Moments with a secret smile in my years at Apple

Sometimes these days it seems that I never worked at Apple.  That hard to believe since from 1982 when I was a reseller sales manager in Canada to July 2004, Apple occupied a huge spot in my life.  Things move quickly at a company like Apple, and sometimes they get a little out of control.  It's often a situation of not knowing whether to laugh or cry.  Mostly you just end up smiling to yourself, shaking your head in amazement or perhaps sharing the moment with another person who is just as perplexed as you are.

The first time this happened to me was in 1985.  Apple USA had just been through black Friday when a number of Apple people were laid off.  I can still remember getting the call to fly from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Montreal the next day.  I believe the call had come on a Sunday night.  There was no explanation, just be on the first plane the next morning.  I had been with Apple Canada about a year.  As I walked into the office in Montreal (two hours by jet from Halifax) the next morning around 10 pm, I was told that I was next in line to see the regional manager and the director of human resources.  I was told that the previous seven or eight people had come out of the office, handed in their badges, keys, corporate cards and left the building and the company.  A number of my friends were gone.  I went into the office, the regional manager glanced up at me and said, "Oh its you, you now report to the Toronto office, go get on a plane for Toronto."  I responded that I hadn't brought enough clothes for an extended trip. He said to buy some and charge it to the company.

It was the first time that it dawned on me that laying people off at Apple might not have been all about saving money.

Actually the next event that comes to mind might even have been before Canada's black Monday.  We had been struggling with the Lisa, not actually knowing what to do with it now that the Mac was so successful.  Being sales people, we were being pushed hard to sell it.  In fact the product got repositioned as the Mac XL. A program was developed to allow you to boot the Mac XL into the Mac OS.

I had been talking to one of the largest office supply dealers in Nova Scotia.  I had finally convinced them to become an Apple reseller.  I got a lot of pressure from above so I finally coaxed them into taking one Mac XL in their order.  The order shipped, and I went out to help them set up their display of Macs.  Just before I left the office I got an email that Cupertino had canceled the MacXL but that resellers would be expected to sell through their existing inventory.  I think I had to sell the unit myself.

My time with Apple Canada lasted only until summer 1987 when I took a job with Apple USA in Columbia, MD.  Most of my time in Canada was spent with some of the finest Apple only resellers that I ever met.  I had resellers that turned in amazing numbers because they provided tremendous service and solutions to towns and cities across Atlantic Canada.  Late in my career with Apple Canada, it was decided that Apple needed more "distribution." 

A number of Computerlands and Canadian specific chains were authorized.  Often their commitment to the Mac was nearly non-existent.  They survived mostly on undercutting the prices of the Apple only resellers.  In the field we never knew the pricing tiers, but it appeared that the chains could sell the product for less than what it cost the Apple only resellers to buy the product.

I had grown up in a world of Apple Computers so my first introduction to one of these multi-line resellers was a little rough.  I called and made an appointment to visit one located in one of our local malls.  As I walked up to shake the hand of the store manager, I introduced myself and said that I was from Apple and would just like a few minutes to talk about our products.  He looked at me and said, "If you're from Apple, a few minutes is all you're going to get."

Then there was the time that I had been working with the Nova Scotia Department of Education to put one Apple IIe in every classroom in the province.   I think that totaled 804 IIes.  As always, funds were tight, and they wanted a new low cost color composite monitor that Apple had just introduced.   They also wanted instantaneous delivery to all the locations at one time.  The only way we could do that was to pre-order the equipment before we got the purchase order. 

It was a large enough order that  there was not room in Apple Canada's warehouse.  They had to rent tractor trailers to store the product.  As is sometimes the case in government orders, this one was delayed. In fact six weeks after we had gotten in this product, which was in high demand, we still didn't have the order.  It came time for our operations review in Toronto.  I flew in to present how the business was going with the rest of the members of our team. My manager pulled me aside and said, "I don't want your situation to spoil the rest of the team's presentations so you're presenting after lunch, and by the way, you're on your own on this one, I can't protect you."

Around 11:30 that morning, just before we broke for lunch the purchase order came in, and I quickly changed my presentation.  The product was all shipped out by the end of day.  At the time it was the largest order on a single purchase order in Canada.  It was nearly $2 million.

Then there was the time that I got the phone call from my Toronto manager telling me that the flooring company was about to pull the plug on our largest reseller.  This situation had multiple moments.  The first was when he told me that I was taking over the dealership as a condition for Apple Canada's continued financial support for the dealer. The owner and employees would report to me.  When I asked how the other resellers would feel if they found out they were competing with me, he said, "Just don't let them find out."  At the time I had probably fifteen resellers, 12 universities, and all the school boards in four provinces.  I think I had a VAR or two just for fun. I was the only Apple employee in the four provinces.   

