Copyright 1997, 1998 byMaryEisenhartandMicroTimes.All rights reserved.
This story first appeared in MicroTimes Issue #168
For once in his life, Guy Kawasaki's having a little troubleholding his audience. His valiant efforts to keep up a conversationare seriously undermined by 2-year-old son Noah, who, sensingthe presence of potential fans, is regaling us with Buzz Lightyearrenditions, introductions to toy trains, and earnest revelationsthat the creature portrayed on the living room wall is, in fact,a rhinoceros.
Beyond the world of giggly little kids, things are lookinga bit less upbeat--indeed, we're visiting Kawasaki's house a fewdays after the ouster of erstwhile Apple chairman/CEO Gil Amelio,and the ensuing upheaval and rumor-mongering is enough to makeeven the irrepressible Kawasaki long for a little boredom fora change.
Particularly among those who actually use Macs and wish tocontinue to do so, Kawasaki is arguably the most powerful personin the Macintosh industry, largely for his well-developed abilityto inspire and leverage fervor and zeal. His first book,TheMacintosh Way, chronicles the dawn of Apple's life-changingcomputer, including the software evangelism program, and extrapolatestherefrom the guerrilla marketing principles he's been developingin subsequent books (most recently, How To Drive Your CompetitionCrazy). Over the years he's headed one software company and beenassociated with others, written columns in outlets from MacUserto Forbes, and provided a rallying point for Macintosh loversin good times and bad.
Currently Kawasaki is an Apple Fellow. Unlike other Apple Fellowsof the past (e.g. Don Norman and Alan Kay), his efforts are notexpended in R & D, they're expended in rallying the troops,most notably with EvangeList (http://www.evangelist.macaddict.com/),one of the liveliest examples of computer-facilitated collaborationyet devised.
Every day--sometimes several times a day--EvangeList subscribersreceive a digest of press releases, action items, job offers,Bill Gates jokes, and calls for mutual assistance.
"Help!" a subscriber might say, "My office isabout to switch to Windows if I can't find a Mac program thatdoes yada-yada." Immediately helpful Mac-oids from all overthe world email the beleaguered correspondent with advice aboutoptimal Mac-based achievement of yada-yada.
And woe betide the journalist who bad-mouths the Mac or joinsin the frequent orgies of Schadenfreude at Apple's expense. Saidjournalist immediately gets a lesson in two-way communicationfrom impassioned EvangeListas.
All this tends to get Kawasaki classified as a loose cannonby the entrenched priesthoods of trade publishing, and exertsits influence with significant independence of corporate machinationsin Cupertino. Perhaps for that very reason, he enjoys uniquelyhigh trust ratings among Mac users, and many of the developersthat were his first constituency.
So it's no surprise that in the post-Amelio What's NeXT? rumor-mongering,Kawasaki's name tended to head the popular short list of AppleCEO candidates, to the point where he told the EvangeListas:
"You can work your butt off anytime, but your kids areyoung only once. Thus, I made a decision to not take an operatingrole in a company so that I could be with my two kids and wife.I took the Apple fellowship because I love Apple, Macintosh, andour customers, and it was the only way to get a PowerBook rightaway, but it is a fellowship and not a 'job' per se.
"My decision is not going to change in the near future,and you know what? My kids don't care how theMercuryreportedan Apple story, how theWall Street Journalpredicted ourdeath, how the SPA forecasted a decline in Macintosh softwaresales using inexplicable math, or whether Apple's market shareis 5%, .5%, .05%, or 5000%.
"All they care about is that I'm with them. And what jobcould possibly be more important than this?"
Meanwhile, the battle for Mac goes on.
As we go to press on the eve of Macworld Expo Boston, persistentrumor has returning founder Steve Jobs getting the nod for theChairman position, while Jobs, now having a perfectly fine timeas Chairman/CEO at Pixar, is telling his employees he's alreadyrefused the offer. Meanwhile, in his stated capacity of strategicadvisor to Apple's board, he's slated to give the Macworld keynoteaddress. Stay tuned for further developments.
