there
is appreciation, there is great product. Where there is great
product, there is appreciation. In technical terms this means,
"Hire tweaks1 who appreciate tweaks." Bill Gates is a tweak;
therefore, he attracts tweaks. Microsoft is the only company
that has been able to write system software, develop multiple
applications like word processors, spreadsheets, and compilers,
and master the MS-DOS, Macintosh, and UNIX operating
systems. This didn't happen by accident.

3 • Expose product development to the audience. The artists
and engineers need direct and immediate feedback to improve
their art. Most companies filter information and suffocate the
team with a process like this:

Customer ^p Marketing! ^ ^ pt,n
(MBAs) •!

The justification is usually, "We don't allow customers to
talk to programmers in order to prevent leaks about features and
delivery dates and to prevent them from getting ideas for new
features." The problem with this process is that communica-
tion is slower, the nuances of customer feedback are lost, and
your artists and engineers don't get the cheering or jeering
emotional satisfaction of hearing it from the masses. Usually
the process leads to products that satisfy wants, not needs.
In response to complaints about blinking 12:00s on VCRs,
sales types would tell the engineers to remove the clock.
Marketing types would add more instructions to the manual.
(Most sales and marketing types take products that are born as
princes and turn them into frogs.) Engineers would simply add

1. A tweak is someone who loves technology, often for the sake of technology.
A tweak is never satisfied and always wants a better way. A tweak is never bluffed
by hype. It's horrible being a tweak.

58

4 ^ Great Products

a lifetime battery and be done with it. Expose the team to the
audience and let them hear the applause and boos.

Exercise
Solve the crossword puzzle.
1

2

3

4

6
-

1
H^^^^

10

li

^F^H
Across Down
2. Designs. 1. Catalyzes.
4. The of Us. 3. Anticipates.
5. Perspires. 6. Lead, take a shot, listen,
8. Opposite of Mercedes. lead again.
10. Quality sailors like. 7. Great products are
11. Great products are 9. Great products are
12. All four in one.

59


Try it Yourself
Writing this book taught me more about product development
than five years of working with Macintosh programmers and
engineers. I fell into the classic traps of product development:

• I thought that I could write the whole book in two months
and cover all the material in 100 pages. It took six months
and more than 200 pages.
• I thought that I was "feature frozen" at least four times. Each
time I added more features like exercises, footnotes, illus-
trations, and new chapters.
• I thought that the book was finished several times, and all
I had to do was fix "minor bugs." Each time my beta sites
pointed out major weaknesses and gaping holes.

I found that creating a product is much more satisfying
than managing, marketing, or selling one. If you ever want to
truly appreciate what it takes to create a great product, try do-
ing it yourself.
One last thing: I thought that I had a publisher all sewn up
early in the writing process. Then they backed out because they
got cold feet. I learned how Laurent must have felt when Apple
decided not to publish 4th Dimension. Luckily for me, Scott,
Foresman immediately agreed to publish the book and they've
treated me like an artist from day one.

60

Support
Remember that as a teenager you are
in the last stage of your life when you
will be happy to hear that the phone
is for you.
Fran Lebowitz

The Nordstrom of Software
Have you ever shopped at Nordstrom? If you want to provide
great support, you should. Nordstrom is a $2-billion chain of
department stores from Seattle that is spreading across the
United States. You can immediately tell that Nordstrom is a
special place because they have a human playing a grand piano
in each store, not Muzak. They have incredible customer service.
A Nordstrom store forces improvements in customer service in
the entire mall. Great service—or support, or whatever you want
to call it—is the third essential ingredient of the Macintosh Way.

Exercise
Call t h e d o w n t o w n Seattle N o r d s t r o m store and ask t o
speak t o Bruce, Jim, or John N o r d s t r o m , or John M c M i l l a n .

When Nordstrom messes up, it repairs with a vengeance.
Amanda Hixson, a former software evangelist at Apple, went to
Nordstrom in the Valley Fair Shopping Center in San Jose. She
waited for 40 minutes in the women's department and didn't
get help, so she went to the business office, borrowed a pair of
scissors, and cut up her Nordstrom credit card.


When she got home, her phone was ringing, and there were
two messages on her answering machine. It was the manager of
the store calling to apologize. As soon as she hung up, her door-
bell rang. When she opened it, she saw a florist delivering the
largest bouquet of flowers she had ever seen.

Exercise
If you rearrange the letters in "RDSOTMORN, "you would
have the name of a:

A. Store

B. Philosophy

C. Family

D. Charge account

The Way It Shouldn't Be (But Usually Is)
The Macintosh Way means providing support for the sake of
doing the right thing. For a Macintosh Way company, support
is an ingrained value that transcends the latest customer satis-
faction survey and other superficialities. Because of years of
dealing with the status quo, the customer doesn't necessarily
expect good support or demand it, but he receives it nonetheless.
Here is a topology of bad support from the bottom up so you
know what not to do.

1 • Apple. No support. No phone number. "Go back to the
dealer." No upgrade path (buying a new computer is not an
upgrade path). No alternatives. No one else dares to be this bad.
Apple, not the customer, is in control.
I can't explain why a company that spends $2 million on a
Christmas party and $2-1/2 million a year on t-shirts doesn't
provide direct customer telephone support. Or hires only one

64

5 • Support

summer student to fix ImageWriter drivers. Some things you
simply accept, I guess.1

Exercise
Call Apple (408-996-1010) and ask for technical support.

2 • The "Henny Youngman School of Support." This level of
support gets its name from a joke that Henny Youngman, a
stand-up comedian, has been telling for fifty years. It blames the
customer for the problem:
Iwentto the doctor. I said, "Doctor, ithurts when I do this." The doctor
said, "Don't do that."

The modern equivalent is:
J called the developer. I said, "Developer, it crashes2 when I edit text."
The developer said, "Don't edit text."

3 • Bureaucratic Detachment. The customer, the support per-
son, and the product are insulated from one another by a
bureaucracy. Typical replies from the support person include,
"It isn't scheduled for a maintenance upgrade this year" or "The
product you received falls within spec." No one has control over
anything, and problems are accepted as unresolvable facts
of life.

4 • Miss America. Poise, personality, and congeniality. A staff
of polite, nontechnical people provide this level of support.
They are taught canned answers to common questions but have
no genuine expertise to offer. The customer still gets lost in the
bureaucracy, but it is done politely.
1. Actually, t can explain the ImageWriter drivers—Apple fixes what it uses, and
the last time Jean-Louis Gassee saw an ImageWriter was when he landed on Ellis
Island. Apple did fix them, but I didn't notice because I don't use an Image-
Writer either.
2. A crash is when your competitor's program dies. When your program dies, it
is an "idiosyncrasy." Frequently, crashes are followed with a message like "ID
02." "ID" is an abbreviation for "idiosyncrasy" and the number that follows
indicates how many more months of testing the product should have had.

65


For example, when United Airlines lost my luggage recently,
the customer service rep politely told me that United would not
reimburse me for any clothes that I bought in the first 24 hours
after reporting the loss. I had absolutely no control over the
situation. It was as if it were my fault that the luggage was lost.

The Way It Should Be (But Usually Isn't)
The problem with great support is that it is hard to measure its
positive effects. By contrast, it is easy to measure how much
great support would cost. Macintosh Way companies don't
measure the cost or benefits of good support. They do things
right for the sake of doing things right. Focus on the rim, and the
scoreboard will be fine.
Here's how great support works:

1 • Put the customer in control. The key to great support is
putting the customer in control of the situation. When you
shop at Nordstrom, you can go to any department in the store,
gather items, and take them to any counter to pay for them.
When you want something gift wrapped, they don't send you
to a line behind the men's room. They wrap it, always cheerfully,
at the sales counter. The customer is always in control of the
situation at Nordstrom.

2 • Take responsibility for your shortcomings. Great support
takes responsibility for a product's or company's shortcomings;
bad tech support ignores the customer or places a bureaucracy
between the customer and the product. Great support provides
workarounds or alternate methods to achieve the desired result.
Problems are never the fault of the customer.
While getting a tuxedo fitted at Nordstrom, I lost two
pendants that were Christmas gifts. We searched for an hour
and could not find them. The manager assured me that their
tailor was a long-time, trusted employee. After several weeks,
the pendants still didn't turn up, so Nordstrom reimbursed me
for the loss even though I didn't purchase them there.

66

5 • Support

I learned that Nordstrom takes responsibility for short-
comings even when it's not their fault. By the way, several
months later I found the pendants in the garment bag and
returned the money to Nordstrom.

3 • Don't point the finger. Living Videotext had a "no finger
pointing" policy. For example, if MORE was not printing prop-
erly but it was not at fault, Living Videotext would call the
printer, network, or utility software companies and get the
answer for you. Companies that point fingers often leave the
customer between two vendors who blame each other. The
customer always loses when companies point the finger.

4 • Underpromise and overdeliver. Scott Knaster, a Macintosh
programming guru at Apple, has a son named Jess who loves
Disneyland. Scott told me that Disneyland underpromises and
overdelivers.
For example, if you get to Disneyland a little before it
officially opens, they let you in instead of making you wait.
Disneyland's policy is that children over three years old must
pay for admission, but they never ask how old your small
children are. When you are standing in line for rides, there are
signs that tell you how much longer it will take you to get to
the ride. But the times are purposely overestimated to make
you feel like the wait wasn't that long. Disneyland says that
there are no rain checks for bad weather, but if you ask, they give
them to you.
Disneyland has policy and Disneyland has implementa-
tion. Implementation supercedes policy and delights the cus-
tomer. Underpromise and overdeliver for great support.

Getting It
Fortunately, support is blocking and tackling. There's nothing
fancy about it, and there are no short cuts. Nevertheless, sup-
port, like a Green Bay Packer sweep with Jerry Kramer and Fuzzy
Thurston, wins ballgames. Here are five ways to great support:

67


1 • Hire the right people. The right people for support embody
three qualities. First, they are empathetic—they should bleed
when a customer is not satisfied. This is the most important
quality of a good support person.
Secondly, they get their jollies from helping people. Some
people want to design products. Some people want to sell. Some
people love to help people. That's who you want for support.
Thirdly, they already know and love your product. The most
successful method for finding support people is your installed
base of customers. If they express interest in working for your
company, scoop them up immediately.

2 • Empower employees to empower customers. The Mac-
intosh Way is to empower employees to empower customers.
The customer should control the situation, not the employee or
the company. Most companies have rules against refunding
money, sending out free samples, or accepting collect calls. The
Macintosh Way is to do what's right for the customer, not
adhere to rules, so let your employees make real-time1 decisions
to satisfy the customer.
Nordstrom's training program lasts one day: it teaches new
employees how to use the cash register and then puts them out
on the floor, fully empowered.

3 • Integrate support into the mainstream. Support is not the
butt end of a business. The services support departments provide
are as much a part of products as disks and manuals.
Unfortunately, many companies consider support a necessary
evil staffed by grotesque nerds who were separated from their
marketing twins at birth. Support should be a heralded and
celebrated group—not overhead. It influences sales as much as
your packaging, advertising, and PR.

1. Real time means people responding to events as they happen without having
to wait for something or someone to give them control. It shouldn't be confused
with "surreal time" which is the time between when a software company
announces a product and ships it.

68

5 • Support

4 • Provide the support staff with diversions. Support is hard
work because customers seldom call to tell you how great things
are going or that they understand how to use your product. Toys
like radio-controlled cars, ping pong, video games, and foosball

*
' .
•l: /
•••;-

•
!

tables help support people blow off steam. Jolt cola1 helps too.
Good support people are also techno-junkies. They want the
latest computers, stereos, video players, and automobiles.
Companies should buy them as much as they can afford. It can
even make good business sense. Customers often associate a
company that has the latest tools and toys with leading-edge
innovation.

5 • Thank your customers. Try writing thank-you notes to a
few customers every day. It doesn't take much effort, and the
effect on your reputation can be amazing. The following message,
posted on CompuServe2 electronic mail, shows what one per-
son thought of the practice.

1. Jolt cola is the purest form of sugar and caffeine. It is one of the few things that
can accelerate the completion of Macintosh software.
2. CompuServe is an electronic bulletin board where people communicate with
each other about meaningless topics all day and all night long. It is the closest
thing to dating for a nerd.

69


#: 27443 S2/ACIUS
Ol-Oct-88 00:45:54
Sb: Thank-you notes?!
Fm: JeffSegawa 76377,560
To: All

I bought 4D a couple of months ago, and as usual, I sent in the
registration card. Normally, I assume that the things fall into some
sort of corporate black hole.

About 1 or 2 weeks after I sent in THIS card, I got back what looked
like a personally written thank-you note from Guy Kawasaki. Perhaps
all Hawaii residents get something of the sort? I hope it wasn 't because
I was the only one who bought 4D that month!

Whatever the case may have been, one thing's for sure: I never did get
any thank-you notes from Microsoft, or anyone else, for that matter.
I'll just KNOW that I spent too much money on the product when I
start getting Xmas cards too!

The Support Career Path
Dave Winer gave me a good tip about support. He thinks that
support is one of the best entry-level jobs in a company. By
definition, a good support person is a hard worker, a team
player, empathizes with customers, and knows the product
thoroughly. These are all qualities that promote success in other
positions, so good support people can become great product
managers, salespeople, and programmers.
Also, support people usually burn out after two years, and
no one is a happier employee than a support person who gets
liberated from the phones. So save your sheckles.1 Don't pay
headhunters to find yoyos from consumer goods companies.
Look in your navel—the support department—for great
employees.

1. Sheckles is the Yiddish word for gelt. You don't know what gelt is either? Gelt
is money, but money is not guilt.

70

5 • Support

Support Success Story
You never know how great support will pay off. One night,
Mitch Stein, the president of Spectrum Digital Systems, was
working at 10:00 PM when the phone rang. He picked up the
phone, and it was a vice-president of CitiBank who had a
question about using Spectrum's product, TrueForm.
The vice-president didn't really expect to talk to a person
and only wanted to leave a message. After getting the answer, he
asked Mitch why he knew so much about the product. When he
found that Mitch was the president, he was impressed. Citibank
has bought more than 50 copies of TrueForm since then.
Late on another night, Mitch took a call from Adobe Sys-
tems. That call eventually led to the sale of Spectrum to Adobe.

71

Marketing
The better the advertisement, the worse
the product.
J. Cordon Holt

The Marketing of Technology
Marketing is the fourth essential ingredient of the Macintosh
Way. Status quo marketing is the technology of marketing—
expensive advertising and PR campaigns, 12-city rollouts, and
come-to-Jesus videos; it is independent of product quality.
("Marketing" is not inherently a bad word. The status quo
perverted it so that it now triggers thoughts of expensive and
elaborate "campaigns" against customers.)
Macintosh Way marketing is the marketing of technology—
finding the right people and getting the right information into
their hands. The foundation for this approach is that customers
have a deep understanding of what they want, how things
should work, and what they are willing to tolerate. They are
attracted, not intimidated, by innovation and technology. They
actually use and like to use great products.

Exercise
A vector is a line that represents both direction and size.
What is the result of adding the following two vectors?

Good Product ( 5 ) // * ^* Bad Marketing (2)
)


Step One: The Right Focus
In football, defensive linemen slap the heads of opposing
blockers to rush the quarterback. The principle is simple—
where the head goes, the body must follow. It's a lot easier to
move a head than a body. The tactic is so dangerous that it has
been outlawed—but you have to get caught.

Customers

Dealers Consultants

Customers Customers

Analysts Luminaries

Customers

The Cult Theory
There is a small part of emerging markets called The Cult. It is
the "head" of the market and contains hardcore power users and
aficionados, plus a small percentage of luminaries, analysts,
press, and dealers. The Cult is intrinsically elite, more discern-
ing, less tolerant of mediocrity, and more willing to accept new
ideas. It categorically rejects some products as forcefully as it
accepts others.
If The Cult likes your product, the rest of the market and all
of the layers are more likely to follow. Other luminaries, dealers,
analysts, and press cannot deny what The Cult has accepted.
Macintosh Way companies focus their marketing efforts on The
Cult because it is the head of the market. If your product is great
and your marketing message is true, The Cult will do a lot of the
work for you.

74

6 • Marketing

Exercise
Send a Stufflt 1 document to anyone in the Macintosh
community. The people who can read it are in The Cult.
The people who can't are not

The Pyramid Theory
In contrast to the Cult theory, some people think of a market as
a pyramid of layers. The top of the Macintosh software industry
pyramid, for example, is Apple. The next layer is developers,
then luminaries, then analysts, then press, then dealers. The last
layer is customers. The implication of a pyramid is that you can
concentrate on the upper layers and work down. For example,
you try to influence the luminaries, who influence the analysts,
who influence the press, who influence the dealers. The dealers
then recommend your product to the customers.

/Apple

Luminaries

Analysts

Press

Dealers

Customers

There are three problems with the pyramid theory. First, all
of the luminaries, dealers, analysts, and press do not necessarily
understand the customer or your product, so counting on them
to transmit your message or to understand the market is stupid.

1. Stufflt is a Macintosh utility that compacts files to save disk space and reduce
electronic mail transmission time. Everyone in the Macintosh Cult uses Stufflt.

7.S


Secondly, not all of the members of the upper layers have
credibility with customers. InfoWorld, for example, is not part
of the Macintosh Cult. MacWEEK is. Esther Dyson is not part of
the Macintosh Cult. Stewart Alsop is. Expending marketing
efforts on everyone in a layer often wastes efforts on people
and organizations who don't matter.
Thirdly, most of the members of the upper layers are easy to
influence, so their approval of your product can lull you into a
catastrophic sense of security. All that really counts is satisfying
your customers—not how much you impress the luminaries,
analysts, and press.

Exercise
Choose the set of words that best reflects the relationship
between the two words in all capital letters.

THE CULT : THE MARKETPLACE

A. Head: Body

B. Fleas: Dog

C. Flies : Cows

D. Wrist: Racquet

E. Editor: Writer

Step Two: Understand Your Product
The second step is to understand your product. An insightful
and inspired product can open up markets, but you must
understand how it satisfies your customers' desires to be
successful. Apple positioned Macintosh as the computer for
"The Rest of Us"—the people who wanted to learn to use a
computer in less than an hour. Apple understood that it had

76

6 • Marketing

created a device that could bring computing to people who had
never used a computer before. It was more than a way to erode
IBM's market share. It was a breakthrough.
Apple targeted "The Rest of Us" because it was not trying to
steal market share from the existing market for Apple lis or IBM
PCs. Macintosh was going to bring computing to a group of
people who never considered personal computers before. The
"Rest of Us" positioning was so gratifying that people put them-
selves in Apple's crosshairs.

Exercise
Apple wanted to sell Macintoshes to people who had
never used computers before. Which customer group
would you expect Apple to concentrate on?

A. Fortune 7 000 MIS' directors

B. IBM PC owners

C. Knowledge workers

D. Amazon indians

A ten-word description in the Macintosh Product Intro-
duction Plan explained the details of Macintosh to The Cult.
Apple clearly communicated its product, and The Cult
communicated this message to the marketplace. This is the ten-
word description of Macintosh:

Macintosh is an advanced personal productivity tool for knowledge
workers.

• "Advanced" referred to Lisa technology. Lisa technology
1. MIS stands for Meshugas-Information System. It is the last bastion of anti-
Macintosh sentiment in computing. Meshugas is the Yiddish word for crazy
or nuts.

77


brought to Macintosh a user interface (pull-down menus,
windows, desktop metaphor), bitmapped graphics, and
integrated applications. The value of Lisa technology was
reduced learning and training time, shared data across
applications, and the enjoyment of using a computer.
• "Personal" meant that Macintosh was designed for personal
use on a desk. A Macintosh was much lighter and smaller
than an IBM PC, and it was going to improve information
processing with a person, not the computer or MIS
department, in control.
• "Productivity tool" meant increasing the productivity of a
Macintosh owner. Macintosh was a tool to improve anal-
ysis, problem-solving, and communication with applications
like word processors, spreadsheets, business graphics,
database management, and project scheduling.
• "Knowledge workers" delineated the target market for
Macintosh. Frankly, the phrase is marketing malarkey but it
worked because it made people feel like part of a small, elite
group. The phrase caused people to align themselves to
Apple's marketing, and they persuaded themselves to buy
Macintoshes. After all, who would want to be an "ignorance
worker?" It is easier for the market to align itself than for you
to do it.

Step Three: Get the Word Out
The third step of Macintosh Way marketing is communicating
the right information to The Cult. Here are the key tactics. They
are all close to the ground because that's what The Cult stands on.

1 • Make sure that The Cult uses your product. The Cult is
tightly knit and vocal, and it recommends what it uses. Make
sure that The Cult—power users, developers, luminaries, dealers,
press, and analysts—use your product by selling it to them near
cost, exchanging for their products, or if you have to, giving
it away.
Apple implemented a program in 1984 called "Own-a-Mac"

. 78

6 • Marketing

for the retail salespeople and sales managers of authorized
Macintosh dealerships. According to the Macintosh PIP, the
objectives of the Own-a-Mac program were to "get Macintosh
into the hands of the people who would be selling it as quickly
as possible and develop a knowledgeable sales force on Mac-
intosh's features and applications."
Eligible participants could purchase a Macintosh for $750
(Macintosh started out at a price of $2,495 suggested retail). The
Own-a-Mac program was a huge success no matter how you
measured it—the number of Macintoshes sold through the pro-
gram, the increased level of Macintosh familiarity on the sales
floor, or moving excess inventory for Apple. I don't know of any
other computer company with a program like this, but I don't
know of any other computer that dealer personnel would want
to buy with their own money.

.'
"
J

:

"* , V
•&
«
,:
•.
<
2 • Roll in the Trojan horses. The Ascension of Macintosh as
a viable alternative to the IBM PC is proof of the power of Trojan
horse marketing. From 1984 to 1986, the front door of most cor-
porations was closed to Apple and Macintosh. The approved
vendor lists of personal computers read like an IBM catalogue.
Macintosh entered these organizations in the Trojan horse
called desktop publishing. The advertising, communications,

79


and marketing departments bought Macintoshes for desktop
publishing and graphics, not computing. Once the Macintoshes
got in, however, they spread throughout other parts of the org-
anization—even, God forbid, the MIS department.
The lesson is, "Don't be proud." Get in any way you can and
let your product do the talking.

Exercise
An industry analyst asked the vice-president of marketing
of a large, successful software company how he would
introduce a product if he only had $500,000. The vice-
president of marketing replied, "No company ever has
only $500,000 to introduce a product, and I would never
work for a company that didn't have more money anyway.
Plus, we could always get more money from venture
capitalists."

What does his answer demonstrate?

A. Venture capitalists are kind and generous people.

B. Industry analysts ask dumb questions.

C. $500,000 is insufficient to introduce a new product.

D. Large, successful companies often employ mediocre people.

3 • Kill the white space. The Cult wants to make informed
purchase decisions by gathering and reviewing in-depth product
information. Therefore, your brochures, advertising, and point-
of-purchase materials should contain an abundance of technical
information, not white space and yuppie lifestyle depictions.
The menu of The Brandywine Room, a restaurant in the Hotel
Du Pont in Wilmington, Delaware, lists the caloric and cholesterol
content of all its entrees. That's a tweak menu. The lack of

80

6 • Marketing

technical specifications, features, and benefits is a sure turn-off
for The Cult.

^Exercise
The Fullwrite Professional brochure produced by A n n
Arbor Softworks in 1986 contained 1,000 square inches of
surface area. Of t h e 1,000 square inches, 30 square inches
were dedicated to product specifications and t h e rest t o
colorful pictures of Yuppies.

Calculate t h e ratio of 30 t o 1,000.

