Subj : Re: Jack Tramiel To : Computer Nerd Kev From : Andreas Kohlbach Date : Wed Jan 22 2020 01:49 pm On Tue, 21 Jan 2020 22:17:55 +0000 (UTC), Computer Nerd Kev wrote: > > Andreas Kohlbach wrote: >> On Sun, 19 Jan 2020 07:06:56 +1300, Simon Geddes wrote: >>> >>> Jack gets a bad rapp for his "Jack attacks", and I'm not sure how well I would >>> have survived if I ever had to work under him. But reading "The Home Computer >>> Wars" the other day, it left me with a slightly different feeling - an >>> admiration for the man's sheer determination to win in business, and his belief >>> in his own business "religion". >>> >>> I tried to distill out of the book the components of The Religion (according to >>> the book, Jack called it this himself). It included a strong focus on lean >>> business (sounds very modern), reducing the number of layers of command, >>> expecting managers to "get involved" and not just manage. He was apparently >>> oft-quoted as saying "business is like sex. You have to be involved". >>> >>> Just wondering if there are any other closet Jack admirers, and whether they >>> can shed any more light on Jack's business religion? >> >> Well you have to admire him. Like you have to admire Bill Gates. Even if >> you otherwise hate them for being pricks. > > From a customer's point of view I think you can admire Tramiel much > more than Bill Gates. Tramiel used his ruthless business strategies > to cut costs and therefore be able to profitably sell computers > cheaper than anyone else - opening them up to some home markets that > otherwise might have been priced out. Gates just did his best to > prevent other players from getting a strong foothold in the PC OS > market, so that he could get away with selling his software with > very high profit margins. Steve Jobs as well just convinced a > smaller market with more money to buy more expensive tech by making > it shiny and fashionable. > > I'm sure you'd soon conclude that they were all pricks if you were > trying to compete in the same market as they were/are. As I remember > it, one of Tramiel's other sayings was "business is war". In my > opinion Tramiel did more to further the reach of computing as a > whole. I can agree with that. All pricks are equal, but some pricks are more equal than others.;-) Indeed I wonder what happened to the micro computer industry if Commodore hadn't existed. There is a very interesting article in a BYTE issue from 1983 where they predict how the market would develop in the next five years (1988). Most of the predictions were wrong. They didn't see the success of Commodore. They were right though that in the professional sector IBM will win the race. -- Andreas --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3) .