I see a tension between "quarter-by-quarter financ...
# thinking-togetherm
Mariano Guerra
09/19/2019, 1:43 PM
I see a tension between "quarter-by-quarter financials" and "research protected from that"
s
Scott Werner
09/19/2019, 2:41 PMYeah I kind of feel like the “quarter-by-quarter financials” vs “research protected from that” is a cop out
Scott Werner
09/19/2019, 2:46 PMOr maybe my point in a less confrontational way way is that I don’t see why that tension is inherent in research vs the business
Scott Werner
09/19/2019, 2:47 PMIn an alternate history, Xerox could have productized the research that was going on at PARC instead of Jobs/Apple
m
Mariano Guerra
09/19/2019, 2:59 PM
it seems that people that are good at one are not good at the other and they don't seem to like collaborating for both sides' benefit 🙂
Mariano Guerra
09/19/2019, 3:01 PM
and there seems to be in-between people that are not the best at any of the sides but at least they can bridge the divide, often accused of misinterpreting or stealing from research
s
Scott Werner
09/19/2019, 3:19 PMIts kind of funny that Xerox PARC is one of the main subjects here
Scott Werner
09/19/2019, 3:20 PMsince the history of Xerography is exactly that 🙂
💯 1
Scott Werner
09/19/2019, 3:22 PMChester Carlson researched and invented electrophotography/Xerography, then spent almost 20 years trying to get it to market
k
Kartik Agaram
09/19/2019, 5:11 PM
To elaborate on the two sides: there's a time when a project needs a couple of years alone with its creator (as @Michael Dubakov said), and that works best in a large company managing a portfolio of products (like Xerox). But there comes a time when a project needs execution, and that works best in a company that's all-in on it, providing a sense of urgency and consequence.
So it's not so much that people are good at one or the other, it seems to me. It's the company culture that sets the environment to encourage one phase or another.
❤️ 2
i
Ivan Reese
09/19/2019, 7:09 PM
@Scott Werner And of course, there's the colloquial meaning of xerox as a "cheap copy" — which the Mac is of PARC's work, and Windows was of the Mac.
s
Scott Werner
09/19/2019, 7:17 PM🙂
Scott Werner
09/19/2019, 7:17 PMcheap copies can fund a lot of research
3 Views