Notes on Inside Apple

After reading the Steve Jobs biography, I heard about a similar book but one that delves a lot more deeply into the company's processes and culture, as opposed to the life of the founder. This was Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired--and Secretive--Company Really Works by Adam Lashinsky.  Lashinsky is a Fortune magazine journalist who interviewed many current and previous Apple employees for the book.

It was a very interesting read, especially in that the author was revealing what he claims are truly secret details about Apple's internal discussions and processes (and their culture of secrecy). My biggest learning was that the image Apple projects and its brand ideal are very different from its corporate culture and processes; that leaves me wondering how important Steve Jobs was to the company and if its processes, which are not based on the ideals of creativity and connecting people and in fact are the opposite (secrecy and closing people off), are truly sustainable. How much longer can the world love a company which it perceives is small, entrepreneurial, rebellious, and creative, but which is really gigantic, walled off, secretive, and ultra-controlling? Why do people occupy Wall Street but not Apple?

Ch. 1: Rethink Leadership

• Siri
  
• Secrecy, not transparency
  
• Harsh discipline
  
• Obsession with detail
  
• Jobs micromanaged
  
• Employees highly specialized, not empowered
  
• Productive narcissist
  
• Good summary of his bio is in this book
  
• Fear and intimidation throughout the organization
  

Ch. 2: Internal Secrecy

• Areas of office walled off
  
• Employees pay for own food
  
• Offices drab
  
• Orientation is the only free meal
  
• Most people don't know their job or can discuss it beforehand
  
• Security briefing
  
• Aversion to leaks, pre-release news
  
• HP did pre-release news, always has hurt it
  
• Zero distraction, no extracurriculars (unlike Google)
  
• No org chart available

Ch. 3: Focus Obsessively

• Room dedicated to packaging
  
• Stood apart from rest of tech industry
  
• Don't care about customer requirements
  
• Built products for self
  
• Designers most important of all employees
  
• Program managers going to China monthly to build monthly iterations
  
• Apple controls the saw the supplier should use to cut glass
  
• Vertical Integration end to end
  
• Focus is saying no to many good ideas
  
• Consumerization of IT, but no B2B sales team
  
• Forego revenue
  
• Minimalist mindset
  

Ch. 4: Stay Start-Up Hungry

• DRI: directly responsible individual
  
• No one owns P&L except CFO
  
• People responsible for only 1 domain
  
• Organized along functional lines, not product groups
  
• One executive team
  
• Meeting Mondays to review product plans
  
• Few products, all discussed
  
• Cordoning off rooms and not talking to most people makes big company feel like start-up
  
• Values deeply ingrained even without Steve Jobs
  
• Deadline-oriented
  
• No innovator's dilemma
  
• No waiting to get stuff on calendar
  
• Quick decisions
  
• Meetings in person
  
• Only people in Cupertino trusted
  
• Check identity at the door
  
• Secret Top 100 meeting, not by rank
  
• Difference between top and worst taxi driver = 2:1; for engineers, it's 50 or 100:1 (importance of correct hiring)
  
• Little career growth or training; just being in perfect job
  

Ch. 5: Hired Disciples

• Tim Cook: detail-oriented but also had vision
  
• Accepted no excuses
• Liked outsourcing and just in time
• Knows low details too
• Jonathan I've
• Industrial designer
• Predated Jobs
• Scott Forstall
• UI designer
  
• Joined NeXT
  
• Head of mobile OS
  
• Used a jeweler's loupe to look at icon's pixels
  

Ch. 6: Own Your Message

• Highly choreographed events
  
• Manages message fanatically
  
• Curate and control
  
• Relentless repetition
  
• Messaging should be clear, concise, repeated
  
• Steve was storyteller
  
• Nothing more important than the brand
  
• Big expenses for launches and small details like sound files
  
• Rehearsed keynote speech dozens of times
  
• Jobs met with Lee Clow of TBWA weekly
  
• Mag backs and TV spots of shows with similar sensibilities
  
• No paid product placements but appears anyways
  
• PR highly controlled, senior executives restricted from talking to press
  
• Never meet with investors, no analyst days
  
• Walt Mossberg and David Pogue key
  
• VIP treatment of celebrities
  
• Inventor of Polaroid inspired Jobs

Ch. 7: Overwhelmed Friends Dominate Foes

• Just took iPhone and iOS names even though owned by Cisco
  
• Jobs just did what wanted
  
• No partnership with Apple; all about Apple
  

Ch. 8: Plan for After Your Succession

• Spent years preparing for years after death
  
• Jobs created management training program very different from others'
  
• Apple University
  
• Tedlow wrote case studies on Apple history
  
• Execs teach the case studies
  
• Jobs was bottleneck, single threaded, one big thing at a time. No multitasking.
  
• Everything designed for Steve
  
• Math-oriented Google, voting by clicks and AB tests
  
• Design-oriented apple, all designed by Steve
  
• Productive narcissist must indoctrinate others with their view
  
• Created effect of a start-up in a huge company
  
• Small stealthy teams
  

Ch. 9: Inspire Imitators

• Fidel did iPod hardware and left to start Nest, smart thermostat
  
• Can Apple execs succeed outside?
  
• Tesla motors modeling Apple
  
• Zuckerberg models Jobs, founder-driven company, closed system and platform for others' apps
  
• Focusing
  
• Holding employees accountable
  
• Critical examination of messaging
  
• All focus on product, no talk about it before done
  

Ch. 10: One More Thing

• Siri announcement, beta product (not usual)
  
• Targeted acquisition
  
• Apple made bond with people, people didn't hate it as a big corporation
  
• Without Jobs, Apple will likely struggle and have to change
  
• Will continue defying business school lessons