What's it like working at Apple right now?
It's like being in Baghdad on the first night of Desert Storm,only you're the good guy. There are more people trying to buildtheir reputation by predicting our death than there are nerdsin Fry's.
What's it like to have Steve back?
It couldn't be more exciting. His sense of aesthetics and hisdemands for excellence are the stuff of legend. He will catalyzemore change at Apple in the next sixty days than has occurredin the last six years.
Your name was being bandied about in numerous circles asa candidate for the CEO job. You even won one online poll as thepeople's choice for the job. Do you want the job?
Nope, and luckily, I won't be considered. You met Noah. I haveanother son and a wife. On a scale of 1-10, they mean 15 to me.
A few years ago I wrote a book calledHindsights whichinvolved interviewing 130 people. They explained to me what theyhad learned about life and wanted to pass on to others. Not oneperson told me that he or she spent too little time working. Onthe other hand, many told me they spent too little time with theirkids.
When 130 people tell you you're drunk, you catch a cab. When130 people tell you to cherish the years you have with your kids,you don't apply to be the CEO of Apple.
I did, however, clip the newspaper article about winning thepoll, so that one day I can tell my kids that I sacrificed mycareer at Apple in order to be with them. That ought to be goodfor a few lawn mowings.
What qualifications should the new CEO have? What qualitiesshould he or she absolutely NOT have?
The CEO of Apple needs the chip speed of Bill Gates, the toughnessof a Navy Seal, and the charisma of JFK. The quality that he orshe should absolutely not have is the desire to change the cultureof Apple. The CEO has to take the culture of Apple and focus it,hone it, purify it, but not substantially change it--which willonly destroy it. Or destroy the CEO, as has been the case up tonow.
What advice would you give the new CEO?
The first thing I'd do is clearly position the company andexplain which markets we're interested in. My positioning statementwould be, "Creative tools for creative people."
That's it. End of story. If you're doing something creativewith a computer, buy a Macintosh. If you're not, a Windows machinewill probably suffice. Or save a few bucks and buy a network computerrunning Java applications. But if your job involves creativity,you can't do it without a Macintosh.
What about the education market vis-a-vis this positioning?
What about the education market? Kids are the most creativeusers of computers in the world. Schools fit in perfectly withthis positioning statement.
By the way, one of the ramifications of this positioning statementis that when a company standardizes on Windows, it is essentiallytelling employees that either they aren't creative or creativityisn't desired. Let's see those Intel guys in clean-room suitsdance around this one.
Stipulating that from time to time Apple has done catastrophicallystupid things, the business press (theWall Street Journal,theSan Jose Mercury on occasion, etc.) seems to deriveactual glee from playing up Apple's misfortunes. Do you thinkthis is so, and if so, how do you account for it?
I swear that theMercuryhas a case of champagne alliced and ready to drink to celebrate the death of Apple. It'sa good thing for them that champagne improves with age.
Why the bad press? Three reasons: First, we have done somedumb things which have led to problems. Mea culpa!
Second, when a company has problems, there's safety in predictingits downfall. Think about this: If you predict Apple's recoveryand it dies, you look like a fool. If you predict its death andit doesn't die, you can proclaim a miracle. Thus, the safe andeasy thing is to jump on the "Apple is dying" bandwagon.
Third, in some quarters the mere existence of Apple is offensivebecause it dares to be independent and different. Explain thisparadox to me: The people who proclaimed that the Macintosh GUIwas a silly, unnecessary fad are now the staunchest Windows supporters.
Aren't you being a little harsh? If nothing else, aren'tyou afraid of retaliation?
How much worse can our coverage get? Let me give you an example:When the prince bought 5% of Apple, the local paper ran a pictureof him. Which picture did it use? Him and Michael Jackson. I'msure the prince had other pictures. Why couldn't they crop outMichael? Were they out of razor blades that day?