4 • Promote test driving. In 1988 Kellogg's put sample packages
of a new cereal called Miieslix in boxes of Special K. Kellogg's
enabled customers to try their new cereal before they purchased
it. If you've got a great product, then a sample package of cereal,
a loaner program like Test Drive a Macintosh, or a demo kit
containing a limited version1 of your product can significantly
increase sales. If you've got a bad product, samples can be good
for your competitors.
Loaners, demo kits, and sample packages also communicate
a high regard for your customer's intelligence and purchase
decision process. Don't throw content-free, four-color marketing
materials, brainless HyperCard and VideoWorks slide shows, or
Smurf cartoon characters at your customer. No one likes to do
business with someone who thinks they are dumb.
Software demo kits containing a limited version of your
product are good for one more thing: testing job applicants. The
next time you get a job application from a redhot who professes
to love your product, know your company, and understand
your market, send him a demo kit and ask him to return an
example of his work with your product. You'll probably never
hear from him again. If you do, he's probably worth interviewing.
1. Programs can be limited in terms of the file size, printing, or saving capability.
Some companies even sell limited versions as the full application to test the
market for a year or two.

81


5 • Give away blades to sell razors. The theory of giving away
razors to sell blades is bogus. It may work for Gillette, but not for
high-technology companies. Aldus created newsletter and busi-
ness communications PageMaker templates—blades—to add val-
ue to PageMaker and differentiate its product from the compe-
tition's. Aldus makes money on PageMaker, not templates. Sell
the $595 razor, and give away the blades. Better yet, sell both.

From Russia with Love
Denise Caruso, columnist extraordinaire for the San Francisco
Examiner, wrote about the first issue of PC World USSR. Thirty
pages of ad space were sold to American advertisers, but only
four pages appeared.
The Soviet editors had pulled the other ads because they did
not contain enough technical information or the information
was already mentioned in the editorial. The Soviets have some-
thing there—advertising with content.

^xercisej
Parents who work in high technology often want to know
whether their children will become programmers or mar-
keteers. This exercise helps you predict the vocation of
your children.

A child will become a programmer if any of the following
is true:

Conception
A. The baby was conceived while the latest beta version of a
program was compiling.

B. The parents spent their honeymoon at a Macworld Expo.

C. The father made a t-shirt when the mother got pregnant.

1. This exercise was inspired by Fran Lebowitz.

82

6 • Marketing

Prenatal

A. Ultrasound revealed that the sex of the baby = 7.

B. The doctor heard the fetus humming Grateful Dead songs.

C The mother craved more RAM, a faster processor, and jolt cola.

Childbirth
A. The baby was born 18 months after it was announced.
B. Features of the baby like number of fingers and toes were not
frozen at birth.

C. Immediately before delivery, the mother got pregnant again
with version 2.0.

Infancy
A. The child refused to breast feed until the mother was checked
for viruses.

B. The child's favorite Halloween costume was a trash can.

C. The child's favorite place to play was Xerox PARC.

A child will become a marketeer if any of the following
is true:

Conception
A. The parents met at an MBA class reunion.

B. They bumped into each other the next day at a Ralph Lauren
store.

C. The babywas conceived after an episode of thirtysomething.

83


Prenatal
A. The doctor heard the fetus humming Windham Hill songs.

B. The mother craved sushi, pasta, and decaf capuccino.

C. The mother got morning sickness only on the days she didn't
have an aerobics class.

Childbirth
A. The father made a home video of the delivery.

B. The water broke before the contractions.

C. When the water broke, it was carbonated and contained no
salt.

Infancy
A. Visits to grandparents were called "offsites."

B. The baby arranged his alphabet blocks into the word "MBA."

C. The first words out of the baby's mouth were "strategic
alliance."

D. The mother reorganized the bassinet every two days.

E. The couple's second child was called Baby Plus.

84

D o i n g
Things
R i g h t

Part 3

User Groups
Whatever does not destroy me makes
me stronger.
Nietzsche

User Group Buddies
This chapter explains the right way to garner positive word-of-
mouth advertising by working with organizations where The
Cult and key influencers congregate. In high-technolgy mar-
kets, these organizations are called user groups. They contain
the kind of people whom everyone else asks, "What do you
own? What should I buy?"
For example, Jim Young, assistant to the president of Elec-
tronic Data Systems1 is one of the original members of the
Apple Corps of Dallas user group. You probably can't get an
appointment with him, but he may be at your user group demo.
A good way to think of user groups is as a medium—like print
or television. The difference is that a company cannot buy
advertising in the user group media; it has to earn it. User groups
and organizations like them are critical to getting the right
word-of-mouth advertising and reputation for any company.
The Berkeley Macintosh Users Group (BMUG—pronounced
bee-mug) is the quintessential example of the Macintosh user
group phenomenon: it has an office, full-time staff, volunteer
help lines, and a huge public domain software library. BMUG's
mission statement is ".. .to give away information." It's so on top
of things that it quoted from this book six months before it
1. This is the same Electronic Data Systems that Ross Perot started. Ross is the
guy who hangs around Steve too much.


was printed (from About BMUG, January 1989. Reprinted with-
out BMUG's permission):

Guy Kawasaki, president ofACIUS, and author of The Macintosh
Way believes, "BMUG is the quintessential example of the Macintosh
user group phenomenon."

The primary purpose of user groups is to give away
information. There are over 750 Macintosh user groups1 in the
United States, and they have a total membership of over
200,000 people. This user group network helped sustain
Macintosh when Apple couldn't. Members put in an incredible
amount of time and effort conducting classes, publishing news-
letters, and holding mini trade shows, with no reward other
than the personal satisfaction of helping others.

Exercise
Apple has not provided user support to its customers.
Thus, user groups have formed to support owners of Apple
equipment. This development can be best described as:

A. Manifest Destiny

B. Industrial Revolution

C. Emancipation Proclamation

D. Cold War

E. Divine Intervention

F. Red Scare

I. If you'd like to find the Apple user group nearest you, call Apple's referral
number. It's 800-538-9696, extension 500. If you'd like to start a user group,
contact the User Group Connection at Apple in Cupertino for a copy of their
handbook called just Add Water.

88

7 • User Croups

In addition to giving away information, user groups fill the
social needs of people with a common interest to band together.
BMUG, for example, bands together once a week on the campus
of U.C. Berkeley.

What They Can Do
User groups can accelerate the success of a product or kill it at the
gate. Effectively working with user groups can negate a compet-
itor's larger sales force and greater resources because user groups
will spread the word for you. Most people in user groups will
never buy your product, but they will talk about your demo,
spread your reputation, and praise your support. Their mouths
are more powerful than any advertising.
Think about it. What did you do the last time you bought
an unfamiliar product? You asked around, right? There's a tru-
ism in book publishing that word of mouth is what makes
bestsellers (so tell your friends about this book); the same is true
with software and other high-technology markets.
User groups can help you in numerous ways. Four of the
most important are:

> Disseminating information about your product.
> Delivering large, enthusiastic crowds at no expense.
> Reducing technical support costs by conducting training
classes and creating special-interest groups. (The Porsche
Club of America teaches members how to maintain
their cars.)
t> Evangelizing your product in the companies they work for,
even if the user group members don't buy the product
themselves.

When user groups help you, they are assuming some
responsibility for your success. They become virtual stockholders
in your company and evangelize your company and product for
you. The more people help you, the less likely you'll really need
help in the future, and the easier your sales job will be.

89


•

•

:
r1 •«

Getting to the Heart of User Groups
Worming your way to the heart of a user group is simple because
their members are predisposed to cooperate with you.
Remember—user groups exist to give away information and
huddle together for warmth. These are the four most important
rules for working with user groups:

1 • Make a long-term commitment. Working with user groups
is a process, not an event. Don't show up only when you're
introducing a new product. Send them things all the time. Visit
them often. The goal is to become a regular guest at user groups,
not a visitor. Mediagenic, a software company in Menlo Park,
California, has an employee who is a full-time user group
ambassador. His sole function is to visit and please user groups.

2 • Send the president and engineers. Mediocre companies
don't work with user groups. Average companies send a product
manager. Good companies send the president. Great companies
send the engineers. Incredible companies have a president who
is an engineer. Daniel Cheifetz of Odesta, the developer of a
Macintosh database called Double Helix, has created a cult for
his product by demoing it himself. He gives the second best
demo of a Macintosh database by a company president.

90

7 • User Groups

Charlie Jackson of Silicon Beach Software is another great
example of a president who makes user group presentations. He
once got a standing ovation from 300 people for a prerelease
demo of SuperPaint at a NYMUG (New York MacUser's Group)
meeting. Afterward, he stood around with a pad taking notes on
what features everyone wanted.

Exercise
Count t h e n u m b e r of times t h a t y o u r company's president
has visited a user g r o u p .

3 • Send them information and samples. User groups are a
medium, so send them information and samples regularly. Be
warned, however, that they spread all the information they
gather. Period. This includes both timely news and brutally
honest information.
Software libraries are also one of the most popular Macin-
tosh user group offerings. User groups sell disks as a service to
their members and raise funds this way. Providing user groups
with test-drive kits, technical notes, sample files, and examples
is an easy way to expand your marketing efforts.

4 > Sell products at a low cost (or donate a copy) to user
•
groups. Aldus sells PageMaker to user groups for $100. As a re-
sult, most user groups use PageMaker to create their newsletters,
and PageMaker is the desktop publishing program they most
frequently recommend to their members. Altruism does have
its rewards.

User Group Skills
If user groups are such great organizations, why are most compa-
nies, particularly the mediocre ones, so afraid of visiting them?
It's not user groups' fault. Most companies think they are com-
ing down from the mountain to visit the heathens. Do yourself
a favor—either do things the right way or stay on the mountain.

91

D o i n g the Right T h i n g

1 • Don't try to fool user groups. A user group can detect defe-
cation before it passes through your orifice. There is no question
that you will get lynched if you lie. If you think that you can fool
a user group, attend a NYMUG or BMUG inquest, and you'll
learn a lot about user group intolerance of lies and mediocrity.

Exercise
Three Apple employees f r o m t h e New York office of Apple
w e n t t o t h e September 1988 m e e t i n g of NYMUG t o
demonstrate t h e newly announced Apple scanner.

W h e n t h e d e m o n s t r a t o r b o o t e d HyperScan, t h e audience
was greeted w i t h a message t h a t HyperScan was not
compatible w i t h t h e version of HyperCard he was using.
Luckily, a NYMUG m e m b e r had t h e correct version of
HyperCard. During t h e d e m o , it was obvious t h a t t h e
Apple rep wasn't familiar w i t h HyperScan.

The Apple rep showed t h a t he d i d n ' t care e n o u g h a b o u t
his audience t o practice his d e m o and presentation. He
h a d n ' t even b o o t e d HyperScan f r o m his hard disk prior t o
the meeting.

The best title for this passage is:

A. Many People Buy Macintoshes Despite Apple

B. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to NYMUG

C. Compatibility Problems Sustain Macintosh Sails

D. How to Boot HyperScan

2 • Never wear a tie. Wearing a tie prevents closeness to a user
group. The user group perspective on ties is, "When you ask a

92

7' • User Groups

Tie1 a technical question, he has to find a T-shirt2 to get the
answer." (A note to company presidents who are not engineers:
take a T-shirt when you visit a user group.) I have never seen
anyone wearing a tie do a good user group demo. Charlie
Jackson of Silicon Beach Software probably doesn't even own a
solid-colored shirt, much less a tie.

3 • Get straight to the demo. When you do a user group demo,
cut out the marketing crap and get straight to the product. This
story illustrates why:
Claris sent a local sales representative and the product
manager of MacDraw II to the San Diego Macintosh User Group.
The rep spent about an hour talking about the goals and
strategies of Claris. He even showed a company video before the
demo. It was awful.
Marein Cremer, the MacDraw II product manager, almost
saved the day with her splendid (but short because the rep used
up so much time) demo of the product. The damage didn't stop
there. At the 1988 National Apple User Group Conference in
Ann Arbor, the president of the San Diego MUG used Claris as
an illustration of how not to visit a user group. No amount of
Regis McKenna PR, BBD&O advertising, or Macworld Expo
parties can fix mistakes like that.

Exercise
A t t e n d a user g r o u p d e m o . Keep track of h o w long t h e
d e m o n s t r a t o r talks before t h e d e m o begins.

4 • Don't concentrate on only the big groups. Visit any user
group that invites you. The only bad user group meeting is the
one your competitor went to instead of you. Most Macintosh
1. A Tie is the kind of pompous jerk who thinks that he's got something on you
because he has an MBA, drives a BMW, and uses a Cross pen. A Tie always has
a tan that looks like shoe polish no matter what time of year it is.
2. A T-shirt is the kind of pompous jerk who doesn't think he has anything
on you just because he dropped out of college, drives an Acura, and uses a
Mont Blanc.

93


user group meetings routinely draw 100 people, and smaller
groups are usually willing to meet jointly with other groups in
the area to increase attendance for a special visit.

Exercise*
If you want to visit a Macintosh user group, answer these
questions first.

1. MUG means

A. Face

B. To rob someone

C. Macintosh user group

2. Life is intolerable without a

A. Marketing person at my side

B. Louis Vuitton briefcase

C. Bottle of Perrier

D. Fast hard disk

3. My favorite thing to eat is

A. Quiche

B. Sushi

C. Blackened redfish

D. IBM PCs for breakfast
1. This exercise was also inspired by Fran Lebowitz.

94

7 • User Groups

4. If 1 do a lousy demo, 1 expect to get

A. Cheered

B. Booed

C. Mugged

5. If 1 get to a user group meeting late,1 will

A. Blame my Rolex

B. Slit my wrist

C. Call ahead on my cellular phone

D. Blame my imitation Rolex

6. My favorite view of customers is

A. Through crosshairs

B. Kissing my ring

C. Returning my product

D. Telling me how to improve my product

Military Macs
The smallest and most interesting user group that I ever visited
was the Pentagon Macintosh User Group. There was more brass
in the audience than at Pier I Imports. The meeting was right
before the announcement of the Macintosh II, and the audience
wanted me to leak its specifications like any other user group.
I offered to seed anyone with a Macintosh II prototype in
exchange for a ride in an F-16. It seemed like a fair trade because

95


most people either pass out or throw up in an F-16, which is
exactly what was happening to people using Macintosh II
prototypes. The Army offered me a ride in a Huey helicopter, so
I countered with a 128K Macintosh.
They took me into the MoLink (Moscow Link) room and
showed me the teletypes that maintain communication between
Moscow and Washington D.C. (There isn't a "red phone" like in
the movies.) It's a scary thought, but IBM PCs are used as the
terminals for MoLink.

96

*2
..>-••:

/

V: , V
v /^,-

Evangelism
But when two people are at one in their
inmost hearts, they shatter even the
strength of iron or of bronze.
The I Ching

Seeing Your Logo
This chapter is about the right way to evangelize customers, user
groups, The Cult, consultants, and developers. When you sell
your product, people use it. When you evangelize people, they
get infected, carry the torch for you, share your heartbeat, and
defend you against your enemies. When you look in their eyes,
you see your logo. A Macintosh Way company doesn't sell,
it evangelizes.
Without the successful evangelism of third-party developers,
Macintosh would have failed. When Macintosh first shipped,
there was only MacPaint, MacWrite, Multiplan, and carrying
cases. It didn't matter that there weren't any hard disks because
there wasn't any software to put on them.
In 1984 we used to say that when burglars broke into an
Apple office, they only stole the Apple lis because they knew
Macintosh didn't have software.
A solid base of believers makes it easier for products to
succeed. For example, Adobe needs PostScript clip-art collections.
ACIUS needs database consultants. HyperCard needs more de-
veloper support than all other programs combined. This is true
for more than software and personal computers. In video
cameras, for example, Sony tried to go it alone with the beta1
1. This "beta" has no relation to beta software.

Doing Things Right

VCR format and failed; now it is evangelizing other electronics
companies to support the 8mm format for Handycams.

Exercise
Fill in the blanks.

In the beginning, Macintosh had only , ,
Multiplan, and carrying cases. After a couple of years, however,
Apple's software efforts produced lots of software.
Now Macintoshes are stealing.

Spreading Your Gospel
In 1983 and 1984, Mike Boich and I sold the Macintosh dream
to hundreds of software companies by appealing to their
emotions—making history with Apple, wanting to change the
world, or helping Apple succeed against IBM. At the time,
Macintosh was still months away from shipping, and the com-
puter industry believed that only the IBM PC and clones could
survive. Here are the basic tenets of Macintosh Way evangelism
that we learned:

1 • Sell your dream. The essence of evangelism is to passionately
show people how you can make history together. Evangelism
has little to do with cash flow, the bottom line, or co-marketing.
It is the purest and most passionate form of sales because you are
selling a dream, not a tangible object.
A typical meeting for Mike Boich and me with a developer
would include the president of the company, the vice-president
of marketing, and the vice-president of development. The
dialog went like this:

President: "In order to undertake Macintosh development, we will
require a development payment of $250,000 from Apple."
Vice-president of marketing: "We will require that Apple bundle a
copy of our software with each CPU. If this is not possible, you must

100

8 • Evangelism

feature our product in all of your advertising as well as buy one copy
for each dealer and field salesperson."
Vice-president of development: "We will require direct access to
your engineers like Andy Hertzfeld, Steve Capps, and Bruce Horn.
Furthermore, I want a tech support engineer assigned to our project
full time and available to write drivers for us."

Boich and I would rub our chins, ask them to wait until they
had seen a demo, and then blast into a performance with early
copies of MacPaint, MacWrite, Alice (a 3D chess game written by
Steve Capps), and Andy Hertzfeld's bouncing icon program.
After thirty minutes, either their jaws would drop to the floor,
their eyes would pop out, and they would have to wipe sweat off
their foreheads, or we'd go back to Cupertino.
If we stayed, we'd respond to their requests: "We are not
going to pay for your development. We cannot promise co-
marketing. You cannot call Andy, Steve, or Bruce. In fact, we
have only one technical support engineer for all developers.
And you'll have to make your program run in 128K."
Continuing, "That's the good news. Here's the bad. Our
documentation isn't completed, but we can sell you photocopied
drafts for $150. Also, you'll need to buy a Lisa for $ 7,000 because
a native Macintosh development system isn't available yet."
Then everyone from the company would respond, "When
can we get started?"

Exercise
Which of these evangelists is least like the other three?

A. Mike Boich

B. Alain Rossmann

C. jim Bakker

D. Cuy Kawasaki

101

Doing Things Right

2 • Let a thousand flowers bloom. When you evangelize people,
let a thousand flowers bloom. Don't close down opportunities
for unknown people or small companies by concentrating on
the obvious and established ones. When we first evangelized
Macintosh, we selected companies like Lotus and Software
Publishing Corporation. Theoretically, they had the resources,
brand-name recognition, and talent to dominate the Mac-
intosh market.
Luckily for Apple, we also worked with a thousand little
seedlings in addition to the deadwood. The seedlings were
companies like Solutions International, Aldus, Living Video-
text, Blyth, Silicon Beach Software, Spectrum Digital Systems,
Odesta, and Telos. These were the companies that delivered on
the Macintosh dream and made Macintosh successful.
For example, one day in 1984 Paul Brainerd, the president
of Aldus, showed up at Apple and demonstrated PageMaker to
Bruce Blumberg, the product manager of the LaserWriter. The
day before, no one at Apple had heard of desktop publishing or
page composition. Aldus was a little seedling that grew into a big
tree. At the time, most of us at Apple were looking to Lotus to
save Macintosh.
We learned that working with only a few, obvious companies
is like gardening in window boxes instead of fertile fields.
Frankly, the established, MS-DOS companies had too much to
lose if Macintosh became successful. As time passed, it became
clear that this was an important lesson—let a thousand flowers
bloom if you want some worth picking.

Exercise
When Mike Boich evangelized Mitch Kapor, at the time
the president and chairman of Lotus, Mike wanted Lotus
to port a personal finance program to the Macintosh.
Mitch wanted to talk to him about "a new spreadsheet,"
but Boich figured that he had the spreadsheet category
covered by Muitiplan with Microsoft.

102

8 • Evangelism

The best title of this passage is:

A. Some Things are Doomed from the Start

B. Software Evangelism—Easy as 1-2-3

C. The Lotus Position

D. Why I Started a Hardware Company by Mike Boich

3 • Plant seeds. In 1980 Joanna Hoffman was the fifth person
hired for a special project that became the Macintosh Division.
She bore the stigma of being the first "marketing" person in the
group, and she was instrumental in the design, development,
and marketing of Macintosh. One of her best ideas was the
Apple University Consortium.
The AUC, as it was called, was a program to sell Macintoshes
to the students and staff of a select group of high-profile and
prestigious colleges and universities like Stanford, Carnegie-
Mellon, and Drexel. Apple sold the Macintoshes directly to the
schools, who resold them to students and staff at 50 percent off
suggested retail.
At the time, the program was controversial because it
bypassed dealers and many students were likely to resell their
Macintoshes for a profit. The program, however, accomplished
one very important goal—it planted the Macintosh seed in
thousands of students as they entered the business world. As
these students graduated, they evangelized thousands of
businesses for Apple. They also provided a fertile recruiting
ground for Apple's hiring efforts.

4 • Never pay for anything. The software developers who
demanded up-front payments and other quid pro quo inducements
never delivered any meaningful Macintosh products. I paid a
company to undertake Macintosh software development once,
and the project failed miserably. The deal was a six-figure

103

Doing Things Right

contract with Monogram to develop high-end Macintosh ac-
counting applications. After Softsel sold Monogram, the new
owners abandoned the project. I should have made 15,000
t-shirts instead.
The best allies work freely and enthusiastically with you
because they believe in your dream. The worthless ones want to
be paid for their efforts. If someone doesn't believe in your
dream enough to take a risk, he will fail you anyway.
Ironically, the companies that demand money the most
need it the least. This is true for three reasons. First, their
management is composed of prosaic plodders whose goal is risk
reduction, not innovation and leadership. Second, they are
arrogant; they believe that the existence of their products gives
a company credibility. Third, they are spoiled. They are so used
to dealing with other mediocre companies that they cannot
cope with a courageous one.
A good evangelist never pays for anything. If a company
demands money, tell them what we told reluctant developers in
1984: "If you believe, you believe. If you don't, you don't."
You'll save a lot of time and money. The people who believe in
you will sink or swim with you.

5 • Inspire, don't compete with your friends. In 1984, MacPaint
and MacWrite inspired developers. The products showed them
what a Macintosh could do and forced them to rethink their
software. Unfortunately, MacPaint and MacWrite also competed
with developers who were trying to create other graphics and
word processing programs.
In 1987 MacPaint and MacWrite were unbundled 1 from
Macintosh and sold as separate products to reduce this
competition. Eventually Apple formed Claris to publish the
Apple-labeled software and reduce competition with developers.
It's okay to show your friends the way. It's okay for your
1. Bundling software means including software applications for free when
someone purchases a personal computer. Typically, bundling is done when the
manufacturer doesn't think it can sell enough hardware so it has to increase the
perceived value. Another reason is that the software might not sell on its own.

104

8 * Evangelism

friends to show you the way. It's not okay for you to compete
with them or bungle software. Make your money on the camera.
Let your friends sell the processing and film.

Exercise
Choose whether these statements are true or false:

TorF Bundling software encourages innovation.

TorF Calling bundled software "system software"
pacifies developers.

TorF Pacifying developers is not important after
you have software.

6 • Pursue your friends after you've won them. Great evangel-
ism is relentless—especially after you've won someone over. In
many ways, it's like marriage: anybody can date and chase well;
it's how you act after you're married that leads to true happiness.
The bigger and more successful you become, the humbler and
hungrier you need to be. I've shopped at Nordstrom for years
and their service only gets better as they grow larger.

