The Critical Path

Act I: An analysis of the manufacturing cost structure for iPhones

Act II: The $10 billion App store economy and how to quantify value of apps per iPhone

Act III: Like GM and IBM, rather than seeing it as the exception, Apple may be the rule that defines an era.

We take a look at Mountain Lion as evidence that Apple is cross-pollinating its product lines. We look at the Apple stores as a service brand and Horace tips his hand ever so slightly about Asymconf.

We talk about Apple's fourth quarter, Horace's trip to California and his visit to Colbert Report. It's all leading up to a fusion of entertainment and technology to create something never seen before. Something wonderful.

Horace talks to Prof. Bill Torgerson from St. John's University about the writing process and how it survives and/or thrives as a commercial enterprise. We touch on writing for movies and compare the collaborative process of "content creation" vs. the "single voice" of an author. If you make software you really should pay attention to how art is made. And vice versa.

Horace announces Asymconf and takes an archaeological expedition into the ancient history of personal computing so we can understand the distant future.

Continuing our discussion of the creative side of Hollywood accounting, Dan and Horace take on the way income from movies is distributed and why no movies ever make money. The observations sharpen focus on the over-arching influence distribution has on the creative process.

Horace and Dan begin a journey through the financial carnival that is Hollywood and talk about the wonders they encounter.

Horace talks with Bob Moesta, a pioneer of Job To be Done research. We go over the theory and process of understanding what products are really hired to do and ask why this understanding is so hard to come by. In a discussion rich with examples from multiple industries Bob illustrates how marketing, design and engineering are all dancing around the question of how product should be developed. Could the universally accepted compartmentalization of corporate functions be a root cause to product failure?

Dan and Horace ponder why some companies are more mysterious than others. We ask whether transparency and simplicity of business models is a sign of strength or weakness. We compare the measurement, creation and capture of value and why we should celebrate the mortality of businesses.

Horace interviews James Allworth, author, Fellow at the Forum for Growth and Innovation at Harvard Business School, and a former Apple employee. James describes what it's like working with Clayton Christensen and takes us on a journey through the latest academic and applied research being conducted on the theories of disruptive innovation.