On Competition cont.

["Jonathan Siegel" <jmsiegel@yahoo.com>]

An article in today's New York Times on Apple Computer contained this
language:

"The iPod's success is also the clearest indication that Mr. Jobs, if he
is to successfully revamp Apple, will ultimately win not by taking on PC
rivals directly, but by changing the rules of the game.

The Apple that is starting to emerge may be a harbinger. The company's
growth may no longer be defined by its PC market share, now a declining
sliver of the PC industry, but instead by Mr. Jobs's ability to create
consumer markets."

The last sentence is very nearly a direct quote from Deming; Deming
emphasized a need to expand the market and create entirely new markets
rather than focusing on market share in existing markets.

The article suggests that Steve Job's ability to create new markets is
due to his ability to predict consumer needs and fashions in emerging
technologies and respond accordingly, despite his difficulty in reacting
to existing circumstances or compete for market share or on price in
traditional ways. 

The article notes:

"[H]elped by his growing prominence in Hollywood through his second
company, Pixar Animation Studios, Mr. Jobs has attained a level of
influence over how life is lived in the digital age that is unmatched by
even his most powerful computer industry rivals. 'He is the Henry J.
Kaiser or Walt Disney of this era,' said Kevin Starr, a culture
historian and the California state librarian." 

Whether this comparison is deserved or not I do not know. But both Walt
Disney and Henry J. Kaiser became rich by dreaming up and realizing
entirely new markets, not by competing in existing markets on price or
market share.

The article even goes so far as to suggest that by focusing excessively
on competition in existing markets, Microsoft 
stopped being an innovator and became less and less a creator of new
markets -- a strategy which may eventually result in Microsoft and its
products becoming less relevant as new markets emerge. 

"''Both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs arrived with the idea of digitizing
the world, but Gates has lost his way, said George F. Colony, the chief
executive of Forrester Research, a computer industry consulting firm."

This article suggests that even in publications like the New York Times,
Deming's ideas seem to have left an impression that gets resonance in
the media, attributed or not. 

Sincerely,
 
 Jonathan Siegel
40714 Reisa Lane
Apt 204
Canton, MI, 48188
(734) 657-1900
jmsiegel@yahoo.com