7 • Exploityour natural enemies. Nothing crystalizes evangelism
like a good enemy. Apple needs IBM. ACIUS needs Ashton-Tate.
Claris needs Microsoft. A good enemy is so large, so powerful,
and so established that no one expects you to survive the battle,
much less win the war.
However, the lopsided nature of the contest between you
and a good enemy means that you can define victory in your
terms. For Apple, victory is making inroads in the business
market. For ACIUS, victory is grabbing the lion's share of the
Macintosh relational database market. For Claris, victory is
throwing better Macworld Expo parties.
When Steve Bobker was the editor of MacUser, he told read-
ers that the purpose of MacUser was to serve readers. He told

105

Doing Things Right

management that the purpose of MacUser was to make money.
He told his staff that the purpose of MacUserwas to kill Macworld.
Don't create an enemy, but if one naturally exists, use it to your
advantage.

The Components of a
Good Evangelism Program
If you are arrested as an evangelist, make sure that there is
enough evidence to get convicted. The existence of an evangelism
program is a sign that you want and appreciate your allies. This
makes it one of your best recruitment tools.

-

i

•*
••

'-••
I

Here are the key components of a good evangelism program:

1 • An evangelist. A good evangelism program has a champion
running it. This person lives and breathes the program. He is the
figurehead, guiding light, and godfather for developers. He
must thoroughly understand the company's product and
technology.
Believe it or not, Nordstrom has evangelists, but they are
called personal shoppers. They are the people who call you
when special items come in, help you coordinate your wardrobe,
and make you feel special.

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8 • Evangelism

2 • Constant contact. Evangelizing developers is like
bonding with a child. You need constant contact with them—
talking to them on the phone, seeing their products, and taking
them to lunch. A good practice is monthly mailings of technical
notes, tips, tricks, and examples. Not only do the developers get
information, they also get vibes that the company is on top of
things and cares about them.
At ACIUS we push things a little far: we invite our customers
and developers to come in and work in the technical support
department. We get to know them, and they get to understand
ACIUS. This is what one of our guests thought of his visit to
ACIUS. His message was posted on CompuServe in response to
a question about our developer conference that preceded the
January, 1989 Macworld Expo:

#: 39361 S2/ACIUS
26-Jan-89 00:02:10
Sb: #38813-DevCon info???!!!
Fm: Bill Hernandez 76656,3310
To: Paul Greenman 71211,3456 (X)

Paul,
We are under nondisclosure, however I can tell you this:

It was more than I ever expected by a (longshot)... I am still excited.
It was worth the 6000+ mile round trip just for the one day at
DE VCON. After Macworld I rented a car and drove down to Cupertino
for a day in the life of Tech Support. It was really neat, to talk to the
faces behind the phones, they all treated me FANTASTIC...

It was really nice to see the commitment to excellence very much alive
at the new ACIUS facility, those guys work in a superb attnosphere.

All I can tell you, is make your reservations for next year NOW!!!!!!

Bill

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Doing Things Right

3 • Discounts on products. Developers are making a serious
commitment of time and effort to a company and should be
able to buy products at a deep discount. This lowers the barriers
to adopting a product and shows them that the company thinks
they are special. Apple, for example, sells computers to its cer-
tified developers for 50 percent off suggested retail. That's a
bigger discount than dealers get.

4 • Prerelease copies of products. A small, inner circle of
developers needs prerelease prototypes of new products. This
lets you get good feedback from power users of your product and
makes your partners feel good.
The best request that I've ever seen to become a test site
came from Rich Gay of Foresight Technology, Inc. It went
like this:

As a 4D 2.0 beta tester, I would:
• Dedicate 75% of my 4D programming time to "exercising" 4D
2.0, and documenting any anomalies, bugs, crashes, and other
problems. I have three applications, in various stages of
development, which I would use. Additionally, I would be available
to test specific scenarios which ACIUS might be interested in.
• Testing documentation and reports would be provided per ACIUS
requirements. At the least, I will provide weekly reports detailing
my activity with the program, all anomalies, bugs, etc., and
performance observations.
• Provide daily updates to ACIUS via CompuServe EasyPlex
messages.
• Provide disks to ACIUS containing 4D files, procedures, or lay-
outs when requested by ACIUS to aid in troubleshootuig.
• Provide complete security to the office area containing the 2.0
program, and any written information or documentation. My
office is protected by an alarm system which uses motion
detectors and intrusion sensing devices to detect and announce
unauthorized entry. The system is monitored 24 hours a day by
Westec security. Additionally, only myself and my wife have

108

8 • Evangelism

access to my office area, which is my home. No chance of any
employees leaking or stealing anything.

As a 4D 2.0 beta tester, I would NOT:
• Disclose, divulge, or in any way tell any person or organization
any information about 4D 2.0 or that I was involved in the beta
testing program.
• Allow the 4D 2.0 program, documentation, or information to
leave the Foresight Technology office.
• Bitch about "missing" features or capabilities.
• Use all my time only working on my applications and neglecting
my testing responsibilities. I take the beta testing responsibility
very seriously, and am willing to focus a large portion of my time,
including evenings and weekends, toward that responsibility.

That's what you call a partner! If you ever want to be a beta
site for a company, send a letter like this.

Nice Try
By 1986,1 was very proud of my evangelism efforts with third-
party developers for Apple. I believed that I managed one of
Apple's most important constituencies and deserved a big
promotion and a raise. I was so sure that I made this pitch:
Apple has 10,000 developers. If they each have five people
working on Apple products on average, this means that I
represent 50,000 people (about ten times more than the total
number of Apple employees back then). If they each spend
$ 100,000 on Apple-compatible product development on average,
this means that I represent $1 billion in research and develop-
ment (about eight times more than what Apple was spending
on R and D back then).
It didn't work. But as these statistics point out, evangelism
can truly increase the leverage of a Macintosh Way company.

109

To Market, To
Market
The consumer is not a moron—she is
your wife.
David Ogilvy

Through the Pipe
This chapter is about sales and distribution. It describes the right
way to get products to customers. It follows the evangelism
chapter because this should be the order of a company's priorities.
Distribution is usually a two-step process of selling products
to distributors who in turn sell them to dealers. The status quo
way of distribution is called Push. This means ramming large
quantities of product on dealers and distributors because status
quo companies believe that the distribution pipe will sell what-
ever gets pushed on it.
The Macintosh Way of getting product to customers is
called Pull. Pull means creating demand so that customers pull
the products that they want through the distribution pipe.
Macintosh Way companies believe that the customer, not
distribution muscle, is the key.
Distribution boils down to two simple rules: distributors
stock what dealers sell, and dealers sell what customers buy.
Inherently, this means that Push techniques will fail because
customer demand determines what sells, not distribution muscle.

Distributors
Distributors fulfill two very important functions. First, they are

Doing Things Right

shipping, billing, and collecting engines that service hundreds
of individual dealers. It is much easier for a company to manage
three distributors than 2,000 individual dealer accounts.
Secondly, distributors offer a convenient way for dealers to
balance their stock because dealers can exchange inventory of
products from different vendors. For example, if a dealer is over-
stocked with Microsoft Word, he can return it to his distributor
and get SuperPaint from Silicon Beach Software instead. This
encourages dealers to purchase new products from small-
er companies.
Distributors are usually the whipping boys of large status
quo companies. In the personal computer business, compa-
nies like Lotus and Ashton-Tate love to load up distributors with
inventory. It's called a minimum annual purchase which al-
lows a distributor to retain the privilege of selling their products.
It's easy to identify good distributors. The two most important
questions you should ask yourself are, "Can they ship?" and
"Will they pay?" In the Macintosh market, Bonsu, Micro D, and
Softsel are very fine distributors that do both, thank you.

Dealers
Dealers, the second step of the distribution pipeline, constitute
a more complex issue. They can provide a convenient place for
customers to learn about products and then purchase them, or
they can push customers out the door with products that are ill-
suited to their needs. Unfortunately, the latter case prevails, but
let's examine a dealer that represents the ideal.
About two miles down the road from the Stanford Nordstrom
is a Macintosh software store called ComputerWare. It is a store
that masquerades as a user group—it disseminates information
and provides a social gathering place in addition to selling
software. ComputerWare even sponsors a user group called
MUCoW (you can guess how that's pronounced)—Macintosh
Users of ComputerWare.
There is a huge difference between ComputerWare and
most other computer stores. The staff at ComputerWare acts like

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9 • To Market, to Market

volunteers who are there to help you. They don't pretend to
know more than the customers who walk in—which could be
one of the original Macintosh engineers like Andy Hertzfeld. In
fact, they are among the best-informed salespeople in the Mac-
intosh world. The staff of most computer stores act like they are
superior to the customer, assuming he is ignorant, incompetent,
and perhaps uneducable.

Exercise
Co to several computer stores and ask if you can test drive
some Macintosh software. Match the store to the response
you receive:

"What's a Macintosh?" Computer Error

"Sorry, 1 only sell IBM PCs." Priority None

"Don't touch the keyboard." Computer Minus

"Let me open a package so ComputerWare
you can try it."

The Right Distribution
Like them or not, distributors and dealers are here to stay. They
are indispensable to physically moving the goods from a company
to its customers. They are not, however, responsible for creating
customer demand. That's up to the company itself.
Unfortunately, many distributors and dealers try to erode a
company's margin1 along the way. The typical downward
distribution spiral works like this:

1. Distributors and dealers want extra margin and promotional
1. Margin is the difference between what it costs to make something and what
you sell it for. It's also the border around a page. It's also a way to borrow money
from your stockbroker to buy more Apple stock than you can afford. A margin
"call" is when your stockbroker calls you for more money because your Apple
stock has dropped.

113

Doing Things Right

funds as an incentive to stock products and to "create
market awareness."
2. Companies give in and sacrifice their margin to dealers and
distributors. Then they don't have the money to create
customer pull.
3. People don't go into stores asking for their products be-
cause the companies have not created customer pull.
4. Dealers don't sell the companies' products because people
aren't asking for them.
5. Distributors don't stock the companies' products because
dealers aren't asking for them.

••

•• I

-^-1

Good distribution means moving products through the
pipe while preserving as much margin as possible. Here is the
right way to achieve this kind of distribution:

1 • Focus on pull, not push. Pull works. Push doesn't. If a
company's product, support, and marketing are great, customers
will demand its product from the distribution pipe. This whole
book is about creating pull so that a company doesn't need to
waste money on Push programs like spiffs,1 dealer rebates, or
1. A spiff is one of the last legal means of paying people off. It usually works this
way: if a retail salesperson sells a company's product, the company gives him a
cash reward. It is a good idea when a salesperson really recommends a product

114


giving extra points of margin.1 Test-drive kits and informative
advertising are far more effective ways to generate sales than
these Push gimmicks.
Also, stores like ComputerWare place a high value on their
long-term relationship with customers. They won't sell a
customer an inferior product for a quick buck2 so the margin
used up by Push programs is often wasted.
If you want to have pull, generate pull.

Exercise
Which of the following is least likely to create customer
demand?

A. Great support.

B. Great products.

C. Great marketing.

D. Computer salesmen with new BMWs.

2 • Blast it out. Companies usually try to control distribution.
They try to create an exclusive group of dealers who sell and
support their products. In exchange for the dedication of its
dealers, the company protects them by not selling mail order,
selling direct to national accounts, or authorizing VARs with-
out storefronts.
I believe that you cannot have too many silk blouses, too
fast a car, or too much distribution. "Controlled distribution" is
an oxymoron. The right distribution is blasting out product
and letting customers choose which distribution channel
to patronize.
to ask him if he's getting a spiff to sell it. This may keep him honest.
1. "Extra Points of Margin" is the name of the Businessland company song.
Compaq wouldn't sing it and deauthorized Businessland as a dealership.
2. What's the difference between car salesmen and most computer salesmen?
Car salesmen know when they are lying.

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Doing Things Right

Some customers will prefer the selection and social
atmosphere of ComputerWare. Some will prefer the conven-
ience of mail order from a company like MacConnection. Some
will prefer the handholding of a developer or consultant.
To be fair, if image and status are important to a company's
product, it should be more selective. Mont Blanc pens in airport
newstands, for example, would be depressing. In general, though,
a company shouldn't worry about protecting anyone along the
distribution pipe. The organizations and channels that fill a
need will survive.

3 • Accept your responsibilities. No matter how great the
dealer, a company is ultimately responsible for its customers'
satisfaction. It is stupid to depend on even the best dealers to
provide technical support for a company's product. Good dealers
can sense when a company accepts its responsibilities and will
sell more of its product because they believe in the company. If
a dealer asks you for more margin because it is going to support
the product, respond by saying, "Nice try. Can we talk about
payment terms now?"

Exercise
A scorpion wanted a frog to carry him on his back across
a river. The frog said to the scorpion, "How dumb do you
think 1 am? As soon as we get to the other side, you'll sting
me and kill me."

The scorpion replied, "Why would 1 sting you?Just get me
to the other side, and I'll help you catch some b ugstoeat."

What would you do if you were the frog?

A. Trust the scorpion.

B. Catch your own bugs.

116


C. Talk the scorpion into giving you a ride.

D. Take the scorpion to the middle of the river and drown him.

4 • Forget the "Just Get" Solutions. One of the nasty tricks that
the distribution pipe plays on companies is promoting the idea
of "just get" solutions. "If I could just get Micro D to distribute
my product." "If I could just get Computer Ware to put my prod-
uct in the window." " If I could just get MacConnection to feature
my product in their ads."
"Just get" solutions in the distribution pipe help some but
they also defocus a company from doing the right thing and do-
ing things right. Success is achieved through incremental changes
that appear to happen at glacial speeds. Improvements to your
product, marketing, and support work better than magical pro-
motions for the distribution pipe.

Building the Sales Force
The Environment chapter discussed the most important qualities
of employees at a Macintosh Way company. They are passion,
high bandwidth, ability to deal with stress and ambiguity, and
high energy. These qualities are necessary for a sales force
because it represents the company to so many outsiders—
customers, dealers, and distributors. Here's how to find and in-
stall a good sales force:

1 • Recruit retail sales reps. One of the best recruiting grounds
is retail stores for three reasons. First, retail sales reps are
underpaid so they really appreciate a new opportunity. Secondly,
retail reps understand what it's like to sell to users and, more
importantly, what it's like to be rejected by customers. Finally,
after dealing with many other vendor reps, they know how to
do their job well. One of the best sales reps that ACIUS ever hired
was stolen from Egghead.

117

Doing Things Right

2 • Be wary of experience. Previous experience obtained as an
employee for a competitor is not usually a desirable quality. It
is better to work with raw, enthusiastic potential than an old pro
from a competitor who will merely transfer his old habits to a
new product and company. A company may gain some expertise,
but it comes with a great deal of baggage. Also, hiring anyone
from a competitor will mean that confidential information will
make its way back to the competitor through old friendships.
For those of you in the Macintosh business, one of the worst
places to hire sales people is from Apple because Apple perverts
its employees. To an Apple employee, tough times means riding
a 20-foot limousine instead of a 25-foot one. Horrible times
means sharing a limousine. When we started ACIUS, I tried to
hire a 23 year-old Apple intern for an entry-level marketing
position. Our negotiations broke down when he asked for four
percent of ACIUS.

3 • Throwthemtothewolves.Theclockstartstickingfromthe
moment the candidate accepts a job offer. A good rep will
immediately begin to learn about his new products—even as
he's serving the last two weeks at his old job. (This is also a good
way to see if you've hired the right person.) If it's a Macintosh
software product, he should start learning how to demo it so
that he can hit the ground running.
Once he is on the payroll, give him about a week to
familiarize himself with the company and product. Then send
him directly into the field. In high technology, the market is
moving too fast to go through a one-year training program.
Also, it's good to find out as soon as possible if you've hired the
right person, and there's nothing like a field trial as the acid test.

4 • Reward the result you desire. Creating an effective com-
mission plan for a sales force is very difficult. Some plans require
a Cray1—percent against quota, number of sales calls, percent of

1. A Cray is a supercomputer. It costs about $ 15 million. It comes bundled with
engineers, it's available in about 250 colors, and it can eat a Macintosh for

118

9 • To Market, t o Market

gross margin, quantity of incremental business, etc.
Companies usually have regional salespeople who are
compensated for the sales they generate in their territories.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to track products purchased from
distributors, distributed by the central purchasing of national
chains, and sold by mail-order companies.
Problems often occur when a sales rep successfully evangelizes
a customer on his product and then the customer buys it from
a mail-order company. Unfortunately, this does not reward the
sales rep for the result desired—sales into a customer's hands—
if the mail-order company is outside of his territory.
A plan that bases commissions on the number of warranty
cards returned from each region avoids this problem. One way
to operate the plan is to take all of the warranty cards for a
month, calculate the percentage that each sales territory
generates, and then apply this percentage to the previous
month's total company sales to calculate commissions.
This plan works well for three reasons. First, it rewards the
results desired: actual sales into customers' hands. Loading up
a dealer's shelf doesn't count.
Secondly, it's very simple. The company only has to count
warranty cards and doesn't have to depend on reports from
numerous distributors, national chains, and mail-order
companies.
Thirdly, it encourages the sales force to work together on
customers with offices in many locations, because all that
counts is where the card comes from, not where the decision
was made or where the software was purchased.
An added benefit is that the sales force really pushes its
customers to return their warranty cards. This lets a company
keep in contact with more customers, send them upgrades, and
sell them new products and add-ons.

breakfast. Apple bought a Cray to design the next Macintosh. Cray bought
Macintoshes to design the next Cray.

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Doing Things Right

Exercise
Match the type of commission plan to the results.

Commission Plan Results

Sales into a territory Overstocked dealers

Number of new accounts New accounts

Quantity of sales calls Increased mileage expenses

Percentage of warranty cards Customers buying products

How to Find Good Stores
This chapter has concentrated on setting up a good distribu-
tion channel if you work for a company. Now let's discuss how
to find good stores when you are the customer.

1 • Ask a user group or current customers. Here's where that
potent force called word-of-mouth advertising rears its pretty
head again. The best way to find a good store is to ask someone
who's already looked and been hooked. User groups and current
customers are the best way to find a good store.

Exercise
Call BMUC (415-549-BMUG) and ask them to recommend
a good Macintosh software store.

2 • Shop where tweaks shop. You can tell a good Japanese
restaurant if lots of Japanese people eat there. You can tell a good
French restaurant if lots of French people eat there. You can tell
a good Chinese restaurant if lots of Jewish people eat there. It's
the same concept in high technology. Tweaks shop at a store for
good reasons. Laurent Ribardiere, Andy Hertzfeld, and Bill
Atkinson all shop at ComputerWare.

120


3 • Look for a store with a large selection of products. A store
with a large selection of products can offer you better advice. Its
staff is more likely to be familiar with more products and able to
recommend the right product for your needs. A large selection
is also a good indication that the store is doing well and is in
good credit standing with its vendors.
You can tell a good Macintosh computer store from a
mediocre one by the amount of Adobe fonts that it stocks. The
good ones haves lots of Adobe fonts. The more it stocks, the
better the store. Every store stocks Word, Excel, and PageMaker.
Check out the Adobe font selection.

4 • Find a store that schedules vendor demos. A store that has
many vendors demonstrating their products is at the leading
edge of products. Bringing in vendors also indicates a high
regard for a customer's ability to make intelligent purchase
decisions. Finally, the willingness of vendors to support a store
shows that the store is important. Few vendors are going to
waste time at a deadbeat store.

Exercise
This is a field trip. Visit ComputerWare to see how custom-
ers should be treated. It's at the corner of El Camino (the
Champs-Elysees of Silicon Valley)1 and California Avenue.
If you get there early, Joanie's across the street makes
great breakfasts, and Cho's, two blocks down towards
the railroad, has the best char siu bao and pot stickers in
Palo Alto.

1. Do you know the difference between Silicon Valley and yogurt? Yogurt
has culture.

121

The Printed
Word
Critics are like eunuchs in a harem:
they know how it's done, they've seen it
done every day, but they're unable to do
it themselves.
Brendan Behan

Advertising and PR
There's a big difference between advertising and PR. Advertising
is when you tell people how great you are. PR is when someone
else says how great you are. PR is better. (This is Jean-Louis'
insight, although he uses sexual prowess when he explains it.)
This chapter is about getting the right information to the right
people by using an intermediary called the press.

Not the First Step
The first step isn't finding a PR agency, because hiring an agency
leads to abdication of clear thinking. Most companies treat PR
like disk duplication: "Let's not bother with it right now. Let's
farm it out to a third-party vendor." The problem is that the
third-party vendor assigns you a BA fresh from USC who is the
nephew of the founder.
Most PR agencies don't understand a thing about technology.
They have their cookie-cutter ways of handling all accounts: do
an audit—report on the results—provide recommendations—
get paid—tell the client to refer all press calls and inquiries to the
agency—cut and paste press releases.

Doing Things Right

Don't get me wrong: an agency can provide valuable serv-
ices like providing a sanity check on your marketing and con-
trolling your ego (a full-time job for our agency when we had
one). If you are doing things right and you have a good PR
agency, it can be awesome, but you cannot substitute an agency
and PR fluff for clear thinking.

Exercise
Go to a speech by a company president. Does he have a PR
flack1 babysitting him? If he does, ask him why.

Properly used, a PR agency can amplify good reality and play
the heavy when you need to "correct" the press. The right PR,
however, is primarily the result of four factors that you control:
good reality, clear positioning, personal relationships, and
PR smarts.

Good Reality
The first factor is good reality—the right company environment,
great products, legendary support, and informative marketing.
You can have the worst PR agency in the world (or no PR agency
at all), and you will get good press if you have good reality.
Think about all the bad press you've seen. Wasn't it about
bad reality? Bugs. Premature releases. Delayed shipments. Poor
support. Generally acting like the south end of a north-
bound horse.
Bad press isn't a chicken-and-egg thing. Bad press reflects
the reality of your company, not your PR efforts. The Japanese
have a saying, "Wasabi2 cannot fix rotten fish." Do right by your
customer and you won't have to worry about bad press. Enzo

1. A PR flack is someone that you pay your PR agency $125 an hour for to tell
you that you are great and to prevent you from making an ass of yourself in
public. PRflacks,however, usually know less about technology than you know
about PR.
2. Wasabi is a killer form of horseradish that is mixed with soy sauce to form a
dip for eating sushi and sashimi. Macintosh owners eat it to show how tough
they are.

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1 0 • T h e Printed Word

Toresi, one of the founders of Businessland, told me, "There is
only one judge. That's the customer."

Clear Positioning
The second factor of the right PR (and really all marketing) is
clearly understanding and positioning your product. The best
positioning statement is two to three words and defines the
whole market—for example, "desktop publishing" meant
PageMaker. The second best positioning statement is a
short sentence.
Long, all-encompassing positioning statements like "a
powerful, easy-to-use, multiuser, graphic database with proce-
dural language and runtime capability" create confusion. A
better positioning statement is "the most powerful database for
a personal computer."
If you can't come up with a one-sentence positioning state-
ment, something is wrong with your product or your marketing.
Lotus executives needed a CD-ROM to explain the positioning
of Modern Jazz.
Sometimes there is a bigger problem: the product was
designed by marketing. Then there is no saving it.

