Kill the cow

Instead of developing innovative products internally, corporate behemoths tend to buy innovation. But like an absent parent who tries to make up for lost time by bringing home a box full of toys, the initial giddiness wears off quickly. After awhile, things haven’t changed and just get messy and difficult. Why does Microsoft need to buy Yahoo? Why did Coca-Cola need to buy Vitaminwater?

Why did Procter & Gamble need to buy Glide? Don’t these companies have some of the best engineers, developers and researchers on the planet? Of course they do. But what they don’t have is marketing sense; they have only management sense.

Management sense tells them to milk what they already have. Marketing sense would tell them to also invest for the future in new categories and new brands. That is really hard to do when (a) it is so easy and sometime initially so profitable to milk your brands and (b) when you have so much cash you can buy whatever and whomever you want to buy. But is this the best way to grow? Is this the best way to run a company?

Hello world!

One Infinite Loop, Apple’s street address, is a programming in-joke — it refers to a routine that never ends. But it is also an apt description of the travails of parking at the Cupertino, California, campus. Like most things in Silicon Valley, Apple’s lots are egalitarian; there are no reserved spots for managers or higher-ups. Even if you’re a Porsche-driving senior executive, if you arrive after 10 am, you should be prepared to circle the lot endlessly, hunting for a space.But there is one Mercedes that doesn’t need to search for very long, and it belongs to Steve Jobs. If there’s no easy-to-find spot and he’s in a hurry, Jobs has been known to pull up to Apple’s front entrance and park in a handicapped space. (Sometimes he takes up two spaces.) It’s become a piece of Apple lore — and a running gag at the company. Employees have stuck notes under his windshield wiper: “Park Different.” They have also converted the minimalist wheelchair symbol on the pavement into a Mercedes logo.

Jobs’ fabled attitude toward parking reflects his approach to business: For him, the regular rules do not apply. Everybody is familiar with Google’s famous catchphrase, “Don’t be evil.” It has become a shorthand mission statement for Silicon Valley, encompassing a variety of ideals that — proponents say — are good for business and good for the world: Embrace open platforms. Trust decisions to the wisdom of crowds. Treat your employees like gods.