A Politician In Redmond

Mark Penn (Photo credit: jdlasica)

Mark Penn is a familiar name. The guy was a pollster during the 2008 election. He was on the other side! His new assignment makes sense to me. Politics is war by other means. Business is politics by other means.

Mark Penn, Microsoft’s New Strategist, Hopes to Boost Bing

a new corporate strategy role reporting directly to Steve Ballmer ...... is assembling a “SWAT team” to work on thorny strategy questions ..... corporate vice president of strategic and special projects. ..... politics and technology have been my two passions since I was about 12 .... the Microsoft boss was intrigued with Mr. Penn’s comparison of the marketing challenge of Bing to pitching a political candidate ..... Penn said more consumers need to be convinced to use Bing. .... “Diehard habits can be questioned, just in the same way that people drank Coke and then realized Pepsi was just as good if not better” .... Mr. Penn said he will continue to work from Washington, D.C., though he plans to spend time in Redmond

This hire speaks to Ballmer's tenacity.

Steve Jobs had innovation nailed down. Ballmer has tenacity nailed down.

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No More Beer, No More Soda

Don't get me wrong. I have never been much of a drinker. I have n-e-v-e-r enjoyed the taste of beer. But I have done some social drinking over the years. A few days back I decided I wanted to resolve to drink no more beer, and no more soda.

Sculley: Scum

Image by tsevis via Flickr

Cult Of Mac: John Sculley: The Secrets of Steve Jobs’ Success [Exclusive Interview]: In 1983, Steve Jobs wooed Pepsi executive John Sculley to Apple with one of the most famous lines in business: “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?” ...... Sculley is best known today for forcing Jobs’ resignation after a boardroom battle for control of the company. ...... “It’s impressive how he still sticks to his same first principles years later.” ..... “I don’t see any change in Steve’s first principles — except he’s gotten better and better at it.” ..... “I don’t have any contact with Steve these days,” Sculley said in one of our initial emails setting up the meeting. “He’s still mad he got pushed out of Apple 22 years ago… ...... beautiful design .... At that time, nobody was doing this in Silicon Valley. ...... Apple wasn’t just about computers. It was about designing products and designing marketing and it was about positioning.” ....... ‘How can I possibly ask somebody what a graphics-based computer ought to be when they have no idea what a graphic based computer is? No one has ever seen one before.’ ...... showing someone a calculator, for example, would not give them any indication as to where the computer was going to go ....... a perfectionist to the end. ..... He felt that the computer was going to change the world and it was going to become what he called “the bicycle for the mind.” ...... He was a person of huge vision.” ...... He’s a minimalist. .... He simplifies complexity.” ..... ability to reach out to find the absolute best, smartest people ..... extremely charismatic and extremely compelling in getting people to join up with him and he got people to believe in his visions even before the products existed .... he personally did all the recruiting for his team. He never delegated that to anybody else. ” ..... At the other level he is working down at the details ..... “bozos.” That was his term for organizations that he didn’t respect. ..... “I can’t remember more than a hundred first names so I only want to be around people that I know personally. ....... Steve would shift between being highly charismatic and motivating and getting them excited to feel like they are part of something insanely great. And on the other hand he would be almost merciless in terms of rejecting their work until he felt it had reached the level of perfection ....... Bill was brilliant too — but Bill was never interested in great taste. He was always interested in being able to dominate a market. ..... . He was not a designer but a great systems thinker. .....

Steve Jobs Should Never Have Been Fired

Proves my point. This guy was too dumb to even have contemplated firing Steve Jobs. You have to at least be in Steve Jobs' league to have the option to make a decision like that. Sculley and other scums cost Apple a full decade and more.

Cult Of Mac: Apple Cracks 10% PC Market Share For First Time in Decades: Apple had 10.4% of U.S. PC shipments in Q3, making it the fourth largest computer maker in the U.S. ..... Lenovo showed the strongest growth among the top five vendors worldwide. ....

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