CHAPTER SEVEN
Pursuing Innovation at Scale
Yesterday we pioneered for today; today, we are pioneering for tomorrow.
—THOMAS J. WATSON, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, IBM 1914–1956
When Apple came out with its iPhone in 2007, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO at the time, dismissed it out of hand, saying, “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.”1
He was, of course, gravely mistaken and, because of Ballmer’s foolish arrogance, Microsoft missed out on the boom ...
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