 "Photo: Peter Franklin, Daily Texan Staff")
Students, faculty and working professionals filled the LBJ Library Brown Room on Tuesday to hear Charles Geschke, co-founder of Adobe Systems Inc., speak about creating a multi-billion dollar business.
Geschke said he did not start out with the desire to become a computer programmer or engineer. He attended a Catholic school and was so impressed by the Jesuit priests that he wanted to be one. Geschke attended Catholic seminary for three years before he decided to leave and pursue mathematics, he said.
“I was interested to hear about how a man who was supposed to be a priest became the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company,” said Bryan McGowan, business graduate student.
“The most valuable aspect was the concept that all you need is a good idea to break into the business world. All you have to do is find a problem, make a product and solve it.”
Geschke received his master’s and doctorate degrees in mathematics but did not become interested in computer programming until he turned away a former student from Carnegie Mellon’s graduate mathematics program. The student returned a year later and offered to teach Geschke to program as a form of gratitude for advising him not to follow a career in math.
When Geschke and his partner, John Warnock, developed their first computer software program, they planned to package it with computers, workstations, and typesetting software, Geschke said.
The $2.5 billion plan did not catch the interest of any customers but the software did. Geschke and Warnock eventually sold the software to Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Inc., and earned $12 million in one year and $189 million in the first five years. Now Adobe is a $20 billion to $25 billion company, depending on the state of the market, Geschke said.
Geschke stressed that the most important part of an effective and innovative business is to maintain a level of community and shared responsibility on every level.
“We wanted to build a company that we personally would want to work at,” Geschke said. “Always hire the best person you can, and always hire someone smarter than you because that population is much higher than the alternative.”
Geschke spoke as a part of the Strauss Center’s Technology, Innovation and Global Security Speaker Series.
“The series brings experts to campus to discuss how to sustain innovation and better utilize modern technology to benefit an increasingly global economic and social system,” said Laura Jones, program coordinator.
