There's an Apple Memo From 1980 I Keep Returning To
Mike Scott banned typewriters company-wide and gave Apple a deadline to go all-in on word processing. Every tech company has some version of this gap between what it sells and how it operates.
There’s an Apple memo from 1980 I keep returning to.
Mike Scott, Apple’s president, banned typewriters company-wide: “If word processing is so neat, then let’s all use it.”
Every tech company has some version of this gap. The team selling collaboration software that still runs on email. The AI company where engineers claim that they have to code manually. We dress it up in better language and quietly set it aside.
Scott didn’t. He set a hard deadline, named specific technologies to retire, attached incentives, and addressed the memo to everyone.
Don’t ask customers to believe something your own company hasn’t committed to. Closing that gap usually starts with someone deciding it matters enough to write it down.
Originally published on LinkedIn.
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