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Steve Jobs
Survival, Then Vision
Decision 1 of 3 · ≈5 minutes
CUPERTINO · SEPTEMBER 1997
Kill almost everything Apple is making, and bet the company on four products.
Apple has ninety days of cash left.
Read the situation below and make your decision
Jobs has returned to Apple after twelve years. The company has 90 days of cash.
It makes 40 products across a confusing matrix of models, sub-models, and variations that no one inside Apple can fully explain. Each product line has managers, engineers, and advocates who believe their product is the one Apple should focus on. The company's culture has become one of internal politics and turf defense.
Jobs has asked the product team to explain the product line to him and found he cannot understand it. He has a decision to make about what Apple actually is.
You know only what Jobs knew in 1997.
YOUR DECISION
Cut to four products immediately
Discontinue thirty-six of forty products and the teams behind them.
And the teams behind them lose their jobs by Friday.
Stabilize first then reform
Steady the business before reshaping the product strategy.
And the complexity that's killing Apple keeps spending what cash remains.
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