Rebirth of the Tech Madman

Don Estridge, there is a misunderstanding in your thinking. You overemphasize the importance of the purely technical aspect, but it includes as small as the ibm-hard disk defect, as big as ibm-following Fangyuan personal computer step by step. , are actually caused by poor management. ═┡╞┝╪╪┠┢┠┠.”

Another executive interrupted suddenly, and almost pointed out by name, Your ability is at best a department manager who can manage the situation in front of you, and you are not qualified to be a border official guarding one side.

Do you think you know the personal computer industry well? Do you think that personal computers are really products with little technical content?

Don Estridge, who was furiously run over, sneered, As I said just now, the personal computers of Fangyuan Computer Company are updated every two years. According to this trend, the fourth generation of Fangyuan personal computers will be released next year. Now, what kind of product will that be? Let me tell you, it is likely to be on par with our mainframe, a 32-bit computer.

Impossible, you are exaggerating. If Fangyuan Computer Company really wants to do this, it will seriously affect the market layout of its own high-end products online servers and workstations. The other side swore in denial.

Then why don't you reflect on what's wrong with your own thinking? Don Estridge raised his voice, Our mainframe, since the system/, has only undergone a comprehensive upgrade in ten years; and our small Vax, a new generation will be updated every three years; Fangyuan Computer’s servers and workstations are more flexible in configuration, and more detailed new models can be launched every year for the target customer group. In other words, the product line of Fangyuan Computer Company is fundamentally It is designed to change according to needs, why worry about low-end personal computers impacting high-end servers and workstations?

Don Estridge's aggressive tone immediately made the other party speechless.

The technical aspect of software is indeed becoming more and more important. I received a report submitted by my subordinates and studied this field. Finally, someone stood up for Don Estridge.

This report pays special attention to a software design architecture of Zheru software called Zheru application programming interface, which belongs to a class of methods for more effectively organizing program functions and reusing functions. The most recent Note that the product based on it is the Zheru network suite that supports it, and third-party developers can freely call the functions it has implemented, and quickly gather a group of followers.

The full impact of the situation remains to be further evaluated. But one thing is for sure, the Fangyuan personal computer series, even the early series, and the acquired Tangdy Computer series have maintained consistency at the operating system level. ┝═┝ ╪┝.. It can even be extended to the high-end Fangyuan server and workstation series.”

Ibm's product line is richer, if a similar system can be established,

In particular, connecting ibm- and all mainframes at the operating system level will undoubtedly have an unlimited positive effect. My subordinates call this scheme - system application architecture or saa.

Although this idea is very good, its implementation must involve a wide range of aspects and a huge amount of work. I think it needs further evaluation. Another person said conservatively.

Okay, these specific issues about personal computers will be discussed in departmental meetings. John Opel interrupted the quarrel impatiently. In addition, in May, President Reagan will visit China. At that time, a series of business agreements will be signed, which will bring new business opportunities. But the problem is that our mainframes have been able to flow there unimpeded with only low-end models in the past few years. , but recently, sales of even the most advanced models have been sluggish, and they are also limited by various national and industry standards that popped up all of a sudden. On the other hand, the servers and workstations of Fangyuan Computer can be like ducks in water. Regarding this situation, you guys Is there any good solution?

The development of the Chinese market, let the Asian branch to figure out a way. For the business opportunity mentioned by John Opel, the conservative IBM executives. There will never be a shortage of indifferents.

The current Chinese market will not be attacked by local manufacturers like the Japanese market, and there will be no fierce competition in the US market. Such a relaxed environment will be handed over to Fangyuan Computer? Other visionary people immediately express objection.

Give me an investigative report on the operating status of Fangyuan Computer in the Chinese market. John Opel, who could not get a definite answer, pointed at several people angrily and ordered.

Then he turned to Don Estridge and asked, IBM-'s hard drive is flawed. Will Apple just take advantage of the loophole and steal market share?

Although he was somewhat displeased with Don Estridge, John Opel had no choice but to continue to rely on him because he was the executive who was most familiar with the situation of the personal computer market among the people present.

No. Don Estridge replied affirmatively, It's a flashy product. It is only equipped with 128kb of memory and does not support hard disks. The power is obviously insufficient, which has become the biggest bottleneck of the GUI function. Moreover, the platform There are very few applications on the Internet, only the drawing toolkit and word processing software that it carries, and the annual sales volume of 750,000 units that Jobs boasted is a joke at all.”

The memory capacity is low, just increase it; there is no hard disk, it should not be difficult to add one. ┟╪┠╡┟╪. Such a simple problem, Apple will not know how to solve it? Don Estridge's The naysayers, as usual, jeered.

Apple, you don't understand. Those unbelievable actions are just normal in their eyes. Don Estridge glanced at the other party and replied lightly.

...

The advertisement 1984 was remembered by the whole United States, and the success of the Macintosh computer conference also made Jobs' reputation soaring.

Many people take it for granted that in the next personal computer market, there will be a sudden emergence. Become Fangyuan personal computer and ibm-pbsp; Naturally, subtle changes have taken place in Apple's internal power structure.

Jobs, who had gained greater control, decided to build a state-of-the-art factory exclusively for the company. Merge the Lisa and Macintosh divisions for unified management.

Standing in front of the members of the Lisa and Macintosh teams, Jobs condescendingly announced the merger plan. One employee was laid off.

Scanning the murmuring crowd with mixed faces, Jobs continued grimly and candidly: Obviously, your Lisa failed. You are a second-rate team, second-rate players. Many of you standing here are second-rate First or third class employees. Therefore, today I will let some of you go, so that you have the opportunity to work at other brothers in Silicon Valley.

