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"I know everyone likes to think Steve Jobs came up with the idea of focusing on a few very good products, but it's actually an old idea." No one thinks that. I
by revscat 15y ago
"I know everyone likes to think Steve Jobs came up with the idea of focusing on a few very good products, but it's actually an old idea."
No one thinks that. I, at least, have never read anyone who has made such claim. Where did you get the impression that that is a widely-held belief?
- pgroves 15y agoI got that impression from the article. I also get that impression from all the companies that still do the opposite, today, as is discussed in the article. Perhaps I should have qualified that statement with "in terms of large american companies", which is what Drucker was talking about.... Companies whose product catalog became bloated over the years in an effort to serve every need of every customer and ended up doing nothing terribly well.
- philwelch 15y agoJapanese companies like Sony or Toshiba have the same problem. Adding insult to injury, Sony's website is completely unusable--it has Flash, and when I click on the flashblock to allow it, nothing seems to happen. Maybe it's just computer companies? Toyota's website seemed easy enough to use, but then again it was nearly as easy to choose and configure a Ford.
- rsynnott 15y agoI don't think many would claim that Jobs came up with the idea. He is undeniably one of the few people who has been able to apply it successfully to the computer and consumer electronics industry in recent years, though.