Debating Apple’s future is like chattering about Bennifer! Pointless and needless. But when Barbara Walters asks J-Lo, what next, it is worth paying attention to. Similarly, when Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge decides to weigh in on the subject, one pays attention. WK chatted with “longtime Apple watcher David Yoffie, the Max and Doris Starr Professor of International Business Administration at Harvard Business School, the jury is still out on prospects for the company’s long-term success. And Job’s track record is hit or miss, he says.”
His insights are amazing, and if you spend $100,000 on getting Harvard education, well it seems to be worth it. (Of course you could get similar brilliance from a blogger for free…but that does not feel too expensive.) In case you have about 15 minutes to waste, that is if you don’t want to IM, email, chat on your cell phone or simply oggle the lovelies, then perhaps reading this piece about Apple’s future is completely worth it.
I love it when these sorts of articles contradict themselves…
paragraph 1 notes the 20th anniversary of the Mac.
paragraph 2 paraphrases Yoffie – “the jury is still out on prospects for the company’s long-term success”. Mate – I gotta tell ya – if they’ve been out for 20 years, they ain’t coming back! Give up on it, please.
Word on the street is that Prof. Yoppie sits on the board of Intel.
Harvard B-School or not, this puts his objectivity into question.
The salient point to remember is that Steve Jobs/Apple is out in the business world “doing”.
Professor Yoppie on the other hand it teaching and drawing conclusions from what he sees.
Which is the cart and which is the horse?
I’m not about to diminish Prof. Yoppie’s knowledge but there is that old addage, “Those who can do, and those who can…”
Somehow, I think I’d follow where Steve is going.