Lisa's team, which was already in conflict with the team, blew up the temple at that time.

Seeing this situation, Bill Atkinson, a researcher of the Platform Graphics Toolkit, also worked on the Lisa team and the Macintosh team. Pulling Jobs aside, he whispered, Steve, this merger is not only ruthless, it's unfair. In fact, these people work very hard, and they're brilliant engineers.

No. Jobs looked directly at Bill Atkinson and replied firmly, I have learned a very important management experience from the Macintosh team, that is, if you want to build a team composed of first-class players Then you must be ruthless. The reason behind this is very simple. When the team expands, if you absorb a few second-rate players, you will recruit more second-rate players. Soon, there will even be third-rate players in the team.”

Seeing that Bill Atkinson wanted to persuade him, Jobs waved his hand, Don't talk about it. The successful experience of Macintosh tells me that first-rate players only like to cooperate with first-rate players. In other words, first-rate teams cannot tolerate second-rate players. presence of the team.

Jobs opened his mouth second-rate players. Shutting up about third-rate team members completely angered the members of Lisa's team. Before the final layoff list was announced, some people angrily dropped their employee badges, It's no big deal. Believe it or not, after I go out, I can turn around and find the next one. Home.

You mean to go to Zheru, right? Then you won't give it away. Anyway, there are a lot of obsolete products that we don't want here. Jobs sneered repeatedly, You can only make the US dollar graphical user interface system. People, just get together.

...

EA has already moved to Redwood City, and Fangyuan Computer's headquarters in Mountain View City has also completed construction and is about to move there. Zheru is left alone in Cupertino, and finally it doesn't need to be as crowded as before.

John Chambers and Louis Gerstner were discussing the job of providing IT solutions for the Los Angeles Olympics. Charles Simeone came over and said, Just now, the engineer who used to develop office software for the Lisa computer received an offer from Apple. There were calls from members of Lisa's team, saying that they had been laid off in large numbers, and asked if there was any recruitment intention on our side.

What Tang said is really true. Apple, which is on the road to death, will have internal troubles every once in a while, or else it will be uncomfortable. Louis Gerstner shook his head with a smile.

No one knows these freaks at Apple better than Don. John Chambers also laughed, From past experience, people who leave Apple are not necessarily incompetent. On the contrary, they A rare and special quality is often shown in the body, that is, after the destruction of Apple, especially Jobs, the ability to work under pressure is very good.

It's just like before. I hired the best? Anyway, I have a lot of projects to arrange. Maybe I can choose a batch of research centers to be sent to Xiangjiang, and there will be no resistance. After all, they were beaten by Jobs at Apple. Not lightly, classified as second- and third-class employees. Charles Simeone confirmed.

Remember to bring a lawyer by your side for consultation. Louis Gerstner reminded: After the announcement, Apple's wings are a bit hard, and it is drifting away from us, so be careful.

...

It has to be said that the Lisa team members were terrified by Jobs' brutality and ruthlessness in the process of merging the Lisa and Macintosh divisions.

The sales of Lisa computers are almost negligible now, and a large number of unsold products are backlogged in the warehouse, almost covered with a layer of dust.

The grand announcement further extinguished the hope of Lisa computer to make a comeback after improvement. In this way, the existence of the Lisa team is indeed unnecessary, and there is nothing to blame whether it is disbanded or merged.

But the problem is that according to Jobs' merger plan, the leadership positions of the new department do not have the share of the original Lisa team members at all, which makes those Lisa team members who are lucky not to be listed on the layoff list inevitably have doubts , extremely pessimistic about career prospects.

Ever since, when he heard that Zheru was willing to take over the dismissed Lisa team members, the Lisa department had not waited for the merger to be completed, and the tree fell down and the monkeys scattered, and the building was empty.

As a result, Zheru specially sent a bus and stopped at the gate of Apple to meet the group of people.

All of a sudden, there was a strange scene, people who were fired or resigned in twos and threes, holding the cardboard boxes, walked out of the gate of Apple, directly boarded the Zheru bus, and finally left in a mighty way.

Seeing this scene, CEO John Sculley felt a little uneasy. Even if the successful announcement boosts the morale of Apple, it can't stand such a corrupting heart.

Although the relationship between John Sculley and Jobs was still in the honeymoon period, he still complained about how the merger of an ordinary department was so messed up by Jobs.

So, John Sculley contacted John Chambers, the chief executive officer of Fangyuan Computer, and said straight to the point: It's not appropriate for you to take away our engineers by carloads?

The two Johns communicated directly, and John Chambers replied with a smile: That's because you are not used to it yet. How big Cupertino is, it is inevitable that our companies will be entangled in various ways. In fact, you can change the angle. Think about it, we are also helping our partner Apple to restore order.

Order? John Sculley said to himself after putting down the phone. He suddenly remembered the in-depth conversation between Markkula and himself when he joined the company, in which he repeatedly mentioned the establishment of Apple's order. But looking at the current situation, it is really not optimistic.

After sighing, John Sculley went to see Jobs in person, hoping that his work methods would be gentler. Unexpectedly, the other party was as indifferent as ever, These second-rate employees, let them go, it's no big deal.

Speaking of this, Jobs looked at the time, I'm going to pick up Jennifer, she is so curious that I accompany her to watch the movie Love the Flower starring Tang Huan.

Jennifer Egan is Jobs' new girlfriend. Shortly after the press conference, Jobs went to someone's bedroom and installed one. It can be seen how the two of them are at this stage.

John Sculley couldn't do bad things to good people, so he nodded helplessly and let Jobs go. (To be continued.)

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