THE IMPORTANCE OF THE [QUALITY OF] THE PRODUCT AND KNOWING (UNDERSTANDING) IT. The late Steve Jobs

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE [QUALITY OF] THE PRODUCT AND KNOWING (UNDERSTANDING) IT. The late Steve Jobs mission for Apple inc. was plain: to “build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products.” Then he turns to the rise and fall of various businesses. He has a theory about “why decline happens” at great companies: “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 then starts valuing the great salesman, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues.” So salesmen are put in charge, and product developers, engineers and designers feel demoted: Their efforts are no longer at the white-hot center of the company’s daily life. Needless to say, they “turn off.” IBM and Xerox, Jobs said, faltered in precisely this way. The salesmen who led the companies were smart and eloquent, but “THEY DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE PRODUCT.” In the end this can doom a great company, because what consumers want are good products and quality service.