Return to the Little Kingdom_ Steve Jobs and the Creation of Apple - Michael Moritz [8]
The programmers relayed their progress on the software. Matt Carter, a burly man with a beleaguered look, who was responsible for part of the manufacturing, rattled through a quick course in factory layout and showed a film of what Apple’s new production line for Mac would look like. He talked about carousels and bins, automatic inserters and linear belts, prototype builds and pricing commitments. Another manufacturing man told about defect rates, improvements in output per person per day, and material handling. The last prompted Jobs to promise: “We’re going to come down real hard on our vendors. We’re going to come down on ’em like never before.” Debi Coleman, the financial controller, gave her version of Accounting 101, explaining differences between direct and indirect labor costs, inventory control, fixed-asset tracking systems, tooling analysis, inventory valuation, purchase price variance, and break-even levels.
At the tag end of the retreat, Jay Elliot, a tall man from Apple’s human resources department, introduced himself. “I’m a human-resources manager,” he said. “I really appreciate being here. Thank you for being here. At human resources we try to leverage top performers—”
“What does that mean in English?” Jobs snapped.
“Human resources,” Elliot stumbled, “is typically viewed as a bureaucratic, bullshit organization . . .”
Once Elliot recovered, he suggested ways of coping with the need for recruitment. The projected organization chart for the Mac Division was dotted with little boxes filled with the initials TBH. These stood for “To Be Hired.” Elliot said his department was swamped with fifteen hundred résumés a month and suggested panning recruits from the names of Apple’s owner-warranty cards.
“Nobody any good sends in their warranty card,” Jobs said. He leaned over the back of his chair and addressed Andy Hertzfeld, one of the programmers. “Andy, did you send in your warranty card?”
“The dealer filled it in,” Hertzfeld said.
“See?” said Jobs, swiveling around in his seat.
“We could put ads on ARPANET,” Hertzfeld suggested, referring to the government-funded computer network that links universities, research establishments, and military bases. “There would be legal problems with that but we could ignore them.”
“We could put ads in newspapers but the catch factor is kind of low,” volunteered Vicki Milledge who also worked in the human resources department.
“What we should do,” Jobs said, “is send Andy out to the universities, let him hang out in the labs and find the red-hot students.”
After Elliot finished, Jobs embarked on a soliloquy. He fingered a gray, glossy folder that contained a summary of progress on Mac and warned everyone to carefully guard all company documents. “One of our salespeople in Chicago,” he said, “was offered a complete sales introduction plan on Lisa from somebody at IBM. They get everywhere.” He returned to the easel and a final flip chart that carried the picture of an inverted pyramid. At the bottom a band was labeled MAC and succeeding layers carried the Words FACTORY, DEALERS, SUPPLIERS, SOFTWARE HOUSES, SALES FORCE, and CUSTOMERS. Jobs explained the triangle and pointed to the succession of bands: “We have a major opportunity to influence where Apple is going. As every day passes, the work fifty people are doing here is going to send a giant ripple through the universe. I am really impressed with the quality of our ripple.” He paused. “I know I might be a little hard to get on with, but this is the most fun thing I’ve done in my life. I’m having a blast.” A trace of a smile appeared on his face.
BOOMTOWN BY THE BAY
Bulldozers and steam shovels lurched about the