SPECIAL CONTRIBUTION
REAL ARTISTS SHIP—SO DO REAL INNOVATORS Dr. Sharon M. McIntyre New Cottage Industries & Co. IT WAS LATE JANUARY 1983. A 27-year-old Steve Jobs was leading the Macintosh group at Apple, a company he had co-founded seven years earlier. The Apple Lisa computer had been launched by another team a few days earlier; the Lisa division had more budget, more people, and more marketing horsepower than the Macintosh group. As journalist Frank Rose (1989) explained, the upcoming launch of the first Macintosh computer (rumoured to be more affordable and user-friendly than the Lisa) had already been delayed from May to August 1983 and costs were increasing, “[T]hey were behind. Engineering wasn’t finished. The disk drive was extremely iffy. None of the outside software developers had delivered anything. Marketing was out in the woods. The factory didn’t even exist.” Jobs decided to take the 100-person Macintosh group to an off-site retreat; they loaded onto busses and headed to a beachside hotel in laid-back Carmel, California. Journalist Rose (p. 56) shared the purpose for the off-site: “The point was to build a little team spirit, to get everybody psyched up for the final push—and to have a good time.” It was here that Jobs shared a valuable lesson with his (talented and sometimes undisciplined) team, distinguishing for them the difference between creativity and innovation. On “an easel at one end of a long, narrow conference room,” (p. 56) Jobs unveiled the following provocative statement:
“REAL ARTISTS SHIP” Jobs explained to the Macintosh computer group of employees, “You are all artists. You know that. But real artists don’t hang on to their creations. Real artists ship. Matisse shipped. Picasso shipped. You are going to ship too.” (adapted from Rose, p. 56). —Steve Jobs, 1983 (In an offsite talk to employees.)
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