With Apple’s share price hitting record highs as the mainstream media, asset-gatherers, and commission-takers once again reflect on it as a “no brainer” investment that everyone and their pet rabbit should own, we are reminded of none other than Steve Jobs ‘lost interview’ from 1995 on how tech monopolies die…
“I have my own theory about why the decline happens at companies like IBM or Microsoft.
The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important.
The company starts valuing the great salesmen, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues, not the product engineers and designers. So the salespeople end up running the company.“
Summarized more succinctly…
“Once you have a monopoly, new products don’t help you, only better marketing. Soon, marketing people are running the company, and what made them great is gone…”
Sound familiar?
