I spent 20 years at Xerox, including research. Even in the 90s and beyond the company had no interest in anything that didn't involve putting dots on paper. Now it's stuck in a rapidly shrinking industry and buying competitors to capture market share. Oh, what could have been.
It's kind of funny. I've been working on a write of Xerox history following my article on SRI/ARC at ARF. And I've been working on this question.
- There were two visits.
- Xerox held a stake in Apple in exchange for the visit.
- People from SRI and from Xerox were already at Apple.
- To whatever extent Apple "stole" from Xerox, Xerox had already "stolen" from ARC.
- The Apple projects were underway prior to these visits.
- The primary effect (as far as I can tell) was in convincing all the executives at Apple of the value of the GUI.
The key take away from this bit is honestly that employers should work harder to keep talent. Companies need the talent more than the talent needs the company. Over and over, my research into tech history shows that great talent can flourish at any number of companies, and there are far more great business managers, accountants, and marketers than there are extremely good and visionary engineers.
I do not mean to downplay the impact of great executives. They are important. The talented and visionary engineers are just more rare.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBiWtJJN5zk
- There were two visits.
- Xerox held a stake in Apple in exchange for the visit.
- People from SRI and from Xerox were already at Apple.
- To whatever extent Apple "stole" from Xerox, Xerox had already "stolen" from ARC.
- The Apple projects were underway prior to these visits.
- The primary effect (as far as I can tell) was in convincing all the executives at Apple of the value of the GUI.
The key take away from this bit is honestly that employers should work harder to keep talent. Companies need the talent more than the talent needs the company. Over and over, my research into tech history shows that great talent can flourish at any number of companies, and there are far more great business managers, accountants, and marketers than there are extremely good and visionary engineers.
I do not mean to downplay the impact of great executives. They are important. The talented and visionary engineers are just more rare.