Doing Right by the Press
Doing right by the press is the third factor. The key is to accept
responsibility for relationships with the press, and not delegate
it to a PR agency or your internal flacks. Anyway, the press con-
siders PR agencies and internal flacks a hindrance to the pursuit
of truth and timeliness.
In fact, when a PR agency's pitch is that they "have all the
contacts," run for the door. You can't buy and sell press rela-
tionships like baseball cards. You, not your agency, are responsible
for personal relationships with the press. Here are ways to do
right by the press:

1 • Build the relationship before you need it. Suppose you're
working for a big-deal company like Apple. Everyone is calling

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Doing Things Right

you for favors. You've got an army of Regettes1 and a phalanx of
Apple PR people. An editor calls you to borrow a Macintosh or
to get a copy of Inside Macintosh. Big deal, right? Tell him to buy
them like everyone else.
Wrong. Help the press before you need it. When you need
it, it's too late. Someday you won't be a high-saluting Apple
executive, you won't have any power, and you're going to need
help. That's when you'll need to call in the favors that you've
already dealt out.
The press may pay you back in ways you never imagined. My
wife wanted to run in the San Francisco Examiner's Bay to
Breakers race but missed the deadline. We had been dating a
short time, so I seized this opportunity to impress her by
contacting Will Hearst III, the publisher of the Examiner, and
asking him to extend the deadline.
He did. She was impressed. More importantly, so were her
parents. Later I repaid the favor by showing him a Macintosh II
before any other journalist in the United States. The Apple PR
police never knew the difference.

2 • Don't try to manipulate the press. Good reporters and
editors are fiercely independent, and they don't consider
themselves pawns to be manipulated by you or your agency. The
best example of this is MacWEEK; it will take on anyone on
anything. If you run an even and honest keel, the press will be
a lot kinder when the chips are down.
In October, 1988, a Macintosh software company sold its
electronic mail product to a competitor. Laurie Flynn of Info-
World heard about the sale from employees in both companies
(that's her job, after all). She called the president of the company
who was selling the electronic mail product to verify the story.
He denied that the rumors were true: "That's ridic-
1. "Regettes" is an affectionate and sadistic term for account executives from a
famous Silicon Valley PR agency called Regis McKenna, Inc. Typically, they wear
Laura Ashley suits and one week after graduating from college with a BA in Fine
Arts, they tell t-shirt clients how to sell their products. If you ever meet someone
who has a friend at Regis McKenna, the conversation always starts like this: "I
have a friend at Regis McKenna, but she's not like the rest of them."

126

10 • The Printed Word

ulous....Why would we sell off one of our best Macintosh
products?" Laurie didn't run the story because she believed him
and because her sources told her that the deal wasn't signed yet.
A few weeks later she called him back because she heard that
the papers were signed. He denied it again, but she ran the story
anyway because she knew he was lying. Less than 24 hours later,
his flack called Laurie to set up a formal interview to discuss the
sale of the product. He may have delayed the story, but Laurie
will never trust him again.
It is un-American to deceive the press, and the president of
the company selling the electronic mail product crossed the
line. The press is made up of hardworking and ethical people
who don't get paid very much. Few errors are malicious or
intentional. The president should have confirmed the story and
asked Laurie not to print it yet, or responded with "no comment,"
which is a comment but not manipulation.

3 • Show a little common courtesy. Return phone calls from
editors and reporters promptly. Make time on your schedule to
meet them. Get to know them as people. Be honest with them.
Consistent doses of common courtesy do a lot more than
shrimp-and-caviar press conferences and fancy press kits. Make
it easy to do business with your company.

Exercise
Call your company and ask for a press kit.

4 • Give the press some stories. The goal of giving the press
stories is to make yourself such a good source that the press will
never burn you. I don't mean giving the press a copy of Apple's
unreleased product specs, but you will hear stories that the press
can use.
MacWEEK gives you coffee mugs for stories that they run in
their rumor column,"Mac the Knife." It's been a personal goal
of mine to have the largest collection of MacWEEK mugs this

127

Doing Things Right

side of the Apple exec staff. I have five right now.

»

3
*

,

However, if you are under a non-disclosure agreement, shut
up and honor it. It's a small world, and word will get out that you
cannot be trusted. Doubt me? Suppose you violated a non-
disclosure and leaked to Amanda Hixson (Personal Computing),
Maggie Canon and Stephen Mann (Macintosh Today), or Mary
Fallon and Lisa Raleigh (San Jose Mercury News). Today they are
all Apple employees.

5 • Treat every press relationship like a long-term investment.
The reporter from the Mountain View Times may become the
next west coast editor of Business Week. Or he could go to work
for Apple as an evangelist in charge of seeding prototypes. Not
only that, but large, national magazines often get story ideas
from smaller, local publications. Take the time to educate the
press, no matter who they work for at the time, by meeting with
them and providing tutorial instructions in your product.

6 • Don'tignoreorabusefreelancers. Many of the stories that
get published actually originate with freelance writers. They're
out there in the world scouting up news and new products, and
they pitch interesting angles to their editors. Editors only have

128


so much energy and even less imagination, so they're always
looking for good story ideas from their stables of freelancers.
In fact, a good way to get your story in the back door is to
get a regular contributor to pitch it for you. If you are really
smooth, try to find someone who already loves your product to
pitch a review to a magazine.

PR Smarts
The fourth factor is PR smarts. Luck and PR agencies have little
to do with good press because it's something that you have to
work on all the time to get right.

1 • Broaden your horizons. Many of the best quotes and
metaphors pop out of subjects totally unrelated to your industry.
My best sources are the Bible, church sermons, works like The Art
of War by Sun Tzu, and violent movies. The title for the first
chapter of this book, "First Blood," came from a novel by David
Morrel which became a Sylvester Stallone movie. "Let a thousand
flowers bloom" came from Mao. "Spreading seeds" came from
Luke 8:1-15.

Exercise
What did Arnold Schwarzenegger say when he found out
that the monster in Predator was bleeding?

A. "Poor thing. Let's call 911."

B. "If it bleeds, we can kill it."

C. "It'll be back."

D. "Quite frankly, I don't give a damn."

2 • Read voraciously. Nothing is more flattering to a reporter
than telling him that you read his last article or review, so read

129

Doing Things Right

the industry rags voraciously. You might learn something, and
you'll certainly score points with the reporter. I often tell Denise
Caruso that I buy the San Francisco Examiner every Sunday only
to read her column all the time. And it's true.

3 • Don't hurry to go "on the record." You don't have to
answer a reporter's question in real time. When you're in treach-
erous waters—for example, "What do you think of Apple's latest
reorganization?"—tell the reporter that you'll call back after
you've thought about it. Then you have time to figure out which
"latest reorganization" he was asking about.

4 • Chalk up credit. Whenever the press calls, there is a strong
temptation to give them a juicy quote to get your name in print.
Other than to impress your parents (or your future wife's
parents), there is little reason to say something outrageous to get
a little mention in Business Week or The Wall Street Journal.
It's better to go "off the record" and provide real information
"as background." Then you can safely explain what's really
going on, and the press will appreciate your insight and candor.
The goal is to chalk up a lot of credit so that someday you won't
be a quote, you'll be the whole story. Make sure, however, that
the reporter or editor has agreed to keep your name out of the
story before you start talking.

5 • Find out which way the winds are blowing. Answer a
reporter's initial questions with, "What do you think?" and
"What are other people saying?" This will give you an initial
reading on the situation so you can tell where you stand. You
may decide to shut up.

6 • Give away too many samples. It is better to err in the
direction of giving away too many samples of your product to
the press than too few. It is difficult to decide who is really a
reviewer and who is trying to get a freebie, but if you are in
doubt, give away too many copies.

130


The cost of a review copy is a pittance compared to the
number of copies a good review can sell. Even a low-circulation
publication that is correctly targeted can have great results. BCS
Update, the Boston Computer Society magazine, for example,
goes to the power elite of personal computing.

When You Are Wronged
Every once in a while, the press will wrong you. Typically it
happens in a product review. For most people, buying products
based on reviews is like picking a spouse based on a beauty
contest. The categories—swimsuit, talent, and evening gown—
provide some comparisons of the contestants, but they bear
little relevance to the qualities that make a happy marriage. Not
only that, but you have to rely on a nearsighted panel of judges.
Justice is not done, and it's no wonder. The reviewers have
three weeks to review five products in 1,000 words and get paid
$500. Then some editor1 butchers the review they submit.
Readers don't get useful analyses. Companies don't get accurate
reviews. Editors get angry letters. Reviewers get hostile phone
calls.
Bad reviews are bound to happen, and there's little you can
do to prevent it (except help pick the reviewer). How should you
react to a bad review? I used to think that you should boil the
reviewer like a crabb, but I've mellowed some. When you've
been wronged, the press feels badly too, and it's your duty to
raise hell but do it in an even-handed way. The key is not to roll
over, but to deliver a rebuke in a fair manner. The press can take
the heat—especially if you have a solid personal relationship
with them.
There are two effective methods to raise hell. First, call up
the author of the story and his editor and coldly point out where
the story is wrong. Appeal to their guilt—after all, they
misinformed their readers. Secondly, tell their advertising
salesman that you are upset—not because of the "bad" press but

1." An editor is one who separates the wheat from the chaff and prints the chaff."
—Adlai Stevenson

131

Doing Things Right

because of the "inaccuracies." Advertising and editorial are
usually quite separate, but if you have been wronged, the line
becomes fuzzy.
A letter to the editor correcting mistakes or protesting un-
fairness is unwise because it calls more attention to the problem
and prolongs the damage. The fewer people who know about
the article the better. Go for damage control not public revenge.
An alternative, if you're a gambler, is to ask your loyal
customers to write into the magazine for you. When Don Crabb
wrote a bad review1 of 4th Dimension in InfoWorld, he received
over 400 letters of disagreement from our customers. (Okay, he
got some that agreed too). Let your customers defend you. It's
much more credible.

The Right Press Conference
High-tech press conferences are all identical these days. They're
held in a swanky New York or San Francisco hotel. All the
reporters and editors are bribed to attend with shrimp and cheap
white wine. The president of the company stands up, fidgets
with the slide projector for five minutes, and then gives a 45-
minute company overview. Next the product manager gets up
and does a demo that crashes twice.
The big moment is next. A figurehead like an Apple vice-
president or industry pundit struts up to the podium. He banters
on for 15 minutes using words like "strategic," "partnership,"
"powerful," "innovative," and "graphic." (And your product is
a mouse pad.)
Don't use figureheads anymore. They're overused, and the
press isn't stupid. They've seen Apple executives proclaim the
last five desktop publishing programs and a port of a DOS CAD
package without a Macintosh interface as "great." The only
reason (shrimp and wine from hotel catering departments
aren't that good) that the press attends these press conferences

1. Don told me that the editor butchered the review he submitted, and that he
didn't assign the numerical score. Still, it was good for his soul to get all those
letters.

132


is for the chance to corner a Steve Jobs or John Sculley for a few
minutes. It's not to see your product.
If your product is great, you don't need to validate it with a
figurehead. You may not even need a press conference. Let your
product do the talking, and let the customers decide.

133

Working with
the Mothership
Love your neighbour, yet don't pull
down your hedge.
Benjamin Franklin

Motherships
This chapter explains the right way to work with motherships
like Apple, DEC, Sony, or IBM. Motherships are usually the com-
panies that started an industry or currently dominate it. Because
of their size, they can frequently determine the success or failure
of smaller companies in the industry.
When you run with the elephants, however, you can get
trampled, so be careful. This chapter is about Macintosh software
developers working with the Mothership Apple, but these
skills can be applied to motherships in most high-technol-
ogy industries.

Understand Apple's Motivation
The key to working with Apple is assuming that its day-to-day
motivation is to sell more Macintoshes. Apple does have lofty
and noble goals like improving the productivity of its customers,
but don't think of it as a magic kingdom with young Marxists
sitting around in bean-bag chairs wearing Birkenstocks and dis-
cussing the empowerment of the individual. This is a Fortune
500 killing machine that exists to increase the wealth of its
shareholders. If you can help its shareholders, you might get
some help for yourself.

Doing Things Right

Exercise
Obtain an Apple annual report. Skip all the body copy,
photographs, and graphics and read the income statement.

Identify the Right Part
Much of the difficulty of dealing with Apple is caused by people
thinking there is only one company. There are really three
Apples: 1) Apple Products, 2) Sales and Marketing, and 3) The
Field.1 They might as well be three different companies, and
each of them requires a different approach.

)
Vi
; •'

..,,,-. f
CD fr~i C )• m''
•••!.:*-<-
UTK r~%y
-
c5» A
As of May, 1989, Apple Products is headed by Jean-Louis
Gassee. This Apple is responsible for research, product
development, and manufacturing. Any part of Apple that Gassee
runs is product- and technology-oriented. Apple Products wants
to see products and technology. They are not concerned with
slick marketing and advertising programs so much as your
product, technology, your loyalty to Macintosh, and your
hatred of Microsoft and IBM.
As of May, 1989, Sales and Marketing and The Field are

1. Of this I am quite certain: by the time you read this book, this organizational
structure will have changed.

136

11 • T h e Mothership

John Sculley 1
Chairman,
President,
and CEO

Allan Jean-Louis Mike Del
Loren Cassee Spindler Yocam
President, President, President, President,
Apple Apple Apple Apple
USA Products Europe Pacific

both parts of Apple USA, which is headed by Allan Loren. Allan
Loren is relatively new to Apple, and he's going to provide
tough, adult supervision to the Cub Scouts. He's been chartered
with improving Apple's customer service, and two very good
signs are that he has a Nordstrom shopping bag displayed on
the wall in his office, and the desktop on his Macintosh has
Nordstrom, L.L. Bean, Federal Express, and Apple logos. He also
owns two Mont Blanc pens.

Exercise
A man went to a Hyundai dealership and bought a car.
When he got home, he read his manual and found out that
his $8,000 car had a 36,000-mile, 36-month warranty.
Later, he went to an Apple dealer and bought a Macintosh
II and a LaserWriter NTX f or $10,000. When he got home,
he read his manual and found out that his new computer
equipment had a 90-day warranty.

What can explain this?

A. A car is driven every day, it is subject to road wear, rain, sleet,
and snow, and it has thousands of moving parts. A computer
sits on a desk.

B. The finance department of Apple calculated that earnings

137

Doing Things Right

would go down if Apple extended the warranty period.

C. The sales department of Apple has been unable to prove that
extending the warranty period would lead to more sales.

D. Hyundai cars are made better than Apple computers.

Sales and Marketing is responsible for the overall sales, mar-
keting, and support functions at the Cupertino headquarters. It
wants to sell more Macs in the next 90 days, and is obsessed with
quarterly sales and earnings. It is made up of sales and marketing
types who work in City Center II (Apple engineers call the
building" Ego Center II"). They are impressed by flashy marketing,
and they love presentations using words like "platform," "SQL,"
"connectivity," "desktop," "networking," "channel," and
"infrastructure." They think that HyperCard is a database.
The Field includes more than 50 sales offices and 1,500
salespeople throughout the United States. They do battle in the
trenches every day, so they need ways to differentiate Macin-
tosh from the IBM PC. There is no connection between Sales
and Marketing in Cupertino (the corporate pukes) and The
Field, so don't assume that connections at the headquarters
have any bearing on your success in the field. Go after each
part independently.

Reorgs
To work with Apple you must understand reorganizations. You
used to be able to predict who would advance in Apple by what
they drank—alfalfa juice (Jobs), beer (Campbell), and blood
(Gassee). It's not so simple anymore. At great risk, I will answer
the most commonly whispered question: "Why does Apple
reorganize so often?" The answers are applicable to many high-
growth companies.
First, rapid growth makes reorganizations necessary. Apple
almost tripled sales revenue between 1984 and 1988 from $1.5
billion to $4 billion. This kind of growth causes great stress on

138

11 • The Mothership

systems, structures, and employees and antiquates them very
quickly. Thus, reorganizations must occur.
Secondly, Apple is a very political place. Often decisions are
made on the basis of what's politically acceptable, not what's
right. Thus, organizations are thrown together in curious ways
so that everyone can have his own sandbox. This is very
different from the Jobs days, when he had the biggest sandbox
with the most toys, and you were either allowed to play in it or
watch from the classroom.
Thirdly, Apple cannot pull the trigger and fire people.
People and their organizations are shifted perpetually as they
screw up. No one ever gets fired from Apple because accounta-
bility is not an Apple value. Even after an employee resigns, he
is typically hired back as a consultant at three times the old
salary. If a high-level executive leaves, Apple forgives the house
loan that it gave him to quit IBM.
Apple employees have grown to accept reorganizations, and
you will have to also. The saying around Cupertino is, "If you
don't like this reorg, don't worry. There'll be another one in 90
days." Mark my words, organizational stability is the most
serious issue facing Apple today.

Exercise
In 1988, some middle managers of a company had as
many as six supervisors. What could explain this?

A. The executive staff learned how to use MacDraw and went
nuts.

B. The company wanted to get closer to the customer.

C. The company believed that exposure to a diversity of
management styles stimulates employees.

D. The VP of marketing changed again.

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Doing Things Right

Beggars Can't be Choosers
Now that I've explained Apple's motivation and organization,
let's examine how to work with Apple. First, smart Macintosh
developers have accepted the fact that they are beggars on
Apple's doorstep. When I left Apple I knew that I would have to
grovel for prototypes and co-marketing like everyone else. I
even had to apply for certification.
There are over 10,000 Apple certified developers, and there
are about 20 evangelists to help them. This ratio of developers

. April 16, 1987

ft
Guy Kawasaki
Acius, Inc.
141 California Ave. B304
Palo Alto. CA 94306
Dear Mr. Kawasaki:

After a careful review of your application, I am pleased to announce your
selection as a Certified Apple Developer, Congratulations!

Certification is for a period of 18 months, After 18 months you will be
notified to update us on the status of you products.

We at Developer Services are committed to providing you with timely
information and assistance to further your product development and
company's success. As a Certified Developer you will receive our
developer newsletter and various information on existing programs and
seminars. You will also be eligible to purchase development equipment at
a discount.

Being a Developer, you may require technical support. You may send your
questions to our technical staff via US Mail or MCI Mail. The MCI Mail
addresses for technical support are MACTECH for Macintosh and DTS for
Apple // concerning development questions. For more information on
obtaining this service please contact MCI directly at (800) MCI-MAIL.

You may wish to consider applying to our Registered Developer Program,
An application and explanation letter are enclosed for your review.

We are delighted to welcome you to the Certified Developer Program. I
fully expect that you and Apple will enjoy a close and successful working
relationship. Should you have any questions, please contact Developer
Services at (408) 973-4897 or MCI Mail address: Apple (Certified
Developers).

Sincerely,

Farida Benderradji
Certified Developer Program

140


to evangelists indicates the level of support you can reasonably
expect from Apple.
Apple is past the stage where breakthrough software will
garner heavy support. The first and only time this happened was
with PageMaker, but Apple was on the ropes then, and Paul
Brainerd had the smelling salts. If you don't believe me, ask
Steve Wolfram. He created a symbolic mathematics software
product called Mathematica that could open up as many markets
for Macintosh as PageMaker. He's getting nothing out of the
ordinary from Apple. Interestingly enough, Steve Jobs is bundling
Mathematica with his machine.
Secondly, be realistic about the potential impact your product
can have and therefore the amount of support you can reasonably
expect. A shoot-em-up game for the Macintosh II, for example,
will not get much attention because Apple doesn't position
Macintosh lis as game machines. A connectivity product that
links Macintoshes and mainframes will get a lot of support.
Thirdly, don't let Apple or any other company determine
your success or failure because this is not Apple's responsibility.
Macintosh developers dream about Apple parting the ocean for
them. Apple not only won't make the ocean part; it couldn't
even if it tried. If any Apple employee tells you differently, then
the employee is either a summer hire or someone with the word
"strategic"1 in his title. Neither will be around long.
Still, Apple has the best third-party developer programs and
support services of any hardware manufacturer. More than any
other manufacturer, Apple recognizes that developers are a key
to its future success. More than any other hardware company,
Apple truly appreciates and respects its third-party developers.
Apple dedicates over 150 people and spends over $20 million
per year to support developers. That's about 140 people and $18
million more than any other company.
For example, Apple helps babyships in four ways, and
1. When "strategic" is in a person's title, it means that the person really doesn't
have a job. Steve Scheier, Allan Loren's special assistant, decided to change his
business cards after he read a manuscript of this book because they said
"Manager of Strategic Projects." Now they say "Assistant to the President."

141

Doing Things Right

Apple's practices can be applied to other industries. The four
ways are:

1 • Providing generic assistance to anyone that asks politely.
Developer Services and Developer Co-Marketing help Apple
certified developers promote products to user groups, dealers,
national accounts, and other developers. You can also buy
equipment at a 50 percent discount. For about $500, Apple will
send out your product brochures to over 1,000 user groups.

2 • Blessing twenty to forty products as "strategic." A blessed
product gets featured in the Apple trade show booths, included
in dealer mailings, and featured in Apple and dealer training
classes. These activities can have enormous impact on the sales
of your product. You achieve this status by demonstrating how
your product can sell more Apple hardware and by following the
rules of the Apple road in the next section.

3 • Sanctifying a handful of products. Excel and PageMaker are
two products in this category. The effort required to achieve this
status and the probability of it occurring make it a foolish pur-
suit. Apple only does this when it's desperate, but desperate days
are over until the next new computer. You cannot achieve this
status so don't waste your time trying. In the end, only the
customer can sanctify your product and line your pocket
with money.

4 • Seeding with prototypes. One of the most important
things that Apple provides is prototypes of its products. The
most commonly asked questions are, "Who gets seeded?" and
"Why?" Let me explain how Apple handles this process. Other
motherships handle the process in similar ways.
Prior to the introduction of a new computer, Apple seeds
what it considers strategic organizations. The first prototypes
are made by hand and used for testing by engineers. The factory
eventually delivers several hundred preproduction prototypes

142


that are allocated to evangelism, national accounts, VARs, and
other Apple channels.
The evangelists distribute their allocation like precious
gems because they are evaluated on their ability to get products
that ship at the introduction of a new computer. Demos,
announcements, and intentions don't count for much. There
are three categories of developers who get the first units:

1 • The companies that don't matter. Unfortunately, some
prototypes go to the big-name MS-DOS companies because
Apple thinks that they give Macintosh credibility. These units
are wasted: pearls before swine. Fortunately, these companies
can be counted on one hand.

2 • The big companies that matter. Companies like Aldus and
Microsoft are sure seeds—Aldus because of its role in the history
of desktop publishing, Microsoft because it has two very long
needles in Apple's arm called Word and Excel. (Apple is afraid
that Macintosh is not a legitimate computer without Microsoft
products). In general, Apple seeds these kinds of companies
because it is afraid that reports of bugs in major software
products will hurt the sales of Macintosh.

3 • The companies that need it—gutsy visionaries. These
companies need prototypes because they are creating specific
products for a particular Macintosh. A company developing a
color paint program or software that uses the 68881,1 for ex-
ample, was sure to get a Macintosh II.
Sometimes even gutsy visionaries who need prototypes
don't get them. CE Software, one of the small, great Macintosh
developers (they created ten Macintosh products including
SideKick, DiskTop, and QuickKeys), got seeded once with a
Macintosh prototype in five years of Macintosh development.
During that time, they should have gotten prototypes of the
I. A 68881 is a coprocessing chip that speeds up mathematical calculations for
a computer. I don't know why high-tech companies can't seem to come up with
sexier names like "TBMC"—Top Banana Math Chip.

143

Doing Things Right

Macintosh 512K, Macintosh Plus, Macintosh 512Ke, Macintosh
II, and Macintosh Ilex. The only time CE got seeded, it was be-
cause they were doing a product for Borland.

Rules of the Apple Road
Here are the rules for negotiating the road paved by Apple:

1 • Match your product to their current marketing thrust.
When the six-color elephant rumbles, jump on his back. If
Apple is going after desktop publishing, tie your product (whether
it's true or not) to the publishing market—not the vast potential
market made up of cartoonists.
Mindscape published a product named ComicWorks that
was developed by MacroMind and comic book artist Mike
Saenz. Because it had a lot of graphic features that no other
program offered, Mindscape also packaged it as GraphicWorks
to go after the desktop publishing market. It almost worked.

