4 ms·

> His [Rob Fujioka's] micromanagement — closely monitoring, for instance, details as small as packaging labels and the waist size of animated characters — repre

by rdtsc 10y ago

> His [Rob Fujioka's] micromanagement — closely monitoring, for instance, details as small as packaging labels and the waist size of animated characters — represented an asset as Fuhu tried to find its footing. Wonder if he imagines himself to be Steve Jobs. "Well he woke people up at 4am asking them to change font kerning. Clearly that is the sign of a good leader. I should do that too". > Technologists at the company didn't get solid answers to why tablets began requiring proprietary cables. Thorough vetting occurred, and Apple’s strategy of proprietary accessories inspired its own, Fuhu said. Ah yes. Apple did it, so we should do it too. We are just like Apple. There is another thread on the front page about signs of failed startups -- wanting to be like Steve Jobs and like Apple and just copying superficial behaviors from them is a sign of a failed startup.

firasd 10y ago
The whole 'made employees cry' thing is also reminiscent of former Apple exec Tony Fadell who was ousted from Nest.
jomamaxx 10y ago
You need a lot of market power to do proprietary things, wherein standards are common, unless that proprietary thing is a significant value add. For common peripherals .... almost everyone but Apple has to play ball with standards. Even Microsoft, with enough market power, would probably screw it up.
donw 10y ago
I suspect that a lot of founders forget that, at Apple, employees were part of a technological revolution that they could see around them every day, a revolution whose success was borne out by the company itself being incredibly successful in terms of both cashflow and market share. People can be motivated by being part of something greater than themselves, but making a tablet for kids is far too small to fit that billing. Even if you squint and look at it sideways, you know in you heart of hearts that you are doing something evolutionary, not revolutionary. You can only act like Steve Jobs if you are actually changing the world, and even then, it's not really a great idea. Being kind to people, and delivering at a sustainable pace, are a much stronger guarantees of success than randomly waking up underlings at 4am because you wanted a font adjusted.
- chris_wot 10y ago
  Don't forget also that Steve Jobs got booted out of Apple.
lugg 10y ago
No longer on the front page. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12373794 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12373794
pkaye 10y ago
One of my former employers dealt a lot with Apple. The CEO saw the secretive nature of Apple and decided he also wanted to build our products in a secretive manner. Our company was only 300 people so they were very small teams that worked on new products and couldn't tell anyone within the company. Anyway both products became a flop because of fundamental flaws in not meeting customer requirements even though they were innovative in a sense. When they first opened up to the nature of the products, I raised serious questions to which no one had answers. Ultimately those products never went into production. Meanwhile other existing products we were market leaders in were 2 years behind competitors at that point and the company end up being acquired for IP alone.
- justinclift 10y ago
  <i>Meanwhile other existing products we were market leaders in were 2 years behind competitors at that point ...</i> That sounds a bit confusing. Is "were leaders in" meaning that the company initially had the lead, but then lost it?
  - pkaye 10y ago
    Yes, the company initially had a lead. Some major customer would evaluate and buy our product. However while these secretive projects were going on, most of the engineering resources were put into those projects. Meanwhile the competitors continued to improve their products. When the secretive project flopped, we quickly jumped back to the original products but we were quite behind and never caught up. We were forced to pursue niche markets.
nawitus 10y ago
The good old cargo cult effect.

by rdtsc 10y ago

firasd 10y ago

The whole 'made employees cry' thing is also reminiscent of former Apple exec Tony Fadell who was ousted from Nest.

jomamaxx 10y ago

You need a lot of market power to do proprietary things, wherein standards are common, unless that proprietary thing is a significant value add. For common peripherals .... almost everyone but Apple has to play ball with standards. Even Microsoft, with enough market power, would probably screw it up.

donw 10y ago

I suspect that a lot of founders forget that, at Apple, employees were part of a technological revolution that they could see around them every day, a revolution whose success was borne out by the company itself being incredibly successful in terms of both cashflow and market share. People can be motivated by being part of something greater than themselves, but making a tablet for kids is far too small to fit that billing. Even if you squint and look at it sideways, you know in you heart of hearts that you are doing something evolutionary, not revolutionary. You can only act like Steve Jobs if you are actually changing the world, and even then, it's not really a great idea. Being kind to people, and delivering at a sustainable pace, are a much stronger guarantees of success than randomly waking up underlings at 4am because you wanted a font adjusted.

chris_wot 10y ago
Don't forget also that Steve Jobs got booted out of Apple.

lugg 10y ago

No longer on the front page. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12373794 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12373794

pkaye 10y ago

One of my former employers dealt a lot with Apple. The CEO saw the secretive nature of Apple and decided he also wanted to build our products in a secretive manner. Our company was only 300 people so they were very small teams that worked on new products and couldn't tell anyone within the company. Anyway both products became a flop because of fundamental flaws in not meeting customer requirements even though they were innovative in a sense. When they first opened up to the nature of the products, I raised serious questions to which no one had answers. Ultimately those products never went into production. Meanwhile other existing products we were market leaders in were 2 years behind competitors at that point and the company end up being acquired for IP alone.

justinclift 10y ago
<i>Meanwhile other existing products we were market leaders in were 2 years behind competitors at that point ...</i> That sounds a bit confusing. Is "were leaders in" meaning that the company initially had the lead, but then lost it?
- pkaye 10y ago
  Yes, the company initially had a lead. Some major customer would evaluate and buy our product. However while these secretive projects were going on, most of the engineering resources were put into those projects. Meanwhile the competitors continued to improve their products. When the secretive project flopped, we quickly jumped back to the original products but we were quite behind and never caught up. We were forced to pursue niche markets.

nawitus 10y ago

The good old cargo cult effect.