乔布斯传之节选23

Cinderella

from Chapter 23

For a few years after Jobs was ousted, Apple was able to coast comfortably with a high profit margin based on its temporary dominance in desktop publishing. Feeling like a genius back in 1987, John Sculley had made a series of proclamations that nowadays sound embarrassing. Jobs wanted Apple “to become a wonderful consumer products company,” Sculley wrote. “This was a lunatic plan. . . . Apple would never be a consumer products company. . . . We couldn’t bend reality to all our dreams of changing the world. . . . High tech could not be designed and sold as a consumer product.”

Jobs was appalled, and he became angry and contemptuous as Sculley presided over a steady decline in market share for Apple in the early 1990s. “Sculley destroyed Apple by bringing in corrupt people and corrupt values,” Jobs later lamented. “They cared about making money—for themselves mainly, and also for Apple—rather than making great products.” He felt that Sculley’s drive for profits came at the expense of gaining market share. “Macintosh lost to Microsoft because Sculley insisted on milking all the profits he could get rather than improving the product and making it affordable.” As a result, the profits eventually disappeared.

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The announcement was made that evening—December 20, 1996—in front of 250 cheering employees at Apple headquarters. Amelio did as Jobs had requested and described his new role as merely that of a part-time advisor.       

The next day Jobs drove to Pixar. He had fallen increasingly in love with the place, and he wanted to let the crew there know he was still going to be president and deeply involved. But the Pixar people were happy to see him go back to Apple part-time; a little less of Jobs’s focus would be a good thing. He was useful when there were big negotiations, but he could be dangerous when he had too much time on his hands. When he arrived at Pixar that day, he went to Lasseter’s office and explained that even just being an advisor at Apple would take up a lot of his time. He said he wanted Lasseter’s blessing. “I keep thinking about all the time away from my family this will cause, and the time away from the other family at Pixar,” Jobs said. “But the only reason I want to do it is that the world will be a better place with Apple in it.”

Lasseter smiled gently. “You have my blessing,” he said.

佘明君

在乔布斯被赶走后的几年中，苹果公司能够继续维持一个较高的利润是基于其桌面出版系统的暂时优势。在1987年，就像一个天才一样，约翰·斯卡利作出了一系列现在听起来使人不安的公告。乔布斯希望苹果“成为一个美好的消费产品公司，”斯卡利写道。“这是一个疯子的计划。。。。苹果将永远不会成为一个消费品公司。。。。我们不能使现实向我们改变这个世界的所有梦想屈服。。。。高科技不能被设计并且也不能作为消费类产品来销售。”
在20世纪90年代初期，当斯卡利主管苹果，而其的市场份额稳步下降时，乔布斯感到震惊，他变得愤怒和轻蔑。“斯卡利通过带来腐败和堕落的价值观而摧毁苹果公司。”乔布斯后来感叹。“他们只关心赚钱，主要是为了他们也为了苹果公司，而不是为生产伟大的产品。”他认为，斯卡利在获得更多的利益的驱动是在于失去获得市场份额为代价。“麦金塔输给微软，是因为斯卡利坚持挤出所有的利润，而不是提高产品的质量和降低价格。”结果，利润最终消失了。 ************** *************
1996年12月20日，在那一天晚上，在苹果总部的250名欢呼的员工面前，他们做出了一个通告。Amelio做了乔布斯所要求的，并形容他的新角色只是一个兼职顾问。
第二天乔布斯开车去Pixar。他已经更加的爱上了那个地方，他想让那儿的员工知道，他仍然会是总裁并且会更加深入地参与公司事务。但Pixar的员工高兴地看到他回到苹果做兼职的；乔布斯更少的关注将是一件好事。当有大的谈判的时候他是很有用的，但他有太多的空余时间的时候，他也是危险的。当他抵达Pixar的那一天，他去了Lasseter的办公室，并解释道，即使只是在苹果公司做一名顾问，也会占用他很多的时间。他说，他希望得到Lasseter的祝愿。“我一直想着这个将会使我没有时间陪我的家人，”乔布斯说。“但我想这样做的唯一原因是，有苹果在世界将会变得更好。” Lasseter轻轻一笑。“你得到了我的祝愿，”他说。