Exercise
What is the difference between a company calling a mar-
ket "communications" and "desktop communications?"

A. Desktop communications is prettier.

B. Desktop communications has more margin.

C. The company wants co-marketing.

2 • Find a champion foryour product. Find one person to tuck
you under his wing and act as your evangelist. Things get so
mucked up in Cupertino that everyone looking out for you
means that no one is looking out for you. John Scull (no, not
John Sculley) was the champion of desktop publishing for
Apple. He managed the efforts of Apple's marketing, training,
and field sales personnel and coordinated them with Aldus' own
activities. His clear identification as the desktop publishing

144


champion was a large factor in Aldus' and desktop publish-
ing's success.

3 • Don't take no for an answer. There are at least five organ-
izations at Apple that can help a developer: Developer Services,
Evangelism, Field Sales, Developer Co-Marketing, and Business
Marketing (or Education Marketing depending on your prod-
uct). They don't communicate well with each other, so if one
group says no, keep asking until you find one that says yes. It's
like asking Mom if Dad says no.

4 • Take whatever you can get whenever you can get it. Apple
usually reorganizes every two to three months so your champion
may not be able to help you a quarter from now. If Apple offers
you something, take it and be thankful. I once got called at
6:10 PM to show 4th Dimension the next day at 10:00 AM at an
Apple sneak preview of the Macintosh Ilex. I was annoyed to
find out so late, but it was better than another database company
going in our place.

5 • Don't approach Apple as if you are going to save it. I heard
this pitch ten times a week when I was in charge of Evangelism.
It didn't work then. It certainly won't work now. All you'll do is
antagonize people. Do a product only if you will profit by it—
not because you think you're doing Apple a favor. Wolfram tried
this approach on Apple with Mathematica. If you ever meet
him, ask him what happened.

6 • Don't threaten Apple. Let's face it—few companies have
the clout to pull this off. No single software product can make
or break Macintosh at this point. The only company that came
close to successfully threatening Apple is Microsoft. In 1986 Bill
Gates told Apple that he would consider stopping Macintosh
development if Apple pursued a copyright infringement suit1

1. A copyright infringement suit is a way to create confusion in the marketplace
until your engineering staff can get its act together. Typically, it occurs after it's

145

Doing Things Right

tir

against Microsoft. Apple backed down because of the importance
of Word and Excel to Macintosh. Temporarily, anyway. There is
no doubt that Bill Gates can produce testosterone, and that's
another reason that Microsoft is such a great company.

Exercise
Write a high-end word processor and spreadsheet for the
NeXT machine. Clone the look and feel 1 of the NeXT
machine for another computer. See if NeXT sues you.

too late so that the plaintiff looks like the bad guy and the defendant looks like
the good guy.
1. "Look and feel" refers to the visual appearance of a product. Typically, it is
invented by one company, copied by a second company, and reaped by a third.
The second company then institutes a copyright infringement suit against the
third company. If Sun Tzu were alive today, he'd call it "The War of Art."

146

How to Give
Good Demo
Every crowd has a silver lining.
P.T. Barnum

The Role of a Demo
This chapter explains how to do the right product demonstration.
The right demo doesn't cost much, but it can counteract your
competitors' marketing and advertising. A great demo informs
the audience about your product, communicates the benefits of
owning your product, and inspires the audience to take action.

Preparation
The foundation of a great demo is a well-planned and interesting
script. A good script is like telling a story: the audience should
eagerly and gratefully attend to every word and action. These are
the requirements of a good demo script:

1 • Short. A good demo lasts about 30 minutes with an addi-
tional ten minutes for Q and A—giving you a total length of 40
to 45 minutes. A demo that lasts longer will tire your audience.

2 • Simple. A good demo is simple and easy to follow. It should
communicate no more than one or two key messages. The goal
is to show the audience enough to get tantalized but not so
much that they get bewildered. The rollout demos of version 2.0
of 4th Dimension concentrated on two messages: improved
performance and ease-of-use.

Doing Things Right

Exercise
Watch a product demo. How many messages did it have?

3 • Sweet. A good demo is sweet. It shows the hottest features
and differentiates your product from the competition's. You
have to show real functionality, though—not flash—or you will
disappoint the sailors and The Cult in the audience. Imagine
that every time you show a feature someone shouts, "So what?"

4 • Swift. A good demo has a fast pace. Never do anything in
a demo that lasts more than 15 seconds. For example, although
incredibly impressive, don't show your word processor reformat-
ting a 1,000 page document in a minute. It's far better to repag-
inate.ten pages instantaneously than 1,000 pages in a minute.

5 • Substantial. Show how your product builds a solution.
Customers want to do things with your product so they want to
know how the product works. They are sophisticated, so they
realize that with enough work even an IBM PC can produce
newsletters, layouts, or databases. Credibility comes from seeing
what it takes to create the end result. A good demo shows cus-
tomers how your product helps them. If you do it right, all you
may have to worry about is how many they order.

Exercise
Write out a demo script in step-by-step detail. Have
someone who is not fami iar with your product try to
perform the script. If he car 't do it, your audience will get
confused watching the demo.

Getting to Carnegie Hall
The second step is to practice your demo. Then practice some
more. Most people think that knowing a product is enough to
give a good demo. That's not true—no more so than knowing

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12 • How to Give Good Demo

the words to a song will enable you to sing it. Practice your demo
so many times that it looks like you're not even trying. Michael
Jackson said it all:

Nobody could duplicate Mr. Astaire's ability, but what I never stop
trying to emulate is his total discipline, his absolute dedication to
every aspect of his art. He rehearsed, rehearsed, and rehearsed some
more, until he got it just the way he wanted it. It was Fred Astaire's
work ethic that few people ever discussed and even fewer could ever
hope to equal.

The lack of discernible effort is a concept espoused in
Castiglione's Book of the Courtier. All of these courtly types are
sitting around in a castle waiting out the black plague, and they
decide to fill the time with a contest. Each person will speak on
what characteristics make up a great courtier.
One person gets up and talks about how a great courtier is
a wonderful handler of horses. Another talks about strength in
arms. Another, gentle speech. And so on. Finally one gets up and
says yes, a great courtier must have all these things, but above
all he must have sprezzatura (nonchalance). He must be a master
of all those things but look as if he's not even trying.
Practice your demo until you can do it with nonchalance.
Otherwise you belong in the Carnegie Deli, not Carnegie Hall.

Exercise
Which of the five is the best comparison?

Practice is to demo as are to IPOs.

A. Red herrings

B. Ferraris

C. Lawyers

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Doing Things Right

D. Prenuptial agreements

E. Profits

At the Performance
I really love to demo because it's like being on stage. I've demoed
4th Dimension to over 10,000 people, and I think that it's one
of the most important things that I do. Here are some things that
have helped me with my demos.

1 • Circulate with the audience before the demo. Under-
standing the audience—who they are, where they came from,
why they are there—helps you to do a much better demo. Walk
through the audience and meet people. The audience will warm
up to you because you become a person, not a performer on
stage. It also helps you relax because the audience isn't made up
of strangers anymore.
If it's not possible to circulate with the audience before the
demo, ask some background questions when you get to the
podium. "How many of you own Macintoshes?" "How many
already own a word processor?" "How many of you have an
AppleTalk network?" This will provide you with some informa-
tion and show the audience that you care about who they are.

2 • Begin by explaining what you are going to do. Do it. Then
recap what you've done. A simple introduction like this will
help the audience understand what is going to happen and
make it easier for them to follow the demo. The recap enables
people who got lost during your demo to catch up and understand
what you showed. A good opening line is, "If there is one thing
that I'd like you to walk away with today, it is..." Repeat the
message at the end of the demo.

3 • Get to the demo quickly. Spend no more than five min-
utes talking about the history of your company and your mar-

152


keting. The audience is there to see the product, not you. They
don't care how much you've spent on your company video
either. Skip the crap and get to it.

4 • Be smooth. Jackie Stewart, a famous race car driver, teaches
high-performance driving by installing a dish-like object that
can hold a ball on the hood of his cars. The goal is to drive the
car so smoothly that the ball doesn't roll out. Smoothness wins
in demoing too.
Don't lose the audience by going too fast or bore them by
going too slowly. One of our salespeople was so jerky in his pre-
sentation that I made him practice to a metronome. Smoothness
also means that you have a relaxed voice, your attire is orderly,
you look like you are having a good time, and you are physically
comfortable. Remember, this is a performance!

5 • Don'ttrytoimpresspeoplewithtechnicaljargon.Ifyoutry
to impress your audience, you'll lose half of it, and the other half
probably knows more than you do. If you want to play it safe,
bring a T-shirt to back you up with technical expertise. Introduce
the T-shirt to the audience too. This will impress the sailors.

6 • Make eye contact with the audience. Make eye contact
with people during your demo. If you pretend that you are
doing a demo and talking to a specific person in the audience,
it will help you to relax and maintain a comfortable pace. You
can't make contact with people in the back row, but they can tell
if you are talking to the audience or talking at the audience.

7 • Interjecthumorintoyourdemo. Humor is the element that
separates a great demonstrator from a good one. An easy and
safe target for a Macintosh developer is the IBM PC. Another
good target is your own company. If you're an ex-Apple employee,
Apple is a good, easy, and big target. (No one loves Apple more
than I do so no one can get away with slamming it like I do.)

153

Doing Things Right

8 • Control the demo. Don't take questions during the demo
because it will break your rhythm and concentration. If someone
asks a question from the floor, politely answer it, then say, "I'd
like to have questions at the end of the demo so that we can fin-
ish on time." The audience will understand.

9 • End with an exclamation point. Finish your demo with the
most dazzling sample newsletter, graphic, or feature that you
can perform. Make the audience dream of lofty accomplishments
and inspire them to run out and buy your product.

If You Crash...
The thought of crashing in a demo enrages me. Macintosh can
do most things better than any other computer, and it's true for
crashes, too. Sometimes it starts buzzing and popping and flash-
ing and won't stop until you pull the plug. Nothing crashes like
a Macintosh.
My most spectacular crash was in front of 800 people at the
January 1988 Macworld Expo in San Francisco. I was using
MultiFinder1 and shouldn't have. That's an excuse, and there
really is none—either you crash or you don't. With enough prac-
tice and preparation, there is no reason ever to crash. You should
know exactly how to navigate through your product and avoid
all the traps.
If you do crash, try to look calm and keep moving. Give a
one-line explanation and go on. I've found that blaming Apple's
system software2 usually works because everyone in the audience
can relate.

After the Performance
Interaction with the audience after the demo is as important as
the dismount in a gymnastics routine. You can ruin a good
1. MultiFinder is system software that Apple provides so that you can crash in
more than one application at once.
2. For Apple, system software is what it copied from Xerox PARC. For IBM,
system software is whatever Bill Gates says it is. For Xerox PARC, it's whatever
they fumbled back in the 1950s.

154


demo or recover from a bad one with a good after-performance
performance. Here's how to finish like a winner:

1 • Open a forum for Q and A. Take every question seriously,
and answer the question that is asked. A good rule is: "Ask a silly
question, get a serious answer." If you don't know the answer,
say so, but don't answer a different question. If you can't answer
a question, admit it and ask the T-shirt to answer it, or get the
person's business card and get the answer for the person later.
If the question requires a lengthy, technical explanation,
ask the person to come see you after the demo so you don't lose
the entire audience. Remember that there is no such thing as a
stupid question, only a rude presenter.

2 • Don't rush off. After your demo, don't rush off. The people
who are really interested in your product may have more
questions for you, and your current customers may want to talk
to you. Spend a long time with these people because they are the
ones who pay your salary

3 • Do specialized demos. During a presentation, I usually
don't do specialized demos like SQL and CL/11 because they are
relevant to only a few people. Instead I show them after the
general demo to people who are interested.

The Rambo Demo
The multiple-vendor shoot-out demo is a special circumstance
that is treacherous for any company. Let's say you're at a trade
show, and there is a breakout session for Macintosh databases.
Omnis, Double Helix II, and 4th Dimension are going to be
shown back-to-back. Here's how to play the game:
1. SQL is software invented by IBM for the management of large amounts of
data. Since it was invented by IBM, everyone except IBM has figured out how
to implement it. CL/1 is software invented by Network Innovations to enable
Macintoshes to access SQL data. Apple bought Network Innovations because it
couldn't figure out what IBM couldn't figure out. The only thing Network
Innovations can't figure out is why it sold out. SQL is pronounced "sequel" not
"S-Q-L." This is a good way to tell if the person has figured out SQL.

155

Doing Things Right

x.
^
^
'
88*
t
3t

V^ <S

Assess the others' demo skills. If you are the best, you can go
either first or last. If you go first, set the pace so that the
competition has to play catch-up. If you go last, your amazing
demo will be the one that people remember.
If you are in the middle of the pack, go after the competitor
with the worst demo skills. This is the easiest time to look good
because most audiences will compare you to the demonstrator
who preceded you.
If you are the worst, read this chapter over. If you're still the
worst, go first and be brief. Going first enables you to have the
freshest audience, and the audience cannot compare you to
anyone who preceded you. After several products, people will
forget who was the biggest bozo.
During your demo, never refer to the competition unless
you can wipe the floor with them. If your product is only
incrementally better, avoid advertising your competitors.
Slamming the competition usually makes you look bad unless
it's an MS-DOS company.

Two Last Things
First, have the person who knows the product best, not the
highest ranking, do the demo. Just because a vice-president is
there doesn't mean he has to do the demo. People who come to

156

12 k How to Give Good Demo
-

demos came to see the product, not some management nitwit.
Secondly, send a thank-you note to the host of your demo.
Not many people send a thank-you note. It goes a long way.

157

Presentation
Manager
Q: If you find so much that is unworthy
of reverence in the United States, then
why do you live here?
A: Why do men go to zoos?
H. L. Mencken

BFD: Big French Deal
This chapter explains how to do the right presentation to a high-
level, technically sophisticated, and arrogant executive like The
King: Jean-Louis Gassee. (I asked Jean-Louis to edit the manu-
script of this book to make sure I got things right.) These skills
are relevant to anyone who makes presentations. "If I can make
it there, I can make it anywhere."
As you can tell, Jean-Louis is one of my favorite people and
topics. When I worked for Jean-Louis at Apple, he was like an
older brother and parole officer to me. He was the kind of older
brother who told you not to smoke and not to drink because he
had a cough and a hangover. The best parole officer is an ex-con,
and the only thing an ex-con respects is power.

Exercise
Go t o a jeweler and get your ear pierced. Buy a d i a m o n d
stud earring. Learn t o speak w i t h a French accent. You may
be t h e next president of your company.

Doing Things Right

As president of Apple Products (after the latest reorgan-
ization), he is one of the most powerful people in the Macintosh
community. He can make the six-color water lap gently on your
bow, or sink you. He and great Macintosh companies gravitate
toward each other instinctively.

Inside Gassee
This is the inside scoop on The King and executives like him. The
higher you go in a Macintosh Way company, the more you'll
find these observations to be true.

1 • He loves products. He doesn't care about slick marketing or
brand-name recognition. If you can get your product into his
hands, you have about 30 seconds to win him over. He's not
going to read your manuals—he's going to boot your program
and go. This is a man who has a disassembled Sony CD player
mounted as art in his office.

2 • He views products as tools, not solutions. A hole is a
solution. A drill is a tool. He believes that Apple's role (and yours,
too) is to provide tools so that customers can create their own
solutions. Never position your product as a solution to him.

Exercise
Go to a hardware store. Ask the clerk how much business
they do in carpentry solutions. Then ask how much business
they do in carpentry tools.

3 • He likes products that appeal to both passengers and
sailors. Gassee likes products that you can smoke right out of the
box or roll your own. He doesn't like products that are easy to
use but lack depth. He despises products that frustrate people as
they progress up the power curve.

4 • He's got a case on everyone. He can't help it, he's French.

160

13 • Presentation Manager

When you talk to him, slam someone. Anyone. At Apple. In the
industry. In politics. Tell him that someone is the Dan Quayle
of the industry. The odds are excellent that he thinks that the
person is a bozo too, and you will develop instant rapport.

5 • He has no respect for authority. I think that he made me a
director knowing that I was leaving Apple because he wanted to
wave my resignation around and say, "You see, you can't buy
everyone. You blew it with Guy." He told me to get a company
Mercedes,1 drive it once around the Apple parking lot, and give
back the keys.

6 • He's a bad enemy. Never go above him or around him. If he
says no, back down, regroup, then approach him again. Telling
him that you'll "go to Sculley" will sink you. I'll share with you
a little Gassee story that illustrates this.

,.
| gang?
'.••
%
s

Ed Esber went around Esther Dyson's computer conference
(the same one I told you about in the first chapter) bragging that
he was going to drill Jean-Louis a new orifice because Apple was
1. A Mercedes is a management perquisite at Apple. Typically, four to five senior-
level executives leave Apple each year, so if you know the human resources
person who handles the car leases, it is possible to get very good deals on
Mercedes, Jaguars, BMWs, and once, an Allante.

161

Doing Things Right

going to publish Silver Surfer. Because I was a loyal employee, I
made sure Jean-Louis knew that Ed was redesigning his anatomy.
About a year later Ashton-Tate printed a brochure for Byline,
a PC desktop publishing product. The brochure said, "Because
Byline works the way you do, you don't have to waste time with
a mouse or learning a Macintosh-like graphics environment." I
sent a copy of the brochure to Jean-Louis with a note that said,
"Looks like Ed also writes ad copy when he's not rearranging
your anatomy."
Jean-Louis, bless his little French heart, took my note and
the brochure and sent it to Esber. He added his own note that
said, "I just wanted you to know that Guy is keeping me
informed of your activities." Look who's got an extra orifice.

Close Encounters of the French Kind
Suppose that you get an appointment with Jean-Louis or a Jean-
Louis clone. Your problems are about to begin unless your
presentation is well thought out. What are you asking him to
do? Why should he do it? How much will it cost? When do you
need it?
Kyle Mashima issued guidelines about meeting with Jean-
Louis to his employees. Combining Kyle's rules and my own
experience, here are the most important rules for a Jean-Louis
presentation:

1 • Make a presentation that he couldn't. If he doesn't learn
anything from your presentation, you can quiche the meeting
goodbye. And don't try to flatter him by repeating what he said
at a prior meeting—he was probably jerking the attendees
around and isn't going to be impressed by getting his malarkey
fed back to him.

2 • Layer your presentation. He enjoys presentations that are
layered—double-click1 on the top level, explain, double-click
1. Double-click refers to the action of clicking twice with a Macintosh mouse.
Typically, a double-click starts an action. It is the reason that most Macintosh
owners have callouses on their forefingers.

162


To: PM's
Fr: Kyle
Re: Close Encounters of the French Kind
Dt: March 19, 1987
Here are some guidelines for preparing for a Jean-Louis presentation. This could save
your life. These are industrial skills - not for use at home.

Rules:

• Don't get stuck on your presentation pitch. Listen and respond. Stop using your
slides when it's clear that their not relevant (look for signals from me or Guy - ie:
eye brows and coughing).

• If you make changes that JLG requests, you may have not done your job right the
first time - otherwise, why are these changes necessary.

• Never hand out a copy of your presentation before hand - he reads ahead and you'll
lose control.

• Never use all CAPS in your slides. Hard to read and dumb with all of our incredible
technology.
• Never read what's on the slide. He can read too! You should talk around the concept
of the slide and add color.
• Don't insult his intelligence by pointing out obvious things - ie: the Macintosh
interface is considered superior to the MS-DOS environment. Better to make a
quick statement not on a slide like , "you know that our interface is superior,
therefore "

• Use uncluttered, clear graphics whenever possible. Shows clear thinking.

• Analogies are good but dangerous. Use them wisely. Vague metaphors are great.
He uses them all the time.

• Being too technical at the right time is okay. Out teching him is a good way to show
your depth of understanding.

• Avoid arguments. If there isn't agreement quickly, try another tact or move on.

• Stay focused on your objectives. Don't stray. Start out presentation with what
you're trying to accomplish. Wrap up meeting with short summary of agreements
and action items.

• Always address questions that have been asked in a timely manner or make sure
that he no longer cares.

• Make your presentation clean, crisp and precise. You don't need a lot of dressing. It
won't impress him.

• Remember to answer the "what" and the "how". What is it and how does it do it.

• Do the dramatic stuff at the beginning - otherwise, you may never get to it.

• Don't feel bad. Most times you've made significant progress and you won't know it
until an hour after the presentation.

on the next level, explain, etc. This kind of presentation keeps
him interested and increases his respect for your bandwidth.

3 • Don't give him a copy of your presentation at the beginning
of the meeting. If you give him a copy of the presentation, he
will read ahead, and you'll lose control of the meeting. Also,
giving him the presentation provides him extra time to think
of objections.

163

Doing Things Right

4 • Simplify your overheads. Overheads should contain a min-
imum amount of text so that he must listen to you. For example,
a good overhead contains positioning as a bullet item
("• Positioning") instead of text that says, "The positioning of
4th Dimension is the most powerful database for a per-
sonal computer."
Bullet items are better than sentences or phrases because
they provide a framework or clue that you can talk around. An
overhead should contain no more than five bullet items because
a properly structured presentation will not have any topics with
more than five important points.

Exercise
Examine your overheads. How many contain complete
sentences? How many contain more than five bullet points?
How many of your proposals have been approved lately?

5 • Bullet speak. Talk in bullets—short, simple phrases that
specifically address each point. Long, waxing, and philosophical
orations have no place in a presentation to Jean-Louis. When
you are long-winded, Jean-Louis is thinking, "What is he trying
to hide?"

6 • Be flexible. You may have a carefully rehearsed presentation,
but if he wants to shuck and jive, be prepared and willing to
change. Interpreting his desire to diverge is tricky: he's either
already bought off on your presentation or he doesn't agree and
is getting bored.

7 • Do the dramatic stuff first. If Jean-Louis doesn't like the
beginning of your presentation, he may throw you out. So get
to the dramatic stuff right away. You may never have the chance
to show him the great stuff if it's late in the meeting.

8 • Never tell him that anyone likes your product. "InfoWorld

164


thinks this is the best port of an MS-DOS program they've ever
seen," is not a good way to start a meeting with Jean-Louis. He
probably thinks that the person or organization you mentioned
is a total bozo and telling him that a bozo likes your product is
not a good idea. A better idea is to tell him that people cannot
understand your product—affirming Jean-Louis' opinion that
most people are bozos. The best idea is to shut up and let Jean-
Louis decide for himself.

9 • Show him how to build. He likes to see the how not the what
of a product because he is a technologist at heart. Show him how
to build a database or a newsletter, not the finished result. Don't
ever use VideoWorks or HyperCard to show him what your
product does.

10 • Don't let him drive your product. Jean-Louis takes great
pride in his ability to crash software. You have little to gain and
a lot to lose by letting your pigeon drive. In February 1989 I
showed version 2.0 of 4th Dimension to Jean-Louis and John
Sculley on Jean-Louis' Macintosh.
The high point of the meeting for Jean-Louis was when I
crashed. He remarked, "Ah, my reputation is preserved." When
I reopened the sample database, it was still intact, and I told
them that I had wanted to show 4th Dimension's "data integ-
rity." Jean-Louis laughed and kicked my chair—I did learn from
the best.

11 • Take whatever he says literally. Every word that he says
is there for a reason, and you have to take him very literally.
Here are some translations to help you understand what he is
really saying:

Gassee Speak Localized to American
"Your product has Your product is crap. Every
potential." product has potential, no
matter how little.

165

Doing Things Right

"I will try to think of He will try and he will think—
ways to help you." as opposed to do. He hasn't
promised to actually do
anything.

"Your product will sell." If one copy sells, he was right.
He's not predicting that it's
the next 1-2-3.

