From now on, the technology companies that succeed will be those that have developed skills at listening and a sophisticated understanding of their customers' industries.
Interpretation
Successful technology companies will excel in understanding and responding to their customers' needs.
This quote emphasizes the importance of deep customer insight and active listening for technology companies to thrive. It suggests that those organizations that invest in truly understanding their clients' industries and challenges will outperform their competitors, reflecting the need for adaptability and responsiveness in a rapidly evolving market.
In practice
During a workshop on customer engagement, this quote could be shared to highlight the importance of understanding client needs.
There is people who make stuff with words. There is people who make stuff with programs. And I really believe that that whole creative culture, people didn't realize how creative programming is. And anybody who's done it of course knows that not only is it creative, but it's incredibly absorbing.
When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft over 30 years ago, we had big dreams about software. We had dreams about the impact it could have.
Ironically, the main task of chess software companies today is to find ways to make the program weaker, not stronger, and to provide enough options that any user can pick from different levels and the machine will try to make enough mistakes to give him a chance.
The virtual world is a 'public square' much more vast than Tiananmen Square. And you can't send in the tanks to crush the netizens.
Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.
The Open Source theorem says that if you give away source code, innovation will occur. Certainly, Unix was done this way... However, the corollary states that the innovation will occur elsewhere. No matter how many people you hire. So the only way to get close to the state of the art is to give the people who are going to be doing the innovative things the means to do it. That's why we had built-in source code with Unix. Open source is tapping the energy that's out there.
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