The Macintosh Way

by Guy Kawasaki

Examines the development of the Macintosh computer, explains how the Apple Computer company is managed, and discusses the computer software industry

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Technology, Apple, History, Entrepreneurship, Management

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1989

About the author

Host of Remarkable People podcast. Chief evangelist of Canva. Former chief evangelist of Apple.

Reviews

[Hatuxka]

Handed out at the 1990 MacWorld. OK, I read it. This is not going to be of any interest to anyone except a Mac freak

[Prabhu R.]

As usual, Guy has the knack of delivering the right content in the right pace and the right way. The things he has written in this book will serve as a guide for any company that wants to climb up to the top. It is about how to treat employees, customers, developer etc and how to evangelize, market, present the product of the company. A very goodread! The more I read, Guy's books, the more it makes me inspire him a lot and becoming a great fan of him.

[Lance Taylor]

Must read book, and it's now a free eBook download now that Guy has the publishing rights again. I own a hard copy and it motivated me enough to fax a letter to the author when I as done reading it. You remember what fax machines are right? Yah, a snapshot in time.

[Alain van Hoof]

In this book Mr. Kawasaki is presented as a wonderfull and fun person, but the author is biased: it is Mr. Kawasaki himself. I did not like The book nor Mr Kawasaki.

[Jim Syler]

A very interesting and idiosyncratic book by a Macintosh insider who has spent much of his career thinking about how best to run businesses. Unfortunately, "interesting" doesn't necessarily translate to "well-written." It's a bit…um…undisciplined. His jokey footnotes, amusing at first, get old after a while. There are useful nuggets of wisdom in here, but they're somewhat overwhelmed by the now-extremely-dated specifics and anecdotes. If you're interested in starting a business that does things "The Macintosh Way," it is probably worthwhile to at least skim this book. If you're a long-time Mac-head that wants a nostalgia rush—well, visiting folklore.org is probably a better fix, but this book will do in a pinch.

[Heath Alberts]

While there are, admittedly, some well-reasoned business ideas in this work, it seems more like a snapshot of a strange moment in time that didn't age well. There is also as much bad advice in here as there is good, in my experience, so reader beware on that front, too. Brash, brazen, bold, and headstrong, this work screams 'LOOK AT ME!' more than it subtly takes you gently aside to give you genuine assistance in the business world. Still, sort of a fun read for an old geek like me. I also now remember how en vogue is was to give your company a two-work, crammed-together name with double caps like HyperMega and SmartFalluting, etc.

[M.R.K M.R.K]

The Samurai-ish illustrations were hilarious. Even though the overall is quite bios toward Mac's good work and portrait as a perfectionist view on the corporate, I was sceptical about specific chapters.
Nevertheless, an excellent book for its time and good enough if you're a big Mac fan.

[Mia]

The writing is perfectly serviceable, though without any distinguishing characteristics. It's like those MFA bores all are.

[Bianca Smith]

It seemed right that I finished reading The Macintosh Way on a bus home from work in a tech district, using my iPad. It explained why I found chapter 16 hilarious.

This is Guy Kawasaki’s first book, written soon after he left Apple and was on top of the world. It shows.

If you can look past the arrogant confidence in each chapter, you can find the story of how Apple built its loyal customer-base. Guy’s first-hand anecdotes of building relationships with suppliers and user groups are worth more than an MBA degree (which Guy would agree with). And best of all, Guy is giving this book away for free. If you want to buy a hard copy, Amazon has it available.

While the tips and stories are useful, his more recent books, will be easier read and have more depth. I still recommend reading The Macintosh Way for chapter 16. Guy gives dating advice – the t-shirt tech way. I have not laughed so much at a book for a long time. Check it out.

Review first published on Tap Dancing Spiders on February 18, 2012

[Alan Robertson]

Hmm - the sentiment of the book was important this is how Macintosh do it, should do it, used to do it. There was a huge amount of passion however the book is the ideolistic view of Guy who by all accounts was asked to leave MacIntosh for not sharing 'the official' macintosh way.

Easy read however. Glad i read it.

[Arief Bharata Al-Huda]

Buku lama yang baru saya temukan dan saya baca. Begitu hebat, sangat tangguh. Berkarakter kuat. Usaha yang keras. Sangat menginspirasi. Cobalah di perusahaan anda, tidak perlu berpikir ulang, lakukanlah..

[Erik]

Buku yang menceritakan pengalaman Guy Kawasaki bekerja di Apple Inc dalam memasarkan Macintosh sekaligus sebagai evangelist untuk Apple. Versi digital buku ini bisa didapatkan dari situ Guy Kawasaki: http://guykawasaki.typepad.com/TheMac...

[Tony Wong]

I like Guy's writing style. Very conversational. Hip...at least it was when he wrote these early books. Hard to believe now he's just an old guy. He seems to have stayed young and sharp. Silicon Valley and high tech does that to you.

[B]

My business associate enscribed a hardcopy of to me...

[Michael Carnell]

This was the book, along with some of his columns, that started my love of Guy's work. A great insight into the way of truly enthusiastic, and evangelistic, business.

[Sammy]

I consider the primer on current day practice of online community management.

[Gabriel Pagan]

yes its dated but it still has some good, interesting information

[Lysergius]

Pure Marketing BS! But well presented.

[Chris Webber]

Some dated material, but is practical due to some very common-sense marketing approaches to inspiring customer loyalty.

[Chris Vonada]

An excellent book about how to engage with the various people that you will encounter in the business world. As a side item, this book was entertaining as I learned more about Apple and The Mac!