Sequencing Apple's DNA

Acknowledgments

Until recently, we did not know that we would write about Apple. Even though, as young engineers, a formative Apple has tickled our brains and resonated in our hearts since the late 1970s, and even though we have become acute observers of its developments since then.

Yet, no business book could be written without being influenced by special people. We had the opportunity to meet a few individuals having held notable responsibilities within Apple, all of whom were impressive.

One of them was Jean-Marie Hullot, whom we have occasionally hired for training managers in computing projects in the 1980s. Thanks, Jean-Marie, for your very insightful thinking.

Thanks also go to Jean-Louis Gassée who pointed out that Apple, in its darker days, retained a 5% market share, which was not that catastrophic, as it was also the case for BMW!

We personally witnessed the earliest days of both Apple and Microsoft, from Silicon Valley and Europe, and were often tempted to compare their founders’ trajectories. Professional circumstances made us switch back and forth in using either IBM PCs or Macintosh architectures and models, sometimes with regrets or awe in front of captivating machines, over 35 years. We joyfully tossed around crazy ideas on the future of the two companies. One day, we even designed a formal-free thinking foresight exercise for graduating students where the trick was to scenarize a number of ventures and business models for an ever expanding Apple until 2030. ...