"Your product could be Why are you wasting my time
even better." with this crap?

Exercise
Practice using t h e w o r d " e v e n " t o insult people. Your car
could be " e v e n " better. Your children could be " e v e n "
smarter. Your book could be " e v e n " more interesting.
Your earring could have an " e v e n " bigger d i a m o n d .

12 • Don't argue with him. Try a different angle, move on to
another topic, or change the demo. A good game to play is to
feign agreement, then whipsaw him. For example, if he tells
you that your product has a confusing interface, come back
with: "Jean-Louis, I agree with you. The interface can be improved,
but it shows the richness of our product and that we have many
powerful features. How would you redesign it?" You aren't go-
ing to win a frontal attack. In football, the best pass rusher runs
around an offensive blocker, not over him, even if he has to
slap the blocker's head.

13 • Use metaphors. He loves to use metaphors—especially
sexual and military ones. The vaguer the better. He uses metaphors
to blow past people while they try to figure them out. (When
Jean-Louis edited this section, his comment was, "I disagree. I
use metaphors because a) I like the shock of words and b) they
help convey the difficult or downright ineffable.")

166


You can believe me or you can believe him. In either case,
if he uses a metaphor, just nod, smile, laugh, and act like you
understand him whether you do or not. Describe your product
as "a beautiful woman going to war," and he'll give you
anything you want.

Exercise
Use the following insults on your enemies:

His elevator doesn't make it to the penthouse.

His receiver is off the hook.

His oil doesn 't reach his dipstick.

If brains were dynamite, he couldn 't blow his hat off.

Fiber brings out the best in him.

14 • Shut up when you've got the sale. If he agrees with you,
make him sign on the dotted line, shut up, and get out of his
office quickly.

By the Way
If you are going to put his name on an overhead, get "Gassee"
right. The "e" is obtained by pressing the Option key and "e"
then "e" again. And it's the first "e." And you don't pronounce
the "s" in Jean-Louis. Pretend that you are presenting to Jean-
Louis and maybe someday Jean-Louis will be presenting to you.

167

Trade Show
Mavenship
It is only the shallow people who do not
judge by appearance.
Oscar Wilde

Doing Trade Shows Right
This chapter explains how to do trade shows right and get the
right information into the hands of the right people—thousands
at a time. Trade shows seem like total anarchy, but there is a sci-
ence to them.

Booths
Booths are a rip-off. For the price of a house (except in California),
companies will make you a booth that you'll use eight days a
year. The system tries to convince you to spend a lot of money
on a booth by making you feel paranoid or guilty. "You do want
to impress your customers, uon't you?" "Your competition built
a more expensive booth." "This booth will last for years." You
will get ripped off, but at least you can optimize your booth.

1 • Create a large presentation area. The more people that can
watch your presentation, the more effective your booth. A
projector or large screen monitor with a PA system that will
drown out your competitors are musts. Aldus has an area in their
booth full of Macintosh lis where users can sit down and go
through the product demo with an instructor.

Doing Things Right

2 • Take the aisles. Design your booth so that when the
presentation area is filled, the audience is forced into the aisles.
This has several advantages. You get some floor space for free.
Your booth will always look like it was "overflowing the aisles."
And your competition will get psyched out. When you walk past
an Aldus booth and see a crowd in the aisles plus a packed demo
area, you have to conclude Aldus has a hot product.

3 • Pick a spot near the mothership. Motherships usually radi-
ate an aura. You want to be bathed in it. The mothership always
draws a crowd, so being close to it helps your booth traffic too.
It's also a lot easier to describe your booth location as "right by
the Apple booth" than "booth 2198."

4 • Coordinate with your product packaging. Packaging,
marketing materials, and a booth that tie together produce
more "impressions" that reinforce your company image. This
makes you look larger and more established than you really are.
Silicon Beach Software doesn't coordinate its packaging with its
booth, but it does coordinate its aloha shirts with its booth. If it
works, go with it.

5 • Build in flexibility. Create a booth that can grow as your
trade show needs grow. Instead of building a new booth every
six months, pick a design that enables you to add more modules.
Also, a modular booth can be used for smaller shows by taking
only a part of it.

6 • Allocate an area for your developers. The presence of
developers in your trade show booth is convincing evidence
that your company and product are successful. Developers in
your booth shows that you are successful so that you don't have
to say you are. They also reduce your staffing requirements,
which reduces your trade show expenses. Not only that, they are
the ones who actually use the product, so they know how it
works and what it can do.

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14 • Trade Show Mavenship

Most of Apple's booth is made up of developer demonstra-
tion stations. Developers work all the machines (they actually
take turns and compete for how much time they get in the
booth), so that the Regettes can schmooz with the press, Apple
salespeople can do power lunches, and Apple product managers
can attend Jean-Louis' keynote address to find out what they
are supposed to be working on.

Booth Personnel
A glaring irony is that companies spend hundreds of thousands
of dollars to build grand edifices, then they staff them with well-
dressed nitwits. In 1984, the trade show booths of Macintosh
companies were staffed by presidents and engineers. You could
get an answer in those days.

m* >*-~>

i
m ^ 1
<?%
x
i

t
t^ik

By 1988, the situation had completely deteriorated, and
trade show booths were staffed by professional rent-a-reps,
clowns, magicians, and comedians. They are usually out-of-
work actors, actresses, and models, and all they do is hand out
chachkas1 to attract crowds.
1. Chachkas are little valueless trinkets that companies give out at trade shows
in order to insult your intelligence. Examples of chachkas are bags, pins, mugs,
and mousepads. T-shirts (the cloth kind) are not chachkas; they are part of the
development process.

171

Doing Things Right

Innovative Software set new lows for trade show appearances
with the WingZ introductions. At the January, 1988 Macworld
Expo in San Francisco, jump-suited "trekkies" gave you tote bags
if you attended their Leonard Nimoy video. At the August, 1988
Macworld Expo in Boston jump-suited "trekkies" gave you tote
bags (that broke after ten minutes of use) if you attended their
Leonard Nimoy video. At the January, 1989 Macworld Expo in
San Francisco it was the same thing again. They didn't have to
do all that—WingZ is a great product.
Here's how to have the right personnel in your company's
trade show booth:

1 • Take the T-shirts. Take the T-shirts to trade shows to impress
The Cult. T-shirts really know what they are talking about, and
they are reassuring to prospective customers who visit your
booth. T-shirts also make excellent scouts because they know
how to embarrass the competition. I know when I'm in our trade
show booth, I'm much more careful about what I say to a T-shirt
than a Tie.

Exercise
Calculate the ratio of T-shirts to Mr. and Miss Americas in
your booth.

2 • Take your president. If your president isn't at the show,
you'd better have an excellent reason why. Giving birth, a death
in the family, or a plane crash are all acceptable. Super Bowl
XXIII is not. What could be happening in the world that is more
important for a Macintosh company than Macworld Expo?
Charlie Jackson did every demo of SuperPaint for three days
straight at the Dallas Macworld Expo in October, 1986.

3 • Make sure your management is in the booth a lot. After a
company gets to about the $5-million size, a strange thing starts
to happen: management doesn't hang around the booth

172


anymore. They are off meeting with analysts, schmoozing the
press, or trying to sell the books that they wrote.
Trade shows are one of the few times that customers can
meet your management, so make sure they are in the booth.
Both may benefit. When Jim Young of EDS (the guy who's a
charter member of the Apple Corps of Dallas) goes to Macworld
Expo, he walks the floor of the show. You're not going to meet
him in the press room or the speakers' lounge.

Booth Skills
Most companies think that trade shows are for MBAs and yellow
ties to relate to other MBAs and yellow ties, so they don't train
their booth staff. You should get your booth staff as ready as you
can for The Cult. The best preparation is a role-playing exercise
in which your technical support group plays trade show
attendees. These are the right trade show skills:

1 • Answer the question that's asked. A Cult friend of mine
had this experience with Quark at the Seybold Desktop Publishing
show. He found a T-shirt (actually, she was wearing a blouse and
skirt) and asked her all of the questions he could think of. Later,
he thought of another one so he went back to Quark's booth, but
she was on a break so he asked a Miss America:
Friend: "Does QuarkXPress work with Coach Professional?"
Miss America: "QuarkXPress has an 80,000-word spelling checker."

Then he went to a yellow tie:
Friend: "Does QuarkXPress work with Coach Professional?"
Yellow tie: "QuarkXPress has an 80,000-word spelling checker."

He wanted to know about Coach Professional because he
had built up a large dictionary over the past year. He decided to
conduct an experiment: he asked every Quark employee in sight
the same question to see if they all gave the same answer.
No one knew the answer, but everyone instantly knew the
pat answer they were supposed to give. This isn't the way to

173

Doing Things Right

prepare your staff. You can fool most of the people most of the
time, but a great company doesn't even try.

Exercise
Call Quark (in Denver, Colorado) and ask them if XPress
works with Coach Professional.

2 • Concentrate on one person at a time. When someone asks
you a question, pay full attention. It is distracting and impolite
to look around, beyond, or through the person who's got you.
Learn to hose people off quickly if you have to, but give them
your full attention until you do. One good way to hose people
off is to ask for their business card to "get back to them later."

3 • Don't condescend. Any question asked in earnest is not a
dumb question, and no one likes to do business with someone
who makes them feel stupid. Therefore, never adopt a con-
descending attitude in your booth. Smaller, technically-oriented
companies often do this because they only want to sell to
technically-oriented people. Remember, money is money.

Getting the Most out of Trade Shows
So far this chapter has been about exhibiting at trade shows.
Now I'd like to spend some time on attending trade shows. It
comes down to a simple set of six rules:

1 • Dress comfortably. There is absolutely no reason to dress up
for a trade show. Don't ever forget that you are the customer and
the companies want to sell to you. They know that jeans-and-
t-shirt money is as good as three-piece-suit money. If they don't,
you probably don't want their products anyway.

2 • Co to the booths that have the company presidents. The
presence of the company president in a trade show booth is one
of the best indicators of the quality of the company and its

174


products. The first thing you should ask in a booth is, "Is the
president of your company here?" If he is, you've probably
found a Macintosh Way company. If he is demoing the product,
buy one.

3 • Ask the right questions. These are the five most revealing
questions (other than whether the president is in the booth)
that you can ask the trade show personnel of a company:

> Can I try using your product in the booth?
> Are there any tech support engineers in the booth?
> Are any of the programmers in the booth?
> Are any of your outside developers or consultants in the
booth?
> Can I get a demo version of your product?

4 • Don't go to booths with entertainment. Booths that have
actors performing skits, dancing gals and guys, and rock videos
have something to hide. Either they don't have a good product
or they don't have good booth personnel. The purpose of a trade
show is informing, not entertaining. The only good thing about
these booths is that you can rest your feet in them. Also, avoid
booths with people in tuxedos and evening gowns. Aloha shirts
are okay.

5 • Avoid the large panels with vendor pukes. Most of these
kinds of panels and seminars are moderated by people who
know nothing about the subject and are filled with vendor
pukes who only want to push their products. In the best case,
you may see a few competitors tear each other's throats out. In
the most likely case, you'll hear an hour of sales pitch superlatives.

6 • Go to all the parties. The gala events that companies stage
at trade shows are ridiculous displays of party envy. The philoso-
phy behind them is: "We're so successful, we can spend $ 150,000
feeding and entertaining the trade show staff of our competitors."

175

Doing Things Right

You should always go to these parties because it's your
money that they are wasting. Don't worry if the parties are sup-
posed to be "by invitation only"; you can always get in with a
good story. Nobody wants a scene at the door. Tell them you
know me.

Exercise
One Macintosh software company t h r e w a M a c w o r l d
Expo party and spent $150,000 on roast beef, shrimp,
chocolate desserts, an open bar, and famous entertainers
t o impress its competitors.

Another Macintosh software company b o u g h t a Testarossa
f o r a company car and d i d n ' t t h r o w a party. The day after
t h e party, t h e first company was left w i t h a dirty r o o m and
leftover f o o d . The o t h e r company still had t h e Testarossa
and all its employees enjoyed d r i v i n g it. A n d it's still
impressing its competitors.

W h i c h is t h e smarter company?

176

How to Drive
Your (MS-DOS)
Competitors
Crazy
If you would like to know what the Lord
God thinks of money, you only have to
look at those to whom he gives it.
Maurice Baring

The Good Ole Days
Dave Winer, the founder of Living Videotext, and I often remi-
nisce about the early days of Macintosh. It's a beautiful pond.
The water is crystal clear. The air is clean. Birds are singing. Then
we open our eyes. The pond is polluted. MS-DOS companies are
doing Macintosh software. Now that the fast is over, they want
to join the banquet.
This chapter not only explains the right way to drive your
competitors crazy; it also legitimizes the process. It's tailored to
Macintosh developers, but these techniques are applicable to
competition in any high-technology field.
MS-DOS companies think Macintosh companies are a bunch
of rag-tag, product-crazed nuts anyway. Macintosh companies
think of MS-DOS companies the way Oregonians think of
Californians—"a bunch of bourgeois polluters." Vicious attacks
are okay as long as they are witty and original, not heavy-
handed and mundane.

Doing Things Right

A Macintosh programmer walked into a redneck bar in White Plains,
New York. He went up to the bar, ordered a beer, and asked the
bartender if he wanted to hear a joke about an MS-DOS programmer.
The bartender said, "I'm an MS-DOS programmer, and you see
those two big guys shooting pool? They're MS-DOS programmers.
Those guys arm wrestling? They're MS-DOS programmers, too."
The Macintosh programmer looked at all of them and said to the
bartender, "I see your point. 1 guess I'd have to explain the joke too
many times."
The Macintosh programmer bumped into two MS-DOS marketing
executives in the parking lot as he was leaving. One of the marketeers
had bought a new BMW and was having trouble with the rear turn
signal. He asked the other marketeer to go behind the car and tell him
if the turn signal was working. The marketeer went behind the car to
look.'Ts it working?" asked the fust marketeer.
"Yes." "No." "Yes." "No," replied the marketeer behind the car.

Exercise
Free associate with the terms below. Compare your re-
sponses to the Macintosh and MS-DOS columns.

Term Macintosh MS-DOS
Raw Fish Sushi Bait

Evangelist Prototypes Sex

Customer Make Buy

Pundit Alsop1 Dyson

Mouse Input device Hair gel

Display Black on white White on black

Startup Inits CONFIG.SYS

1. Stewart has quite a few MS-DOS types fooled into thinking he's a pundit too.

180

15 • How to Drive Your (MS-DOS) Competitors Crazy

Mess Up Their Minds
MS-DOS companies think they are going to waltz into the Mac-
intosh market—create an ordinary product, put on a yellow tie,
slick on some mousse, slap on a suit—and it's a slam dunk, no
brainer. Here's how to turn the palefaces into red faces. Welcome
to Oregon—hope you enjoy your visit. Don't stay too long.

Step 1: Ruin their relationship with Apple.
MS-DOS companies think that Apple is the key to success in the
Macintosh market. To them customers are merely victims of
marketing campaigns. Therefore, step one is to ruin their rela-
tionship with Apple.

1 • Make them think you're in so tight with Apple that your
skivvies are six colors. Tell your competitor, "I was on my way to
breakfast with Jean-Louis when Randy Battat (Apple's vice-pres-
ident of product marketing) called me to find out if I got the new
Macintosh prototype that Alan Kay showed me at John Sculley's
birthday party the day after I had lunch with Allan Loren."

Exercise
Learn the correct pronunciation of Gassee (gass-SAY).
Learn the correct spelling of "Sculley" (it has an "e"). Also,
"Jobs" rhymes with "robs."

2 • Tell them that Apple is funding a competitor. No one can
figure out what the Apple venture capital group is doing, so use
this to your advantage. For example, if you're with Oracle
people, ask, "Did you know that Apple is investing more money
in Sybase1 in order to incorporate their technology into system
software?"

1. Oracle and Sybase are two mainframe database companies who recently
discovered Macintosh. They are named after two Greek gods who were banished
from heaven by Zeus because they were always trying to kill each other. Now one
lives in Belmont and one in Emeryville.

181

Doing Things Right

3 • Harp on the Apple/Claris connection. Tell your competitor,
"I hear that Claris is developing a product that competes with
yours. Apple says that Claris is independent, but that's such a
farce. Apple owns 85 percent of Claris. What an unfair advantage."
The phone lines will burn.

4 • Educate Apple. Apple wants to sell more Macintoshes. If
the MS-DOS competitor sells a ported product, make a public
statement that people should buy an AT clone, the company's
MS-DOS product, and save their money instead. This will make
Apple crazy. Thus endeth the co-marketing relationship.

Step 2: Befriend them.
After you've thoroughly ruined their mothership connection,
you can focus directly on the competitor by using more samurai-
like techniques.

1 • Become their customer. Becoming the customer of your
competitor enables you to see how they treat their installed
base. The areas to study are support, upgrades, training, pro-
motions, and developer programs. You can learn a lot about
your competition without asking.

2 • Be nice to their sales reps. Show them all of the cool tech-
nical tricks. Install F-keys and Inits. Zap parameter RAM. Rebuild
the Desktop. Tell them that real Macintosh people use " " not" ".
Show them how little they really know.

3 • Help them penetrate the market. An MS-DOS software
company called dBFast in Issaquah, Washington created a high-
performance dBASE clone that runs on Macintosh. I told the
president of dBFast, Phil Mickelson, that I wanted to create
confusion in the dBASE clone Macintosh market and offered to
help him.
My goal was to help dBFast create confusion about which
Macintosh dBASE clone was the best, and let Fox, Nantucket,

182


and dBFast beat each other's brains out. I sent Phil information
about the Macintosh market, a copy of TopGuys (the 4th Di-
mension database of the best Macintosh contacts), and a database
of Macintosh user groups.

4 • Help their headhunters. Headhunters will often call you
looking for candidates to fill positions at MS-DOS companies
trying to enter the Macintosh market. When the headhunters
call, give them the names of lousy employees at MS-DOS com-
panies. This saddles the company that is gaining the employee
with garbage, and destabilizes the company that is losing
the employee.

Exercise
When an employee leaves one MS-DOS company to go to
work for another MS-DOS company, the average IQ...

A. Rises for the company that losing the person.
is

B. Rises for the company that gaining the person.
is

C. Rises for both companies.

You can also give headhunters the names of good employees
at MS-DOS companies. Anything that destabilizes the compe-
tition is good. This works very well when the headhunter is
working for Apple because Apple can outbid anyone. When
headhunters call you with candidates they are trying to place,
keep the great ones, send the good ones to your friends, and
send the losers to your competitors.

5 • Encourage them to demo at user groups under MultiFinder
and a prerelease System. If they don't crash when using
MultiFinder and a prerelease System (or even more dangerous,
a released System), they'll demo pure ignorance of Macintosh

183

Doing Things Right

and get lynched. "We invented drop-down menus, you know,"
Hmm, "drop down"—that's what you expected Apple stock to
do when OS/2 was shipped, right?

Step 3: Harass them
These techniques are not for amateurs or for use at home. They
are industrial-strength techniques for untrained professionals.
They may not accomplish anything except make you feel good.

1 • Take on their management. In the Borland booth of the
January 1988 Macworld Expo, Philippe Kahn bet me a trip and
dinner in Paris that Reflex Plus could import data from "any
database."
The Reflex Plus product manager, Laurie Flesher, and a tech
support engineer were unable to import a 4th Dimension text
file without altering the data, and they used 4th Dimension to
do that. I almost made reservations at the Crillon (not even
Jean-Louis stays in this hotel because it's so expensive) the
next day.

^
SS«v
.
-.„•
3

• •.-
*-
:

1

Did I collect? Of course not. Philippe's excuse was that 4th
Dimension could do things that Reflex Plus couldn't because it
was a bigger program. That wasn't the bet. What do you expect

184


of someone who thinks that Macintosh is "a piece of sheet?"

Exercise
Match the quote to the speaker.

Macintosh is a strategic Jim Manzi,
part of our business. Lotus Development

Macintosh is a strategic Philippe Kahn,
part of our business. Borland International

Macintosh is a strategic Fred Gibbons,
part of our business. Software Publishing
Corporation

Bonus Points:

When did Manzi, Kahn, and Gibbons say this?

A. 1983-1989

B. 1983-1989

C. 1983-1989

2 • Position their products as ports. MS-DOS companies think
that inter-operability1 is a strength. They don't understand that
port is a four-letter word to a Macintosh fanatic. Port is a wine—
not a development path.

Exercise
Go to a liquor store and buy the cheapest port you can
find. Drink some.
1. Inter-operability is the ability of a software product to run on more than one
brand of computer. Many analysts think that having products that run on more
than one brand of computer is good because it enables you to raise more
venture capital.

185

Doing Things Right

3 • Charge more for your product than they do. MS-DOS
companies think that customers buy from them because of their
big name, solidity, and reputation for support. When a punk
Macintosh start-up charges more than they do, their noses start
bleeding.

4 • Scramble them. I used to send the Ashton-Tate dBASE Mac
product manager, Dan Goldman, mailings that looked like they
were going to all our customers. Once I sent him an ACIUS mug
with a cover letter that started like this:

Dear Customer:
Our first year has been a phenomenal success so we wanted to thank
you by sending you an ACIUS mug.

I also sent him a similar letter with an ACIUS t-shirt. I
wanted him to think that ACIUS was so successful and service-
oriented that our customers were getting these gifts in the
normal course of events.

Exercise
If the enemy general is obstinate and
prone to anger, insult and enrage him, so
that he will be irritated and confused,
and without a plan will recklessly ad-
vance against you.
The Art of War
Sun Tzu

Buy a Porsche (at least a 911) on the day that your
competitor ships a new product. It might insult and en-
rage him. If not, you still have a hot car. Better yet, buy an
Acura so that your competitor will know how smart
you are.

186


Microsoft

One Time Offer: Send us the title page ofyour manual and $5 and we
will send you version 3.0 of the same application. Type of software
doesn't matter—we want it all. End users only, please. Megalosoft.
Renton, Washington.
Classified ad in the
1987 April Fools issue
of Outside Apple

Microsoft is a glaring and unique exception to MS-DOS bozosity
in the Macintosh market. Microsoft is an awesome company,
and we can all learn from it. Here's why Microsoft is so great:

1 • Bill Gates is a tweak. He has the best understanding of
technology of any software company president; the proof is that
he jumped on Macintosh development in 1982.

2 • Bill Gates considers everyone to be the enemy. He will kill
anyone who gets in his way—not only big companies like
Ashton-Tate but small companies like T/Maker. To ruin the
market forT/Maker's word processor, Microsoft sold inexpensive
upgrades to an upcoming version of Word when T/Maker was
about to ship their product.

Exercise
Put your head in a vise. Squeeze it as tight asyou can stand.
This is what it's like to compete with Microsoft.

3 • Bill Gates has incredible chutzpah. He tells Apple how
high to jump. I know, I've seen him in action. He must have
taken steroids. Somehow they affected his personality but not
his physique. He's still afraid of BMUG, though.
Microsoft deserves its success. It jumped on Macintosh
development early, it's a tough competitor, and it has great

187

Doing Things Right

products. Still, I'd love to see someone knock it off the pedestal.

A Parting Request
It's fun to drive your competition crazy. I think it's almost your
moral duty. If you can think of any more ways, please be sure to
contact me because this is one of my favorite subjects.

188

The Macintosh
Guide to Dating
and Marriage
Behind every successful man there
stands an amazed woman.
Anonymous

In case you read this book and you don't run a company,
here's a real-life application of the Macintosh Way. This
chapter explains the Macintosh Way of dating and marriage.1
Beth and I did the MacWEEK ad on the next page because
it was fun and because we admire MacWEEK for its fear-
lessness. We wanted the headline to read, "Only two things
really excite my husband, and he gets one of them only once
a week," but MacWEEK wimped out. Maybe they aren't so
fearless after all.

