The Cole Digest, February 28, 1996

Well, here we are in beautiful downtown Boston, it's 50 degrees and sunny (actually, cloud cover has marred Tuesday afternoon, but it was sunny in the morning).

We're at the Seybold Boston conference -- and because a couple of us newspaper industry types did a head-count -- out of the almost 3,000 people attending the conference (almost five times that many will be at the trade show which starts today), we found about three newspaper people here. Maybe four.

Nonetheless, not so many that you would have heard what the keynote speakers said yesterday.

Seybold, the longtime provider of conferences that discuss the intersection between publishing and computing, usually has a star or two to lead off. Previous keynoters have included Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and John Sculley.

James Clark, the chairman of Netscape Communications Corp. spoke at length about the five large industries that will be most influenced by the Internet -- telecommunications, the media industries, general services like banking and travel, the software industry and consumer electronics.

The next keynoter was a surprise, last-minute addition to the program. In his new job only three weeks, one industry analyst said following his speech, "It wasn't so much what he said, but that his first major public presentation was in front of a group of publishing executives."

Herewith, some thoughts from Dr. Gilbert Amelio, the newly installed chairman and chief executive of Apple Computer:

*"The No. 1 most important thing at Apple is that we all must be aligned behind a basic strategy. For the average Apple employee, it is a mystery how the organization works."

*"The No. 2 most important thing is to acknowledge our incredibly loyal customer base. But they need to understand changes are not going to happen instantly. They need to keep the faith during that time."

"All of us are together on a treasure ship. The treasure only has value when we reach dry land. There's a leak in the boat. We'll never realize the value of the treasure if the boat sinks. We must work together to fix that leak. We're focusing the organization on fixing leaks."

*"We need to be much more open and decouple the hardware from the software. We need to make sure our 'secret sauce' works with other machines."

*"How does Apple get back? I don't have all the answers. But we've got to get back to basics. We must focus more on the user. We must restore the pride of the employees, but not go over the line to arrogance."

*"From the user's point of view, he wants to focus on the creative aspects and not have to think about the computer."

"We need to decomplexify the product line. I've been here three weeks and I can't figure out all the products."

*"Fifteen years from now you'll look back at this era and you'll say, 'I was there when the information age arrived -- it was 1995 (give or take a year).'"

After an audience member criticized Clark's Netscape for coming out with new versions of its Navigator World Wide Web browser for Windows before Macintosh, Clark pointed to the difficulty in developing for the Mac platform.

Amelio responded by saying, "We want to make it so that it will only cost [Clark] a small amount to move the software to the Mac. We want it to be an economic value proposition to develop for the Mac."

And, in response to the audience question, "Is Apple still in [merger] talks with Sun Microsystems?" Amelio answered, "No."

Onward.

\dmc

[THE COLE DIGEST is written by consultant David M. Cole, editor and publisher of the industry newsletter THE COLE PAPERS. The DIGEST is made available to PressLink subscribers every Wednesday at no extra charge. Send comments by e-mail to cole@plink.geis.com. The COLE DIGEST is the property of The Cole Group, a California sole proprietorship. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of The Cole Group is prohibited. Copyright (C) 1996, The Cole Group. Opinions expressed are those of The Cole Group, unless otherwise noted.

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