Once there was a Artist. He used to love making art pieces.He would take his time to think of a idea and once he got a idea he would implement it most beautifully and meticulosly. While making if its not up to his vision, he would break it and remake it.He would use all his creativity to make sure end product would be a very beautiful creation.Beauty and creativity was never compromised.As a result the end product would also be excellent materpiece.
Word spread and people started liking his work. Someone realised that there's a huge demand for his work and offered him investments to start a company. He was not interested in money , however the thought that a large section of society can receive his work excited him and he agreed.
The company started. Large infrastructure , like automation machines , additional labor were added. All this
using the money from the investor.The artists would still continue to think of creative ideas.The infrastructure
helped him create mass products.Buisness started growing.
Now it was decided to expand the buisness. More investors were brought in to get capital.Huge capital investments were poured into the buisness.MBA's were brought to do market analysis.All possible strategies were thought of and implemented to increase profits.Investors started demanding returns , and huge profits soon took centerstage of all decisions.There was increased pressure on the artists to get more creative ideas.He was given briefings on market segmentsand asked to make custom creations for those segments.He was given time limits and numbers.He had to do X number of creationsin Y amount of time.
From here this story can turn in two directions
1) The artists had to comply as he was now answerable to the investors who had invested huge sums.He starts to make quick fast creations.He didnt have leisure of time to let a idea to be born.He couldnt create a idea.He had to manufacture them .He had to quickly give creations.He started looking at requirements and making custom machinezed ideas.They lacked true creativity.The Artists had lost his love of creativity.He now had to cater to market and deliver.The very foundation of the company , ie creative pieces, was compromised.Inital years company made huge profits based on its reputations.But as its basic foundation, creativity, was compromised, customers sooner started to dislike the products and the company started making loses. Thats what has happened to Kodak.It lost its soul , ie passion for getting people to see photos and got more involved in market volumes.As a result when new photo creation technology came in form of digital photos, its management was still focussed on its existing volumnous market rather than quickly reshaping itself.
2)The artists refuses to comply with market demands , stating he would only make creative products and would take his time.He would deliver little.But deliver the best.He doesnt care about market stats and profit margins.The investors are furious as they want higher returns on their investments.They find out that there are other artists in market whom they can hire and get thier work done.They decide to fire the founder artists and hire other artists who can create as per market needs.Thats what happed to Steve Jobs.Thats what has happened to Jerry Yang of yahoo. But as in case of Apple,the soul of the company was thrown out.The company ran into losses and they finally had to bring back Steve.Jerry may not be that lucky.Coz , by the time
he comes back the company might be sold.
The other artists in the second case , who agreed to create pieces as per market demands and in time bound manner, were earlier good artists.They went to same school of art where the artist character of this story went.They too had a dream of creating innovative products.But under pressures of life ,they had longed back summited to market demands.They gave up the love and freedom to make beautiful products at once own pace , to be creative in ideas and design.They now just cater to market demands.Their numbers are in lakhs and they are the Software developers like you and me.