High-Tech Dating (For Men)
There are six good women for every good man in high tech-
nology, so I will concentrate on helping more men break into
the "good" range. Frankly, it will do men more good because
men need more help. This is the right way to date (for men).

1 • Position yourself as a tool. High-tech women are not
masochists—they have careers that are as interesting and

1. The people who read drafts of this book were split almost exactly 50/50 on this
chapter. Half said that I should take it out because it has little to do with running
a business. Half said it was the best chapter of the book. I left it in—after all, this
is my book.

Doing Things Right

4

"Only two
Guy Kawasaki won't Lell us
whal comes in second, but he
keeps pace with the
accelerating momentum of the
things really
admits thai Mac WEEK, ranks
at the top of his list.
Macintosh marketplace.
"MacWEEK has great
excite my
T m scared if ACTUS is
mentioned and I'm scared if
sources." says Kawasaki, who
appreciates MacWEEK's husband."
it's not," confides the vigilant aggressive reporting, critical
Kawasaki, who knows how reviews and valuahle insider
much impact a Mac WEEK informal ion. 'Belh KuH'ii.Hiki
' Wife efACJUS' President
mention can have on an Dependahlv delivered to v Ka*-w>ak
ACIUS product — or one of Kawasaki and 50.000 other
its competitors. influential Mac profcssinnaK
He reads Mac WEEK cover every week, MacWEEK is
to cover every week because definitely something to get
it's the only magazine thai exited about.

i MacWEEK. Reprinted with permission.

important as yours. To be attractive in this kind of market, you
have to be a tool, not a problem. Do something useful like
checking her hard disk for viruses (but not on the first date) or
debugging her 100,000-line assembly language program.

2 • Treat your date like she is the only platform in the world.
Put this on your floppy disk and write-protect it because this is
the key to successful dating. The Joe Isuzu dating paradigm—
Italian suits, leased teutonic wagons, cellular phones, and

192

16 • The Macintosh Guide to Dating and Marriage

IPOs—do not equal kindness and attention as user-friendly
features. Inter-operability is not a desired feature in dating.

Exercise
Rent a Ford Escort. Ask the most desirable woman you
know for a date. 1 Try to impress her.

3 • Maintain an open architecture. An open system is as
important for dating as it is for personal computers. Posses-
siveness too early is a big mistake, so don't close the system
until the proper, mutually satisfying configuration is reached.
It's not like software—don't announce, then ship, then test.
Instead, go alpha, then beta, then golden. You may be living
with this release a lot longer than with your software.

4 • Form strategic alliances. It's puzzling that men who spend
all day forming, preannouncing, and announcing strategic
alliances cannot apply the same techniques to their social
lives. Strategic alliances with friends, roommates, and family
can make or break you in high-tech dating.
Friends and roommates are likely to shape a woman's
initial opinion of you. They probably know all her old boy-
friends and are comparing you from the first moment you
meet.
Also, when you get serious, it's not with a person but a
family. It's easier to sell The Macintosh Office without a file-
server than date successfully without parental approval.

5 • Never ignore your installed base. No matter how good
things are going, never ignore your installed base (i.e., your old
girlfriends). They can provide advice, add mystery and chal-
lenge if someone is taking you for granted, and introduce you
to more women.

1. Dating is when two people go someplace where there are no computers, talk
about anything except computers, and do analog stuff afterward.

193

Doing Things Right

6 • Here are some final tips for Macintosh men. Put them in
ROM1 and solder in the chip:

t> Always believe it's your privilege and honor to be with
your date.
> Never be late.
t> Aspire to be best friends.
[> Don't be afraid to show weakness.
> Never criticize your date in public.
> Never compare your date unfavorably to anyone except
her mother.

High-Tech Dating (For Women)
Well, honey, let's face the sad news: the odds are against you.
There are very few men worth competing for (and many good
women you are competing with) so you have to do what's
necessary to date high-tech men.

!
.-•
V

J

«sa*L M

1 • Make yourself more physically attractive. When it comes
to women, men, all men, especially high-tech men, can see
better than they can think. Sad commentary but true. High-
1. ROM stands for Read-Only Memory. That's the place in a computer that
doesn't go away when you shut off the power. It's also the place where computer
companies put their worst idiosyncrasies.

194


tech men are body by Volkswagen, brains by Cray, heart by
Frigidaire, personality by Metamucil. And all men are SCSIs.1

2 • Hang around high-tech joints. If you want to meet high-
tech men, you've got to hang around high-tech joints like
Fry's Electronics2 or Comdex. 3 1 never said it would be easy or
pleasant. Try to get to Fry's around dusk so you can see the
nerds watching the sun set over the Santa Cruz mountains.

3 • Take the first step. Most high-tech men are as so-
phisticated as the UNIX interface when it comes to taking the
first step, so you are going to have to take the initiative.
Unplug the AppleTalk cable from the LaserWriter and then
hang around until they show up trying to figure out what
went wrong. Shutting down the AppleShare fileserver would
work too. Do something. Anything.

Exercise
Which opening line do you think would work best with a
Macintosh man?

A. Would you unzap my parameter RAM?

B. Haven't 1 seen your Navigator face file before?

C. What's your file type and creator, handsome?

D. Want to see my PICT files sometime?

E. My disk is fragmented. Do you know where 1 can get SUM?

1. SCSI stands for Small Computer System Interface. It is the name of the type
of port or orifice on Macintoshes. Thus, "all men are SCSIs" is an adaptation of
a frequently heard phrase when single women get together.
2. Fry's Electronics is the ultimate nerd store in Silicon Valley. At Fry's you can
buy Jolt, DRAMS, chips (both the kind you plug in and get fat on), and CDs all
in one place.
3. Comdex is a computer show that is held in Atlanta and Las Vegas each year.
It is supposed to be for retailers to see upcoming new products. In reality, it's just
a bunch of employees from hard disk manufacturers who go to each other's
booths to look at the latest in platters.

195

Doing Things Right

4 • Get it up front. Don't put up with a vesting period. A
good rule of thumb for engagement rings is one carat of dia-
mond per computer. My wife says that a LaserWriter counts as
a computer because it has a 680001 in it.

DINC 2 toSINC
Somehow a woman married me, so this advice must work.
Being married, however, definitely affects your career path.
When I first thought of starting a company, I asked my wife
Beth if she would still love me if I left Apple (and its salary,
options, and profit sharing).3 Her reply was, "Of course I'll still
love you. I'll also miss you."
I've found that what made you fascinating to date can
make you "shallow" and "narrow-minded" after you're mar-
ried. When I was dating my wife, she thought it was the
coolest thing that I was a big deal in the Macintosh com-
munity. Now, she'd like to take a sword to my—I mean our—
poor Macintosh.
Beth and I have been married for over three years now, and
I believe that getting and staying married rounds out and
balances your life. She worked at Apple in the Seattle office
and then in Cupertino, so she's been infected by Macintosh
too. Recently she quit Apple to do what she really wants—
design clothes—and we went from DINC to SINC.

Working at Home—Beth 1, Guy 0
Working at home is productive because you're not interrupted
by phone calls, meetings, and other distractions. I do my best
work at home alone in the solitude of Macintosh bliss.
Unfortunately, spouses believe that time at home should
be shared. The key to being able to work at home is to con-
1. A 68000 is the name of the Motorola chip that is the brains of a Macintosh.
68000s have broken up more marriages than affairs, drugs, and fast cars
combined.
2. Double Income No Clones.
3. Profit sharing is what's left after paying for the senior executive bonuses, the
leased Mercedes, the fresh orange juice, the first class flights, and the Bosendorfer
grands.

196


vince your spouse that by working extra hard your company
will achieve success sooner and you can vacation more and
retire earlier. If you figure out the right way to do this, I'd
appreciate hearing from you.

Exercise
A woman started a company. She worked long hours and
traveled a lot. After a year, the company was successful,
and the woman came home earlier, didn't bring work
home, and was generally attentive. She and her husband
live in Portola Valley, they have two beautiful kids, and
they vacation at the Mauna Lani four weeks each
summer.

The best title for this passage is:

A. The World According to Kleiner-Perkins

B. Yeah, Right.

C. Mauna Lani Customer Profile

D. The Long Term Effects of Reality Distortion

E. If You Lose Your Dream You Die

There are three additional techniques that you can use to
slide past your spouse. First, pay a little attention to your
spouse before you start working. A little bit of attention—a
kiss, a hug—when you enter your home can add a few hours to
Mac time. I try to wait at least 60 seconds before I get on my
Macintosh.
Secondly, try to incorporate some of your spouse's inter-
ests in your conversation. Because my wife is interested in
fashion design I try to talk about the implications of Display

197

Doing Things Right

PostScript1 on her field. This doesn't work quite right.
Thirdly, convince your spouse that you are creating art,
not working or playing on your Macintosh. My wife let me
work on this book (and therefore my Macintosh) for many
hours because I told her that "I'm writing, not working on my
Macintosh"—a la Ernest Hemingway, J.D. Salinger, or Colette.
This works all right for a while.

CompuServe—Beth 2, Guy 0
CompuServe and the four other electronic bulletin boards that
I belong to drive my wife nuts. She can't understand how I can
spend so much time E-mailing total strangers. She especially
can't deal with how amusing I find Navigator2 face files.3

PERIPHERY
L uismns
Jonathan Goldman Deirdre L. Maloy John Kirkilis

The 2400-baud line for CompuServe requires a message
unit call where we live. One month we had a $200 message
unit bill. Mind you, this was not the CompuServe bill (I have a
free account), this was the phone bill. I'm no dummy; now I
use a toll-free number so she can't see how often I sign on.

Exercise
Send me an EasyPlex on CompuServe. My account is
76703,3031. Ask me if Beth wants me off the computer.

1. Display PostScript is a graphics language developed by Adobe Systems. Apple
is so upset about the royalties it pays Adobe for PostScript in its printers that it
refuses to adopt Display PostScript for its displays.
2. Navigator is a program that makes access to CompuServe easier. It should have
reduced people's connect time to CompuServe, but it has had the exact opposite
effect. Now people connect more often and longer because it is easier. I don't
think CompuServe planned it this way, but it's better to be rich than smart.
3. Face files are pictures of the sender and recipient of messages on CompuServe
so that everyone has an idea of what the people look like. Clever people even
make the lips of the faces move.

198


This leads me to explain the right way to get on and stay
on CompuServe and other electronic bulletin boards:

t> Get a separate data line' so you don't fight for the phone.
[> Turn off the modem speaker so she can't hear you connect.
t> Have the phone bill go to the office.
> Have the CompuServe bill go to the office.
> Use software that autoconnects at preset times.

Business Travel—Beth 3, Guy 0
My wife hates it when I go away on business. If you've ever
seen me speak at a user group, you know I arrive in the
afternoon and fly out the same evening. I bet you thought it
was because I had some important business meeting to attend.
At first, my wife used to come with me on business trips so
that we could travel together. That didn't last long because she
didn't want to be around me when I'm with other Macintosh
nerds. It seems that our conversations don't cover the full
gamut of music, literature, and art.
I even tried to convince her that an August vacation in
Boston would be fun. There are a lot of historical things to see
in Boston, like the World Trade Center,2 and we wouldn't have
to bring any warm clothes. Now I bring her back a mousepad
from every city I visit. She is somewhat less appreciative than
one might hope.

So Who's Keeping Score?
We are not going to win this battle. I've come to the con-
clusion that the right thing to do is pay more attention to our
spouses than our Macintoshes. That is, until we get our laptop
Macintoshes...

1. This way she won't pick up the phone and have the modem carrier tone
screaming in her ear and her friends won't tell her that the phone was busy for
hours.
2. The World Trade Center is where the Boston Macworld Expo is held every
August. Well, about half of the Boston Macworld Expo, anyway. The only thing
worse than its location is its air conditioning.

199

>V |!W3*<

» v

/

:
v i>~^

Sayonara
There are two things to aim at in life:
first, to get what you want, and after
that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of
mankind achieve the second.
Logan Pearsall Smith

It's hard to end this book because the Macintosh Way is still
changing and growing. If you have any comments or ideas
about the Macintosh Way, I'd love to hear from you. You can
reach me in many ways:

AppleLink Kawasaki2

MCI Mail GKawasaki

CompuServe 76703,3031

FAX (408) 252-0831

Telephone (408) 252-4444 x 210

US Mail 10351 BubbRoad
Cupertino, CA 95014

Exercise
Co out and buy a copy of 4 t h Dimension. See if you get a
thank-you note f r o m me.

Index

1-2-3,57, 102, 103 PostScript defined, 23 and Ashton-Tate, 6
"1984" commercial, 16 sending sample to get and Microsoft, 6, 145
4th Dimension. See also Silver interview, 42, 71 Apple Way, 10
Surfer Advertising Developer Services, 142, 145
acquisition by Apple, 3-4, 9 MacWEEK ad with Beth a n d employees, hiring, 118
and dBASE Mac, 5 Guy, 191-192 Fortune 500 killing machine,
at Ilex sneak preview, 145 Push and Pull, 111, 114-115 135
created by Laurent Ribardiere, user group medium,12, 87, 89 hiring employees away from
57 vs. PR, 123 companies, 183
demos of, 149, 152 white space vs. tweak hiring executives away from
formation of ACIUS, 7 information, 80-81 IBM, 139
Guy never using before Aldus Corporation layoffs and reorganization
quitting Apple, 34 getting prototypes, 143 June, 1985, 23
InfoWorld review, 132 giving demo to get job at, 44 Mercedes perquisites, 161
positioning of, 164 little seedling, 102 need to do MS-DOS clone, 54
seen by Steve Jobs, 3 risk with Macintosh, 40 needing IBM as enemy, 105
showing to Jean-Louis Gassee selling templates, 82 New York employees, 92
and John Sculley, 165 selling PageMaker to user positioning of Macintosh, 76
thank-you note for buying, groups, 91 PR department, 126
70, 201 sending sample to get reorganizations, 130, 138-139
A players, 31 interview, 42 sales and marketing, 136
About BMUG, 88 top guy still running, 30 sales growth, 138
Ace, Goodman, 41 trade show booth, 169, 170 San Diego sales conference,
ACIUS, Inc. Alfalfa juice, 138 24
beta testing for, 108-109 Alice, 101 slamming in demos, 153
customers providing Allante, 53, 161 support, 64-65, 88, 137
technical support at, 107 Alliance, 6. See also Strategic system software, 105, 154,
definition of bug, 38 Alliance 181, 183
Developer Conference, 107 Alps, 20 The Field, 136, 145
formation of, 7, 8, 34 Alsop, Stewart, 76, 180 trade show booth, 170, 171
getting resumes, 44 Amazon Indians, 77 User Group Connection, 88
hiring Apple employee, 118 Analyses Conseils Informations venture capital group, 181
hiring rep from Egghead, 117 (ACI), 7 warranty, 137-138
making Guy Kawasaki Analysts, 80, 180, 185 Apple Corps of Dallas, 87
president, 34 Ann Arbor Softworks, 81 Apple Developers Conference, 8
needing developers, 99 Ansel Adams, 16 Apple France, 22
needing enemy, 105 APDA. See Apple Programmer's Apple II, 20, 77
Acura, 1 1 , 5 3 , 9 3 , 186 and Developer's Association Apple Programmer's and
Adams, Ansel, 17 Appie Certified Developer Developer's Association
Adobe Systems Program, 35, 108, 140-141 (APDA), 36-37
creation of LaserWriter, 23 Apple Computer, Inc. Apple Puget Sound Program
Display PostScript, 198 and Silver Surfer, 1-10, 33 Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.),
fonts in good store, 121 Andy Hertzfeld as consultant 37
founder still running, 30 to, 25-26, Apple University Consortium
needing PostScript clip art, 99 annual report, 136 (AUC), 102

202

AppleShare, 195 Macintosh evangelist, 100- Cochran, Dan, 36-37
AppleTalk, 22, 152, 195 101 Colette, 198
Architect, role in product Bonsu, 112 Comdex, 195
development, 56 Book of the Courtier, 151 ComicWorks, 144
Art of War, The, 129, 186 Books about Apple, 15, 24 Commission plan, 119-120
Ash ton-Tate Borland, 184-185 Compaq, 115
being AC1US'enemy, 105 Bosendorfer grand, 16, 18 Complete products, 11, 52
Byline, 162 Boston Computer Society,131 CompuServe
gargling at Macintosh well, 6 Bozo Beth wanting Guy off, 198
Guy not being able to describing product to Jean- bill going to office, 199
manage, 6 Louis Gassee, 165 getting bug reports via, 108
loading up distributors, 112 developing rapport with Jean- thank-you note, 69-70
Mike Stone, 33 Louis Gassee, 161 working in ACIUS tech
scrambling by Guy, 186 Steve Jobs' management support, 107
Silver Surfer, 1-7, 33 technique, 19 ComputerWare, 112-117, 121
Astaire, Fred, 52-53, 151 Brainerd, Paul, 30, 102, 141 Copyright infringement, Apple
Atkinson, Bill, 16, 120 Brandywine Room, 80 vs. Microsoft, 145-146
B players, 31 Bugs, 38, 60, 124 Crabb, Don, 131, 132
Babyships, 141-145 Bullet speak, 164 Crash, 65, 154
Bait vs. sushi, 180 Bundling, 104-105 ,154 Cray, 118, 195
Bakker,Jim, 101 Business Week, 128, 130 Cremer, Marcin, 93
Baldness, 5 BusinessLand, 115, 125 Crillon, 184
Bandley3, 17 Byline, 162 Cross pen, 93
Baring, Maurice, 179 C players, 31 Crow, George, 20
Barnes, Susan, 38 Cajun food, 54 Cub scouts, 16, 137
Barnum, P.T., 149 Californians, 35, 179 Cullen, Moira, 42-43
Battat, Randy, 181 Campbell, Bill, 1, 4, 138 Cult, The
Bay to Breakers race, 126 Canon EOS cameras, 11, 50 communicating message to,
BBD&O, 93 Canon, Maggie, 128 77
BCS Update, 131 Capps, Steve,16, 101 evangelizing, 99
Beer, 138 Capuccino, 84 getting word to, 78-82
Behan, Brendan, 123 Carnegie Deli, 151 impressing at trade shows,
Belleville, Bob, 20, 23 Carnegie Hall, 150-151 172, 173
Berkeley Macintosh Users Caruso, Denise, 82, 130 in audience at demos, 150
Group (BMUG), 87-89, 92, 120 Castiglione, 151 in user groups, 87
Beta CD-ROM, 125 theory of marketing to, 74-75
as stage or'dating, 193 CE Software, 143-144 using your product, 78
sites, 4, 60, 108 Chachkas, 171 vs. pyramid theory, 75-76
tape format, 99 Champs-Elysees, 121 white space in brochures, 81
version, 82 Cheifetz, Daniel, 90 Culture, yogurt, 121
Bible, 129 Chinese food, 120 Dark Castle, 30
Bierce, Ambrose, 6 Cho121 Dating, 191-196
Bigfoot, 52 Chutzpah, 32, 187 advice for men, 191-194
Bimbo, 173 Citibank, 71 advice for women, 194-196
Blackened redfish, 94 City Center II, 138 defined, 193
Blood, Gassee drinking, 138 CL/1, 155
why this book has chapter
Blumberg, Bruce, 102 Claris Corporation
about, 191
Blyth, 102 connection with Apple, 182 Davidow, William, 52
BMUG. See Berkeley Macintosh definition of bug, 38 dBASE clone, 182
Users Group formation, 104 dBASEMac, 1-6, 186
BMW Microsoft as enemy, 105 Dealers
Apple perquisite, 161 MacDraw II demo, 93 and Own-a-Mac, 79
broken turn signal, 180 Silver Surfer catalyzing not responsible for support,
computer salesmen's, 115 formation, 7-8 116
definition of Tie, 93 Clark, Gary, 17 part of distribution pipe, 112-
Steve Job's motorcycle, 17 Clone. See IBM PC 134
vs. Acura, 53 Co-marketing recruiting from, 11 7
Bobker, Steve, 105 Apple and dBASE Mac, 4 spiffs and rebates, 114
Boich, Mike Apple and developers, 141- DeAnza Two, 23
evangelizing Lotus, 102-103 142, 145 DeAnza College, 16
hiring Guy at Apple, 43, 56 ruining MS-DOS companies', Deep products, 11, 50-51
top guy still running 182 Delbourg-Deiphis, Marylene, 3,
company, 30 Coach Professional, 173 5,34

203

Demos Flesher, Laurie, 184 Grateful Dead, 83
by company president, 90 Flint Center, 16 Green Bay Packers, 67
by MS-DOS competitors, 183- Flying first class, 17, 18 Greenman, Paul, 107
184 Flynn, Laurie, 126-127 Grunt, role in product
by vendors in stores, 121 Folk, Roy, 1 , 4 , 5 development, 56
MacDraw II by Claris rep, 93 Ford Escort, 193 Handycams, 100
right way, 12, 149-157 Foresight Technology, 108-109 Headhunters, 70, 183
Desktop communications, 144 Fox, 182 Hearst III, Will, 126
Desktop metaphor, 78 Franklin, Benjamin, 135 Helix, 37
Desktop publishing Freelancers, 128-129 Hemingway, Ernest, 198
definition, 2 French food, 120 Hernandez, Bill, 107
example of positioning, 125 Friedlander, Jim, 4 Hertzfeld, Andy
John Scull as champion, 144- Frigidaire, 195 consultant to Apple, 25-26
145 Frog and scorpion, 116-117 creator of bouncing icon
role in Ascension of FrontDesk, 37 program, 101
Macintosh, 24 Fry's Electronics, 195 developers and access to, 101
start of, 102 FullWrite, 81 original Macintosh engineer,
Trojan horse marketing, 79 Gassee, Jean-Louis 16
Desktop as adjective, 182 advertising vs. PR, 123 shopping at ComputerWare,
Diamonds in wedding ring, 196 coupon for Andy Hertzfeld, 113, 120
DICE, 11, 50 26 Sony disk drives, 20
Digital Equipment Corporation drinking blood, 138 Hewlett-Packard
(DEC), 39, 135 driving competitors crazy, H-P Way, 9-10
DiskTop, 143 181 Mike Murray at, 56
Disneyland, 67 Ed Esber rearranging his Hiring
Display Postscript, 197-198 anatomy, 161-162 A, B, and C players, 31
Distribution, 111-121 Gassee speak, 165-166 Apple hiring executives away
Double Helix, 90 ImageWriter drivers, 65 from IBM, 139
Double Income No Clones keynote address, 171 technical support, 68
(D1NC), 196 meeting and presenting to, using d e m o kits to test
Double-click, 162 159-167 applicants, 81
Drop-down menus, 184 metaphors, 166 Hixson, Amanda, 63, 128
Dyson, Esther, 6, 76, 161, 180 not staying at Crillon, 184 Hoffman, Joanna, 1 6 , 2 1 , 102
EasyPtex, 198 passengers and sailors, 50, Holt, J. Gordon, 73
Egghead, 117 160 Horn, Bruce, 16, 101
Ego Center II, 138 president of Apple Products, Hotel Dupont, 80
Eisenstat, Al, 24 136, 160 Howard, Brian, 16
El Camino Real as Champs- pronunciation of name, 181 Huey helicopter, 96
Elysees, 121 refusing to introduce HyperCard
Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Macintosh orifice, 22 Apple marketing thinking it's
38, 87, 173 Guy's resignation letter to, 8 a database, 138
Elegant products, 11, 52-53 smoking or rolling own, 160 d e m o at NYMUG, 92
Empowering employees, 68 spelling name, 167 needing developers, 99
Enemies, 105 starting at Macintosh unbundling, 105
Environment Division, 45 using to d e m o to Jean-Louis
factor of good reality, 124 Gates, Bill Gassee, 165
right, 10 copyright infringement suit vs. test drive kits, 81
Esber, Ed with Apple, 145 HyperScan, 92
going over Jean-Louis going to Windows Hyundai, 137-138
Gassee's head, 161-162 conference, 8 IBM
rearranging Jean-Louis inspiring Excel, 30-31 about to snuff out Apple, 2
Gassee's anatomy, 161-162 listening to user groups, 55 antagonist to Macintosh
Silver Surfer, 1-6 steroids a n d physique, 187 Way, 15
Evangelism, 12,99-109 system software for IBM, 154 Apple competing with, 32, 49
Evslin, Mary, 8 tweak, 58 Apple recruiting away from,
Excel. See Microsoft Excel Gay, Rich, 108-109 139
F-16, 95-96 General Motors (GM), 38 approved vendor lists, 79
Fallon, Mary, 128 Gibbons, Fred, 185 developers helping Apple
Federal Express, 137 Gillette, 82 succeed against, 100
Fileserver, 22, 193, 195 Goldman, Dan, 186 dismissing Macintosh, 29
Rlevision, 37 Goldman, Jonathan, 198 enemy for Apple, 105
First Blood, book and film, 129 Goldwyn, Samuel, 29 hated by Apple Products
F-keys, 182 Goyim, 32, 36 division, 136

