By Joel T. Fagsao

 I’m putting off my topic on marketing and pricing your products or services for next week. The death of  Apple company co-founder, Steve Jobs  on October 5, 2011 has sent shock waves In the tech world and I am writing this as a tribute.

Macintosh computers are a breed of computers that is different from the personal computers that we use.  While eighty percent of the world’s computers run on the Windows Operating System (by Microsoft) a “crowd” who carried gadgets that had the silver apple symbol were a breed apart and often flaunted their gadget as a status symbol.

The ‘Mac’ as it was popularly called evolved through the years and was then developed in a garage I(in the 80’s) by two visionaries,  Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.  I had my first encounter with a Macintosh when I bought a second hand “laptop” in the late 90’s.  This was the Macintosh Portable model and it weighed a “ton.”   It was as if I was always “to travel” instead of “to work” when I lugged a big black suitcase that carried the Mac Portable inside.  At that time, the more popular computers were the ones that run on the Windows platform.  A Macintosh computer had a snob appeal and was the precursor of the way we interact with computers today.  This form of interaction with computers is through the use of the Graphical User Interface or GUI (pronounced gooey).    While the GUI system was not invented by Jobs (who did not know programming) he and Wozniak put it to the next level.

By GUI, a Mac user interacted on a computer by pointing a mouse to symbols or images instead of text.  Early computer users were then using the IBM machine which runs on the Disk Operating System (DOS) developed by Microsoft’s founder, Bill Gates.   The Disk Operating System was text based (you interacted with text “commands”).   Microsoft then was accused by Jobs of copying the Mac interface when it launched the Windows operating system.  The ease of use of a Mac computer was demonstrated when I did not have to consult the manual.  In a few minutes I was working on the Mac Portable –and I did not have to attend an introductory course to do work on the machine.

The Mac was touted as an easy to use computer and came up with several innovations that continually amazed consumers.  The Mac pioneered Desktop Publishing which literally brought publishing on our desks-earlier on an exclusivity of big commercial publishing outfits.  The Apple Company surged into prominence through the years when year after year, Jobs launched tech gadgets that simply held us in awe.  There is the iPhone,  Macbook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, iPod, MacBook air (as thin as an envelope).

Now we take a look at one of the co-founders, Steve Jobs and his past.  In my computer classes, I always made it a point to show a video of Jobs now famous speech (8 million visits online after the announcement of his death), speech at Stanford University in 2005.  In his speech, Jobs tells the graduating students three stories of his life.

Steve Jobs was given up for adoption by her biological mother, then a young college student.  Job’s mother wanted to make sure that his son would get college.  Her mother was not about to sign the adoption papers when she found out that her adoptive parents did not have a college degree (Steve’s adoptive mother never finished college and his adoptive father did not complete high school).  She only relented when Job’s adoptive parents promised to give the boy a college education.  Jobs related that he dropped out of college, the first semester –he was concerned that he was spending his parent’s life savings as college tuition was expensive.  “I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college would help me figure it out,” he said in his speech.   Dropping out of college was a scary decision for Jobs, but “looking back, it was the best decision I ever made,” Jobs said.

Jobs went on to enroll in courses that interested him.  He stayed on for 18 months through the kindness of his friends who allowed him to sleep in their dorm room floor, to learn calligraphy.  His knowledge of calligraphy then came to good use when the Mac computer was developed and leaned on the side of a desktop publishing machine.  Now we have all the unlimited choice of choosing the typeface or fonts in our computers. To survive,  Jobs made sure to return soda bottles to claim the deposits and buy food and walked miles to a Hare Krishna temple every weekend-to have a decent meal.  In Jobs’ speech, he made emphasis on following one’s curiosity and intuition as a step to development.  Job incorporated his knowledge of calligraphy into the first Macintosh computer, “the first computer with beautiful typography”- Jobs said.   To highlight, this, Jobs said “Windows copied the Mac” –amidst the cheers of the graduates.   Jobs reminded the students to follow their hearts, their interests and to believe in themselves, even if the path they take is not of the well worn path.  Steve Jobs has all the characteristics of an entrepreneur.   He put trust in the path he took believing this would take him somewhere.  It was all about doing what you love to do.

At age 30 the company he co-founded was worth 2 billion US dollars with 4000 employees.

By Joel T. Fagsao

On a Saturday, I spent time with representatives of cooperatives from around Mountain Province.  I was facilitating the participants for an entrepreneurship development course.  The four part series of courses was designed to let the participants get a full perspective and develop an appreciation and motivation to either start an enterprise or get their own cooperatives to venture into the world of business.  We know well that a majority of the cooperatives we have in Mountain Province offer credit and savings services.  Only a very few, you could count with your fingers are into other forms of services.  Outside of the province and in other lands cooperatives are involved in manufacturing, services, agri-business and others.  I related to the group that the confederation of a dairy cooperative in India that I visited is an example of a successful cooperative enterprise.  The dairy producer’s cooperative was not an overnight success.  Our host related that earlier on, the women of the villages were at the mercy of middlemen who often paid their cow’s milk produce at a low price.  The women then were enticed to form self-help groups, provided services such as training on milk pasteurization, recording, veterinary assistance by the mother cooperative.  The milk then were collected by milk trucks and delivered for processing at the plant site.  The women village began to appreciate the benefits of a group enterprise and would not want to deal anymore with the middlemen.  The women were earning more from the group effort.

Our first session was on developing an appreciation for taking a path to entrepreneurship.  I did emphasize that starting an enterprise or entrepreneurial activity if possible should not be done out of necessity.  An entrepreneur takes the plunge not because he or she has no choice (such as because there is no job opportunity) but because of a vision, an eye for opportunities, being passionate about it and the commitment to go for it.  The former is the line most of us are taking.  We set up a sari-sari store because it is our only available recourse.  Entrepreneurial undertakings are done by most of us-out of necessity.  Alas, we could always turn this mindset around, let us go for “I want to get into business because I see this opportunity and I have this interest and the passion to do this…”

As the session moved on, I asked the participants to give a list of businesses they have seen that was either successful or those that failed.  The list of unsuccessful businesses here in the province included a micro-financing, weaving, egg raising, goat- raising, and honey production to name a few.  In the list of successful businesses are retailing, restaurants, transportation, among others.  I asked what the reasons for failure in these businesses were, the participants mentioned about supply of raw materials such as threads, feeds, climate/weather conditions, accessibility to potential markets.

I then introduced the group to the essential elements of a successful enterprise-the MAIR model.  M is for motivation, A is for ability, I for idea and R is for resources.  If one of the elements of the model is missing, a business undertaking would fail.  The MAIR model is promoted as a tool to easily provide a grasp on understanding about why businesses often do not make it after a few months of operations.  The MAIR model is espoused by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations in its training program for sustainable cooperatives in Thailand.

You can do an analysis of the health of a business with the elements of the MAIR.  Motivation includes willingness, determination and courage, A (ability) includes prior experience, earlier learning, knowledge of business management; I (Idea with market) product is good, demand for your product; R for resources includes money, electricity, information, labor, land, policy.

Now is the time for cooperatives to explore other areas where the needs of their communities could be served.  We need a little catching up to do among our cooperatives here in Mountain Province.