The Cole Papers, Seybold, April 1996

Keynote speakers Clark, Amelio enliven Seybold Boston

BOSTON -- As with many recent Seybold Seminars, the offering Feb. 27-March 1 required a certain amount of judicious scouring of the catalog to find sessions of specific interest to newspaper or magazine publishers.

Seybold organizers promise more topics aimed at their traditional market of customers in both San Francisco later this year and in New York next spring, where the East Coast meeting will be held for the foreseeable future.

But Jonathan Seybold, who still controls the programming of the sessions despite having sold his company (now owned by Softbank of Japan), put together a timely keynote session.

James Clark, the chairman of Netscape Communications Corp. of Mountain View, Calif., spoke at length about the five large industries that will be most influenced by the Internet -- telecommunications, the media industries, general services like banking and travel, the software industry and consumer electronics.

Clark said, "If the Internet ultimately improves its speed, it will encompass voice."

He went on to say that in 10 years, "voice will have migrated" to the Internet. Clark said he believed that telephone companies would "embrace the Internet and become the de facto suppliers" of Internet access.

Pointing out that "a very large number of newspaper publishers" are getting involved with the Internet, Clark said the Internet would have an impact on broadcast TV, "which means ultimately an impact on all advertising."

The Internet already has had an impact on one California bank, Wells Fargo. Clark said Netscape assisted the bank in transferring to the 'Net some 250,000 users of Wells' proprietary dial-up network -- in six weeks.

Clark envisions being able to provide services such as "a small spreadsheet written in Java that handles stocks, wire transfers, travel services and airline reservations."

The founder of not only Netscape but also Silicon Graphics Inc. said that "once everyone is connected to the 'Net, they will get their software over the 'Net," thereby eliminating the need for packaging, disk duplication and software retail stores.

Clark's final point was that the difference between a desktop computer and a consumer television set was minimal. "There isn't a single TV manufacturer in the world who hasn't talked to us," Clark said.

The next keynoter was a surprise, last-minute addition to the program.

Noting that the man had been in his new job only three weeks, one industry analyst said following his speech, "It wasn't so much what he said, but that his first major public presentation was in front of a group of publishing executives."

Herewith, some thoughts from Dr. Gilbert Amelio, the newly installed chairman and chief executive of Apple Computer Inc.:

"The No. 1 most important thing at Apple is that we all must be aligned behind a basic strategy. For the average Apple employee, it is a mystery how the organization works."

"The No. 2 most important thing is to acknowledge our incredibly loyal customer base. But they need to understand changes are not going to happen instantly. They need to keep the faith during that time."

"All of us are together on a treasure ship. The treasure only has value when we reach dry land. There's a leak in the boat. We'll never realize the value of the treasure if the boat sinks.

"We must work together to fix that leak. We're focusing the organization on fixing leaks."

"We need to be much more open, and decouple the hardware from the software. We need to make sure our 'secret sauce' works with other machines."

"How does Apple get back? I don't have all the answers. But we've got to get back to basics. We must focus more on the user. We must restore the pride of the employees, but not go over the line to arrogance."

"From the user's point of view, he wants to focus on the creative aspects and not have to think about the computer."

"We need to decomplexify the product line. I've been here three weeks and I can't figure out all the products."

"Fifteen years from now you'll look back at this era and you'll say, 'I was there when the information age arrived -- it was 1995 (give or take a year).'"

And, in response to the audience question, "Is Apple still in [merger] talks with Sun Microsystems?" Amelio answered, "No."

-- dmc

Keynote speakers Clark, Amelio enliven Seybold Boston

From THE COLE PAPERS, April 1996, Copyright © 1996, All Rights Reserved.