204

invincible ship getting pierced NeXT, 141 Kramer, Jerry, 67
by Apple, 25 chutzpah, 32 L. L. Bean, 137
Macintosh taking market share cornering at press conference, LaserWriter
from, 77 133 Bruce Blumberg as product
mainframes, 16, 39 creating Macintosh, 15 manager, 102
mothership, 135 drinking alfalfa juice, 138 counts for one-carat
SQL, 155 explanation of Macintosh diamond, 196
Steve Jobs proposing detente p h e n o m e n o n , 24 creation of, 22-23
with, 32 giving people rope, 3 1 , 34 getting service for, 137
system software and Bill Gates, Guy not hitched to Jobs wagon, resumes and cover letters
154 23 done with, 43
trying to imitate Macintosh, 30 hiring A, B, or C players, 31 saving Macintosh, 22
Windows conference, 8 introducing Macintosh, 16 unplugging to catch
IBM PC and clones. See also LaserWriter, 23 Macintosh men, 195
MS-DOS Macintosh Division as hand- Lauren, Ralph, store, 83
eating for breakfast, 94 picked children, 16 Layoffs, 23
heavier and bigger than Macintosh Division as his Lebowitz, Fran, 6 3 , 8 2 , 94
Macintosh, 78 sandbox, 139 Lemmings commercial, 21-22,
Macintosh as alternative to, MBWA technique, 19 24
20, 79, 56 motivating force in Macintosh Let a thousand flowers bloom,
need for Apple field to Division, l.s 102, 129
differentiate from, 138 NeXT, 25 Lisa, 22, 101
non-indulgent, 11, 51 pronunciation of name, 181 Lisa technology, 49, 77-78
only computers that could relationship with John Living Videotext, 40, 102
survive, 100 Sculley, 2.3-24 Loch Ness monster, 52
producing newsletters, 150 seeing 4th Dimension, 3 Look and feel, 145-146. See also
target for Macintosh sense of security, 31 Copyright infringement
developers in demos, 153 Sony disk drives, 20 Loren, Allan, 137, 141, 181
terminals tor Molink, 96 Steve-isms, 24 Lotus Development
testing software in stores, 113 The Prince, 19 Corporation
Trojan horse marketing, 79 working 90 hours a week, 33 early seeding, 102
I Chins, The, 99 Jolt cola, 69, 195 evangelized by Mike Boich,
Idiosyncrasy, 65 journey is the Reward, The, 15 103
ImageWriter, 65 just Add Water, 88 loading up distributors, 112
Indulgent products, 11, 51 Kahn, Phillipe, 184-185 Macintosh strategic to, 185
InfuWorld Kapor, Mitch, 102 Modern Jazz, 57, 125
not part of The Cult, 76 Kawasaki, Beth, 196 roll call of Jim Manzi at Apple
presentations to Jean-Louis MacWEEKad, 191 Developer Conference, 8
Gassee, 164-165 running in Bay to Breakers saving Macintosh, 102
reporter being manipulated, race, 126 Louis Vuitton briefcase, 94
126 Kawasaki, Guy Luke 8:1-15, 129
review of 4th Dimension, 132 big deal in Macintosh market Mac the Knife, 127
Initial Public Offering (IPO), 19, while single, 193 MacConnection, 116
151, 193 getting in touch with, 201 MacDraw II, 93
Inits, 182 Macintosh evangelist, 100- Machiavelli, 19, 35
Innovative Software, 172 101 Macintosh
inside Macintosh, 35, 36, 126 making him president of Allan Loren's desktop, 137
Inter-operability, 185 ACIUS, 34 Field sales' need to
Isuzu, Joe, 192 Mike Boich hiring, 43, 56 differentiate from IBM PC,
Jackson, Charlie outspending purchase 138
Apple Developers authority, 37-38 Apple Products division
Conference, 8 telling Jean-Louis Gassee concern about loyalty to,
atNYMUG, 91 about Ed Ksber, 161-162 136
demos at Macworld, 172 Kay, Alan., 181 Apple University Consortium
inspiring Dark Castle, 30 Kellogg's, 82 (AUC), 103
not owning tie, 93 Kenyon, Larry, 20 Apple's obsession to sell
Jackson, Michael, 151 Kirkilis, Juhn, 198 more, 135
Jaguars, 161 Kleiner-Perkins, 197 as cute, graphics toy, 2-3, 29,
Japanese food. 120 Knaster, Jess, 67 40
Joanie's, 121 Knaster, Scott, 26, 67 as deep product, 50
Jobs, Steve Knowledge workers, 77, 78 as elegant product, 53
blowing hole in IBM, 25 Koalkin, Barbara, 21 as great product, 49
bundling Mathematica with Kool Aid, 18 as indulgent product, 11, 51

205

Ascension of, 24 90 hours a week and loving demand, 115
at Guy's house, 34 it, 34 factor as good reality, 124
books about, 15, 24 A, B, a n d C players, 31 knowledge worker
creation of, 15, 24 believing Steve Jobs' positioning, 77, 78
credibility from MS-DOS chutzpah, 32 positioning statements, 125
companies, 143 California!! and promoting test drives, 81
description from Macintosh Machiavellian, 35 Push and Pull, 111, 114-115
PIP, 77-78 excesses of, 16-18 right way, 11, 73-82
early days of, 179 Jean-Louis Gassee starting at, Marketing of High Technology,
features and benefits of, 55 45 The, 52
first words of, 16 Joanna Hoffman as first Mashima, Kyle, 5, 162-163
getting service for, 137 marketing person, 103 Massages, 16, 18
history of, 9-25 reorganization in June, 1985, Mathematica, 141, 145
introduction of, 16 23, 25 Mauna Lani, 197
laptop, 199 role of product superiority, 49 MBA(s)
LaserWriter saving, 22 screwing in light bulb, 15 at trade shows, 173
Lotus saving, and strategic to, Susan Barnes as controller, 38 bragging about in job
102, 185 values of, 35-41 interview, 45
Microsoft mastery of, 58 zealots of, 21 definition of Tie, 93
MS-DOS companies not Macintosh Bible, The, 11, 52 marketing baby rearranging
believing in, 4, 6 Macintosh Plus, 24, 144 blocks, 84
needing database, 2, 3-4, 33 Macintosh Office, 21-22, 193
parents of marketing baby, 83
not selling well, 20 Macintosh Today, 128
suffocating Modern Jazz, 57-
Own-a-Mac program, 78-79 Macintosh Way defined, 9-12
58
ports of software to, 185 MacPaint, 99, 101, 104
McMillan, John, 63
positioning, 76-77 MacroMind, 144
Mediagenic, 90
Product Introduction Plan, MacUser, 105-106
MegaEorm, 37
Mac WEEK
21,49,79 Men, dating advice for, 190-194
Beth's and Guy's ad, 191-192
prototype seeding of, 142- Mencken, H. L., 159
giving mugs for Mac the
144, 181 Menu, food, 80
Knife tips, 127
responding to market, 56 Mercedes, 11, 53, 161
part of Macintosh Cult, 76
sales to Apple Certified Meshugas, 77
taking on anyone on
Developers, 35 Metamucil, 195
anything, 126
sales volume in 1989, 50 Metaphors, 166
Macworld Expo
settlement for dBASE Mac, 4 Metronome, 153
ACIUS developer conference
software shortage, 2, 36-38, Mickelson, Phil, 182-183
before, 107
99-104 Micro D, 112, 117
bet with Phillipe Kahn, 184
Sony disk drive for, 19, 55 MicroPro, 54
Charlie Jackson at Dallas, 172
spouses, 196-199 Microsoft
conception of programmer
Steve Jobs' motivation to alliance with Apple, 6
baby, 82
create, 15 awesome, tweak company,
going to with Beth, 199
test for Macintosh vs, MS- 58, 187-188
Guy's spectacular crash at,
DOS perspective, 180 copyright infringement suit
Trojan horse marketing, 79- 154 with Apple, 145-146
80 Jim Young at, 173 covering need for Macintosh
unbungling MacPaint and parties, 93, 105, 176 spreadsheet, 102
MacWrite, 104-105 WingZat, 172 definition of bug, 38
values, 34-41 Macworld, 106 enemy of Claris, 105
vs. mediocrity, 15 MacWrite, 99, 101, 104 founder still running, 30
warranty, 137-138 Maloy, Deirdre, 198 getting Macintosh
n o t worth learning according Management by W'andering prototypes, 143
to Ashton-Tate, 162 Around (MBWA), 19 hated by Apple Products
what really happened and Mann, Stephen, 128 division, 136
what it means, 25-26 Manzi.Jim, 8, 185 jumping on Macintosh
Macintosh 128K, 2, 56 MaoTse-Tung, 129 development early, 187-188
Macintosh 512K and Ke, 143- Margin, 113, 115 licensing interface to, 39
144 Marketeers multiple operating systems
Macintosh II and BMW turn signal, 1K0 and applications, 58
for CE Software, 144 prediction of baby as, 82-84 not interested in 4th
and trade for ride in F-16, 95 Marketing Dimension, 3
shoot 'em up game for, 141 Apple University Consortium, sending sample to get
ex, 53, 144, 145 102 interview, 42
Macintosh Division creating customer Microsoft tlxcel

206

Bill Gates inspiring, 30 Susan Barnes, 38 PR, 123-133
Bill Gates taking notes on, 55 Nietzsche, 87 agencies, 123-125
every store stocking, 121 Nimoy, Leonard, 172 Apple PR police, 126
role in getting Macintosh Nondisclosure agreement, 5 as part of status quo
prototypes, 143 Nordstrom marketing, 73
sanctified product by bag and logo in Allan Loren's bad reviews, 131-132
Apple, 142 office, 137 freelancers, 128-129
vs. 1-2-3, 57 evangelists, 106 press conferences 127, 132
Microsoft Word, 53, 112, 121 right support, 11, 63-68 smarts, 129-131
MIS, 77, 80 service getting better, 105 vs. advertising, 123
Miss America, 65 two miles from Predator, 129
Modern Jazz, 57-58, 125 ComputerWare, 112 Press conferences, 127, 132
Monogram, 104 Nussbaum, Luther, 1, 4, 5 Prince, The, 19
Mont Blanc pens, 51, 93, 116, Odesta, 90, 102 Producer, role in product
137 Odyssey, 15 development, 56
MORE, 40-41, 67 Offsites, 84 Product Introduction Plan
Morel, David, 129 Ogilvy, David, 111 (PIP), 49, 79
Morgan, Sue, 8 Oracle, 181 Products
Moscow Link (Molink), 96 Orange juice, 17, 18 artists, visionaries, architects,
Motorola 68000, 196 Oregonians, 179, 181 producers, and grunts, 56
Motorola 68881, 143 Orifice creating customer
Mountain View Times, 128 Ed Esber drilling Jean-Louis demand, 115
MS-DOS Gassee new, 161-162 development, 54-56, 60
antagonist to Macintosh, 15 Macintosh Orifice, 22 DICE: deep, indulgent,
Apple required to do clone to OS/2, 184 complete, elegant, 50-52
survive, 54 Outside Apple, 187 factor in good reality, 124
compatibility with, 39 OverVue, 37 right, 11
marketeers and BMW, 180 Own-a-Mac Program, 78-79 Profit sharing, 196-197
Microsoft mastering, 58 PageMaker Programmers
programmers in bar, 180 being shown to Bruce Guy's working with, vs.
software ports, 132, 165, 185 Blumberg, 102 writing this book, 60
MS-DOS companies every store selling, 121 in product creation process,
driving them crazy, 179-188 getting job interview by 57
getting Macintosh demoing, 44 MS-DOS, in bar, 180
prototypes, 143 opening markets for prediction of baby as, 82
risk if Macintosh succeeded, Macintosh, 141 Prototypes, 142-143
102 positioning of, 125 Pull-down menus, 78
MUCoW, 112 role in Ascension of Push and Pull marketing, 111,
Mueslix, 81 Macintosh, 23-24 114-115
MultiFinder, 154, 183 role in getting Macintosh Pyramid Theory, 75-76
MultiPlan, 99, 102 prototypes, 143 Quark, 173-174
Murray, Mike sanctified product, 142 Quayle, Dan, 161
changing perception that selling templates, 82 Quiche, 94
Macintosh didn't have sold to user groups, 91 QuickKeys, 143
software, 37 Parameter RAM, 182, 195 Radius, 30
getting Macintosh software, Passengers vs. sailors, 50-51, Raleigh, Lisa, 128
31,34 160 Razors and blades, 82
Macintosh Division zealot, 21 Pasta, 84 Real time, 68, 130
Test Drive a Macintosh, 20 PC World USSR, 82 Reality distortion, 197
working at H-P with, 56 Pentagon Macintosh User Red phone, 96
Nabokov, Vladimir, 49 Group, 95-96 Reflex Plus, 184
Nantucket, 182 Pepsi, 31 Regis McKenna, Inc.
National Apple User Group Perot, Ross, 38, 87 helping Claris, 93
Convention, 55, 93 Perrier, 94 Regettes defined, 126
Navigator, 195, 198 Personal Computing, 128 Regettes schmoozing, 171
Nerds, 68 Peters, Tom, 19 Reorganizations
Network Innovations, 155 PICT, 195 Apple's perpetual, 138-139
New York MacUsers' Group Pier I Imports, 95 Ed Esber and Jean-Louis
(NYMUG), 9 1 , 92 Porsche Club of America, 89 Gassee's anatomy, 161-162
NeXT Porsche, 53, 186 of baby's bassinet, 84
as indulgent product, 51 Portola Valley, 197 reporter asking about, 130
cloning look and feel, 146 Positioning, 125, 164 Reviews, bad, 131-132
formation, 25 Postscript, 23, 99, 197-98 Ribardiere, Laurent

207

as artist/genius, 57 Silicon Valley, 121 DOS, 180
creator of 4th Dimension, 3 Silver Surfer test for visiting user group, 94
empathy with while writing Apple and Ashton-Tate Sybase, 181
this book, 60 showdown, 1-8 Symantec, 126-127
giving copy of 4th Dimension catalyzing formation of Symantec Utilities for
to Ashton-Tate, 5 ACIUS and Claris, 7 Macintosh (SUM), 195
shopping at ComputerWare. code name for 4th System software, 105, 154, 181,
120 Dimension, 1 183
R i z z o j o h n , 21 Mike Stone, Guy, and passion T-shirt, the cloth kind
Rolex, 95 for, 33 father of programmer baby
ROM, putting dating tips in, start of, 3 making, 82
194 Single Income No Clones giving to Dan Goldman, 186
Rose, Frank, 24 (SINC), 196 making 15,000 instead of
Rossmann, Alain, 3, 101 Six-color, 18, 144. 181 paying for software, 104
Russia, S2 Smith, Burrell, 1 6 , 2 3 not chachka, part of
Saenz, Mike, 144 SneakerNet, 22 development process, 171
Sailors, 50-51, 153, 160 Softsel. 104, 112 T-Shirt, the h u m a n kind, 93,
Sales force, 117-120 Softview, 8 153, 173
Salinger, J.D., 198 Software Publishing T/Maker, 187
San Diego Macintosh User Corporation, 102, 185 Tang, 18
Group, 93 Solutions vs. tools, 160 Telos, 102
San Francisco 49ers, 22 Solutions International, 8, 40, Termeer, Lyn, 36-37
San Francisco Examiner, The, 82, 102 Test Drive a Macintosh, 20-21
126, 130 Sony Test drive programs, 81, 91
San Jose Mercury News, 128 us mothership, 135 Testarossa, 176
Scheier, Steve, 21, 141 CD player mounted in Jean- Testosterone (Bill Gates
Schwarznegger, Arnold, 129 Louis Gassee's office, 160 generating), 146
Scorpion and frog, 116-117 disk drive, 20, 55 Thank-you notes, 70, 157
Scott, Foresman and Company, video camera formats, 99-100 The Rest of Us, 76-77
60 Spectrum Digital Systems, 8, 40, Theory Z, 18
SCSI, 195 71, 102 ThinkTank 128K, 37, 40
Scull, John, 144 Sprezzatura, 151 thirtysomething, 83
Sculley, John Spiffs, 114-115 Thurston, Fuzzy, 67
$750,000 authority, 38 Spreading seeds, 103, 129 Tie, around neck, 92-93, 173
86ing Steve, 23, 25 SQL, 138, 155 Tie, type of person, 93
birthday party, 181 Stallone, Sylvester, 129 Tools
cornering at press conference, Stanford Stadium, 22 as opposed to solutions, 160
133 Stein, Mitch, 8, 71 in dating, 191-192
going over Gassee's head to, Stevenson, Adlai, 131 Top guy of company, 29-32
161 Stewart, Jackie, 153 TopGuys database, 183
not to be confused with John Stilwell, "Vinegar Joe," 1 Torresi, Enzo, 124-125
Scull. 144 Stone, Mike, 1,4, 5 , 3 3 Toys for technical support, 69
Odyssey, 15 Strategic alliance Trade show, 170-176
relationship with Steve, 23-24 definition, 39 Trojan horse marketing, 79
seeing version 2.0 of 4th in dating, 193 TrueForm, 71
Dimension, 165 marketing baby, 84 Tweak, defined, 120
spelling of name, 181 with DEC, 39 VC Berkeley, 89
Steve Jobs' security, 31 Stuff It, 75 Unbundling software, 104, 105
Segawa, Jeff, 70 Sun Tzu, 129, 146, 186 United Airlines, 66
Seybold Desktop Publishing Super Bowl, 16, 21 UNIX, 58, 195
show, 173 SuperPaint, 91, 112, 172 User Group Connection, 88
Sheckles, 70 Support User groups, 87-96
Shrink-wrapping, 36 creating pull, 115 and PageMaker, 91
SideKick, 143 factor in good reality, 124 A.P.P.L.E., 37
Silicon Beach Software right, 11, 63-71 Apple Corps of Dallas, 87
as seedling, 102 user group, 88 Apple doing mailing to, 142
at NYMUG, 91 Sushi Apple User Group
creation of Dark Castle, 30 and Wordstar users, 54 Connection, 88
roll call at Apple Developers mother of marketing baby as word-of-mouth
Conference, 8 craving, 84 advertising, 12, 87
taking a risk with Macintosh, sushi bar for Macintosh Berkeley (BMUG), 87-88, 89,
40 Division, 17, 34 92, 120
trade show booth, 170 test for Macintosh or MS- Bill (iates at National Apple

208

User Group Conference, 55 VARs, 52 115 burning not bleeding, 40
Charlie Jackson at NYMUG, Venture capitalists, 80 reminiscing about old
91 VideoWorks, 8 1 , 165 Macintosh days, 179
ComputerWare, 112 Viruses, 83 support job career path, 70
encouraging MS-DOS Visionary, role in product WingZ, 52, 172
companies to d e m o at, 183 development, 56 Wolfram, Steve, 141, 145
evangelizing, 99 Volkswagen, 195 Women, dating advice, 194-196
Guy speaking at, 199 Wall Street Journal, The, 32, 130 Word. See Microsoft Word
hearts, getting to, 90-91 WAMM. See Wilson Audio WordStar, 54
how they can help, 89 Modular Monitor Workgroups, 22
Jim Young at, 87 War of Art, The, 146 World Trade Center, 199
MUCoW, 112 Warnock, John, 23, 30 Writing this book, 60
National Apple User Group Wasabi, 124 Xerox PARC, 83, 154
Convention, 55, 93 Washer and dryer, 17, 34 Xerox, 23, 55
New York MacUsers' Group Water in giving birth, 84 Yellow tic, 173
(NYMUG), 91, 92 West of Eden, 24 Yocam, Del
Pentagon Macintosh Users White Plains, New York, 180 performance review of Guy
Group, 95-96 White space in brochures, 80 Kawasaki, 7
providing support, 88 Wilde, Oscar, 169 Silver Surfer and, 1, 4, 5
right way to work with, 87-96 Wilson Audio Modular Monitor Yogurt, 121
San Diego Macintosh User (WAMM), 11, 52 Young, Jeffrey, 15
Group, 93 Wilson, Dave, 52 Young, Jim, 87, 173
skills, 91-95 Windham Hill, 84 Youngman, Henny 65
The Cult in, 87 Windows, Macintosh, 78 Zeus, punishing Oracle and
TopGuys, database 183 Windows, Microsoft, 8 Sybase, 181
yoyos wearing ties, 92 Winer, Dave

209

How This Book
Was Made
Guy created outlines for the book with Acta and MORE. Most of
the writing was done using Microsoft Word on a Macintosh SE
with Radius Full-Page Display and a Radius accelerator card.
Drafts of the book were sent over MCI Mail using Desktop
Express. QuickKeys was indispensable throughout.
Electronic art was created with Aldus FreeHand. The final
layout was done in PageMaker from Aldus and output at Seattle
Imagesetting on a Linotronic PostScript imagesetter. The type is
set in the Stone Serif and Stone Sans typeface families, designed
by Sumner Stone of Adobe Systems in the late 1980s.

An acerbic, irreverent, fun book. It
should be printed in red, because
people will shortly be quoting from
Chairman Guy's book.
Jerry Borrell
Editor-in-chief, MacworL

The Macintosh Way is more than
a book about selling Macintosh
software or dealing with Apple
Computer. It is a guide to modern
business: how to treat your employ-
ees, partners, and customers like
real people. Read it today!
Stewan Alsop
Editor and publisher,
PC. Letter

A thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking book. It is a refreshing inside look
at the values that produce great products.
John Warnock
CEO and Chairman, Adobe Systems

"Status quo" companies do things the way everybody else does (in other words, they
don't really know what they're doing). But the Macintosh Way is almost Zen-like.
Often you don't know why something is right, but in your gut you know it is. Guy
Kawasaki was there from the beginning as our Zen master, leading the way
with "zeal and fervor." This book will start you down the path to enlightenment.
Charlie Jackson
President, silicon Beach Software

Macintosh is significant because it was the first computer to go to war. As Field Mar-
shall in charge of the Developer Front, Kawasaki brought a refreshing approach not
often seen at hardware companies before or since—he played to win. If that meant
tilting the playing field to favor a small company with a great idea, Guy figured out
how to do it. This book is the first history of the Macintosh that really gets into the
trenches and explains the phenomenon from a true insider's perspective.
Dave Winer
President, LJserLand Software

ISBN D-L73-4L17S-0

Scott, Foresman and Company

The Macintosh Way

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