Apple Is So Focused On

There Are Just Moments When All The Stars Are Aligned For Breakthrough Products.

I Wanted To Be An Industrial Designer, So I Went To Business School For That, And I Then Went On To Marketing At Interpublic Group Of Companies, Which Was One Of The First Organizations To Actually Think About Brand Marketing. I Worked On Coca Cola's Account, And Then I Was Recruited By Pepsi, And I Ended Up Being Pepsi's First Mba. I Was Called The High Wire Act Because I Was In My 20s And I Was Given Jobs Of Increasing Responsibility That I Was Totally Unqualified For.

I Feel Most Badly, Though, [because] After 10 Years, I Was At The Company, I Wanted To Go Back To New York Where I Was From. Why I Didn’t Go To Steve Jobs And Say, ‘steve, Let’s Figure Out How You Can Come Back And Lead Your Company.’ I Didn’t Do That, It Was A Terrible Mistake On My Part. I Can’t Figure Out Why I Didn’t Have The Wisdom To Do That. But I Didn’t. And As Life Has It, Shortly After That, I Was Fired.

Great Marketing Cannot Sell A Pedestrian Product Very Well.

Steve [jobs] And I Spent Months Getting To Know Each Other Before I Joined Apple. He Had No Exposure To Marketing Other Than What He Picked Up On His Own. This Is Sort Of Typical Of Steve. When He Knows Something Is Going To Be Important, He Tries To Absorb As Much As He Possibly Can.