Presentation-Secrets-Of-Steve-Jobs

N E 7
SCENE 7
SCE
Reveal the
Conquering Hero
The only problem with Microsoft is they
just have no taste. And I don’t mean that in
a small way. I mean that in a big way.
—STEVE JOBS
Steve Jobs is a master at creating villains—the more
treacherous, the better. Once Jobs introduces the antagonist
of the moment (the limitation to current products),
he introduces the hero, revealing the solution that will
make your life easier and more enjoyable. In other words, an
Apple product arrives in time to save the day. IBM played the
antagonist in the 1984 television ad, as discussed in Scene 6.
Jobs revealed the ad for the first time to a group of internal salespeople
at an event in the fall of 1983.
Before showing the ad, Jobs spent several minutes painting
“Big Blue” into a character bent on world domination. (It helped
that IBM was known as Big Blue at the time. The similar ring to
Big Brother was not lost on Jobs.) Jobs made Big Blue look more
menacing than Hannibal Lecter:
It is 1958. IBM passes up the chance to a buy a new, fledgling
company that has invented a new technology called xerography.
Two years later, Xerox is born, and IBM has been kicking
itself ever since. It is ten years later. The late sixties. Digital
Equipment, DEC, and others invent the minicomputer. IBM
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