Some members of the press claim that you incite email flamesupon them. What's your response?
These reporters should focus on why thousands of our customersare willing, indeed eager, to write to them, not on why they are"victims." Sure, some of our customers get carried away,but why are they so passionate? Could it be, my God, that thepress is wrong? And thin-skinned?
Let me give you an example: About six months ago the VP incharge of the advanced technology group at Apple left. He wasin charge of a small, pure research group within R & D. Alocal paper ran a headline that our chief of R & D left. Thiswas factually wrong. When I asked the reporter about this, herresponse was, "Sorry, I don't write the headlines."This newspaper wasn't just doing Apple a disservice, but theirreadership as well.
You're a child of the Sixties: During the Sixties, the politicalleaders exclaimed, "We need to stop these riots. They areattacks upon our society." Isn't that why there was a Wattsand a Kent State? Isn't that why every protest against the statusquo was treated as a life-or-death attack against the Republic?
This country could have avoided a lot of pain if the leadersfocused on the real issue: "Why do hundreds of thousandsof people (the vast majority of whom are not rioting) think thesystem is broken?" instead of, "How do we put down theinsurrection?"
I write forForbes.My name and email address are outthere. I get hundreds of emails. It comes with the territory.If these journalists can't take the heat, tell them to write forMartha Stewart's magazine.
How many people are involved in putting together EvangeListat this point? Who's this Digital Guy?
Depending on how you count, two, three, four, or 44,000. Thereare two Apple employees who post all the messages: John Halbig(Digital Guy), and myself. Chuq Von Rospach is the listmasterwho maintains the list. Then there's also Analog Guy, MichelleSain; she handles visits, phone calls, and faxes for me, whichenables me to focus on EvangeList.
But the real answer is 44,000, because it's the subscriberswho send in most of the material or pointers to material. EvangeList,frankly, is not a mailing list, it's a state of mind.
How so?
The list is a state of mind that focuses on freedom of choice,courage to buck the herd, and an appreciation of excellence.
What's the current subscriber base? What's your favoritething about the list to date?
As I said before, the list has 44,000 direct subscribers. Wefigure that there's another 300,000 readers because the messagesare extensively forwarded and posted on bulletin boards.
My favorite thing about the list is the fanatical loyalty thatthe subscribers have to concepts such as choice, courage, excellence,and Macintosh.
In the guerrilla marketer's arsenal, where does somethinglike EvangeList fit compared to, say, corporate PR?
In a guerrilla marketer's arsenal, it's the Stinger missilethat shoots down the big, expensive, sophisticated, Soviet helicopters.Our PR department doesn't quite know what to do with me. I thinkthey pretend I don't exist until there's a hostage situation.
Despite the gloom-and-doom, the stock seems to be goingup. What does this mean in real life?
Heck if I know. Probably nothing. I maintain the romantic andnaive perspective that a company's stock price should reflectthe the level of satisfaction of the company's customers--notwhat someone sitting at a terminal in New York thinks.
Who are the real heroes of Apple Computer?
The rank-and-file employees who create great products, getthem to market, and support them. Generally, this means anyonewho didn't get a signing bonus or a golden parachute. There arealso literally thousands of customers who are Apple heroes. Theseare the folks who saw a better way and were willing to fight forit.
Are you working on a new book?
I thought you'd never ask. I have a book coming out next yearfrom Little, Brown calledRules for Revolutionaries.It'sa capitalist version of Saul Alinsky'sRules for Radicals.It explains how to create and market revolutionary products andservices.
What gives you hope in these trying times?
Honestly, there are times I get really depressed, and thensomeone out of the blue writes to me and tells me how their Macintoshchanged their life. Maybe they were disabled and Macintosh openedup their world. Maybe their kid was uninterested in school untilhe got his hands on a Macintosh. Maybe it's someone who got laidoff from a big company and started a successful business at home.
And if I don't get this kind of email, I can always go hometo my kids. They don't care how Apple is doing.