My first step was  to go in and meet with all the employees and announce the situation and answer questions.  I had to decided to run the dealership in the mornings and  do the rest of Apple's business in the afternoon.  The owner and I  announced the changes, and his best sales person immediately resigned. At that time I thought this is going to be even worse than I ever imagined because now I have to hire a sales rep.  My next moment was when I evaluated his inventory and told him that he would need to write down its value by a tremendous amount.  Then there was the call that I had with one his best customers.  I managed to collect about $15,000 in old receivables before the customer had a chance to wonder why the Apple rep was collecting debts for a reseller.  I did manage to clean up his business and help it be sold.  The owner was grateful, but I was just amazed that we got away with it.

The next moment of intense learning and surprise happened just after I had taken a job to manage a large multi-line reseller in suburban Maryland.  My new manager and the regional manager had assured me this was a golden opportunity.  I remember coming into the office the first day, and the rep I was replacing was nearly running out of the office.  I asked my manager if I was going to get any transition meetings with the old rep, and he said not to worry, I would be fine.  Of course I had picked up a substantial quota for this "wonderful opportunity." 

I went to my first meeting with them alone.  About half way through the meeting, I made the guess that they had no money and no clue how to run a multi-million dollar computer outfit.  I went back and talked to our financial people, and they verified my conclusions about them having zero money.  I put them on a cash up front basis. That meant they bought almost no Apple product.  My manager grudgingly agreed to this. IBM and others lost millions on this reseller when they went Chapter 11 a few months later.  Apple didn't lose a penny. I didn't make a penny in commissions but gained a lot in credibility.

Though I have several more of these up my sleeve, we will fast forward sixteen years, and I'll close with this next one. You might have seen it in another of my other posts.  It happens to be one of my favorites, and I still just shake my head.  I was director of federal sales for Apple.  We had been trying unsuccessfully to get a meeting with the CIO of Homeland Security.  We had Apple's VP of enterprise sales and Fred Anderson along with myself and a couple of other people in a meeting  with one of the CIO's direct reports, an Undersecretary in Homeland Security.   Fred Anderson had done well in the meeting, He had obviously taken to heart the substantial coaching that he had been given by our government consultant.  The meeting was almost over, and our Enterprise VP who had hardly uttered a word during the meeting pops up and, just as we're getting ready to leave, says, "Even if Mac OS X was the worst operating system in the world, there would be lots of reasons you should buy it."  The meeting ends and the Undersecretary leaves.

What can you say, Apple's an amazing place, but it has had it's share of characters and situations over the years, both inside and outside the company.  It was quite a ride with very few dull moments.

I certainly learned a lot, shook my head a few times and had more than a few of those private smiles.

As a result my motto is still "expect the best, prepare for the worst, but don't be surprised at anything."

On another note, my MacBook arrived back from Apple with no problems other than the delay in receiving the shipment box.  It's good to have it back, I do much of my work on my desktop, but I depend on the laptop to be the first stop for my photos, and for keeping up the content on my other sites, View from the Mountain, Ocracokewaves, and CoastalNC.org.  It's nice to have my partner back and to have a shiny new pure white case. 

So I'm giving credit where credit is due.  Thanks AppleCare.

Comments

[Joseph Grillo]

Great stories, keen insight !

[don skinner]

The canadian dollar has been equal or lower than the US dollar for some time now & Apple Canada would have been taking advantage of it.
So when are the savings going to be passed on to Canadians?
Apple Canada has had ample time to move stocks at the old prices & Canadians are getting impatient & not a little upset.

[ocracokewaves]

I don't know how Apple Canada stacks up in the revenue department these days compared to other countries, but I do know that getting Cupertino to do anything about any of their far flung territories requires a near rebellion among the local Apple folks.

Apple is a very California centric company no matter what their literature says.

What really matters at Apple is what happens in Cupertino and a few high profile metropolitan area in the US and around the world. It is a bit elitist.

Even so you would think Toronto would be one spot that would be very important, but I suspect it has been a while since Steve visited Canada. :)

I am going to try to do a post in the next few weeks on Apple's blindness to the world. It is a theme that so folks brought up recently in the comments to a post that I did.

http://viewfromthemountain.typepad.com/applepeels/2007/12/the-apple-world.html

In a certain sense it is a very American thing since unless you have lived in Canada like we did or live along the border, there is little knowledge of Canada.

At one time in the late eighties there people from Apple Canada who got positions in Cupertino, but Apple believes so little in their own people that they are much more likely to hire someone from another company than they are to bring someone in from their international operation.

It is really a shame too, because it will come back to bite Apple.

We see a little of the same thing in the way that areas outside of the major metro areas are treated by Apple, but at least we don't have to deal with the currency issue.

Good luck.