Oct 12, 2006

Bill and Steve and Steve

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Was just jotting some thoughts about forecasting. While sitting there thinking, it struck me like a lightning why the two Apple Steves and the Microsoft Bill are so different characters (even if all are somehow computer scientists) and why each of them has their own important role:

  • The engineer – Woz: The guy that built computers, created switching circuits. The man that made it possible that was not possible; having computers that fit on your desk. Being highly curious and inventive, he has the gift of solving problems. But that alone was not enough. Alone he would tinker around with all types of cool gadgets that never have any impact outside of his garage.
  • The visionary – Jobs: The hungry and eccentric person that sees things differently, who reshaped our music experience. He was the one to see the value in what Woz and he created. The invention alone will not have a big impact, but only solve the porblem it was to solve. It needs the visionary component with its strong believes to see the real value behind it, the revolution it may bring. Alone he would be sitting at home visionising – or writing fiction.
  • The economist – Gates: The currently richest man in the world who is hated and loved by masses. While he may have not been so creative in creating new things, he was the person with the ability to turn them into cash. Something that is crucial nowadays. The economist has the instict on how to turn sh*t into gold. Alone he would milk his customers as long as possible.

    • As you can see, all three parts are needed for an invention to become successful. Often enough in history one or two capabilities were present in a person, but only in the case that all three parts were combined, a technological revolution happened. I would even dare to say that these three character traits are pretty much contradictive and therefore rarely ever combined in one person. Of course is time helping so that inventions mature and sometime somebody will pick them up and lift on the next stage. How often did inventors die poor or how often did the real breakthrough start when somebody else took the invention and applied it totally somewhere else?

    To sum up, one could say that only a company with the right balance of all three actors will be successful in creating great products. We need people that know how to fix these stone wheels to the cart but also people who understand that by doing so it will need less effort to pull it and those who know how to feed those who produce the wheel.

    Now you can go and think of which organisations have which mind-set. ;)

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