Inside Apple
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Inside Apple by Adam Lashinsky reveals the secretive methods and management techniques of Apple under Steve Jobs, highlighting its unique focus on product development without consumer surveys. The book discusses the company's culture of secrecy, the importance of saying no to distractions, and the embrace of a startup mentality post-1997. It also addresses Jobs's leadership style and the legacy he set for future executives to follow, as well as the challenges Apple may face in maintaining its success after his death.
Inside Apple
- 2. INSIDE APPLE How America’s Most Admired—and Secretive— Company Really Works AUTHOR: Adam Lashinsky PUBLISHER: Grand Central Publishing DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2012 224 pages
- 3. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky FEATURES OF THE BOOK Inside Apple by Adam Lashinsky would interest anyone curious about the inner workings of Apple and the leadership strategies that Steve Jobs employed to make the company a tremendously powerful center of innovation.
- 4. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky THE BIG IDEA Apple does not rely on consumer surveys or focus groups to decide which products to develop. Instead, it simply decides which products it wishes to make. Secrecy is highly important at Apple. This is largely because pre-release speculation has driven up sales. Information concerning the company’s internal workings is also suppressed. Organization charts, standard with most businesses, do not exist at Apple.
- 5. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky INTRODUCTION In Inside Apple, Adam Lashinsky explores the inner workings of Apple and how its founder, the late Steve Jobs, returned from exile to transform a floundering computer company into an unrivaled producer of products that inspire near-religious devotion from fans. Jobs’s management style resulted in a commitment to exceptionally high standards, an intense focus on minute points of design, and the tight control of Apple’s image.
- 6. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky RETHINK LEADERSHIP Apple began when Steve Jobs’s friend Steve Wozniak developed the Apple I computer in 1976. Jobs realized a greater market existed for it, and the Apple II followed in 1977. With impressive sales, the company became hugely successful and the co-founders became millionaires. Wozniak lost interest and Jobs assumed sole leadership, supervising the development of the revolutionary Macintosh computer. After a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, he left Apple to attend to other highly successful projects. By 1997, Apple was on the brink of bankruptcy and Jobs returned as CEO.
- 7. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky EMBRACE SECRECY Apple employs secrecy both externally and internally. Externally, its products and operations are concealed from competitors and the outside world. Employees accept this easily, as it is a standard practice for many business organizations to keep their ideas and procedures hidden from others. Internally, however, employees find this practice more difficult to accept. New projects can sprout behind newly erected dividers and walls, and a badge that once took an employee into an area may no longer work. The concept behind the expression “need to know” is firmly established at Apple. Employees are made to understand that termination (and possible prosecution) follows the release, intentional or unintentional, of Apple’s secrets.
- 8. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky FOCUS OBSESSIVELY More important than deciding what to produce is knowing what not to produce. Apple’s ability to say no to features, products, categories, and market segments is how Jobs developed the company’s strengths. “Focusing is powerful,” he said. “A start- up’s focus is very clear. Focus is not saying yes. It is saying no to really great ideas.” Apple has always set itself apart from its competitors, primarily through its approach to products. Uniqueness is the goal, and attention to detail is the main component of this approach.
- 9. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky STAY START-UP HUNGRY Upon rejoining Apple in 1997, Jobs immediately started changing the corporate culture, which had lost its sense of cohesive mission under the bureaucracy of the professional managers who had replaced him. Under the new Jobs regime, employees would focus on what they did best and nothing else. The revitalization of Apple was greatly due to its embrace of the start- up culture—lean, alert, and always hungry.
- 10. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky HIRE DISCIPLES Jobs presciently surrounded himself with executives who would operate as extensions of himself yet have their own exceptional capabilities. He did not enlist CEO candidates; rather, he let people’s aptitudes define their jobs.
- 11. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky OWN YOUR MESSAGE Apple manages its image in a conscious, directed, but casual manner. For consumers, messages are widely broadcasted but tightly focused on content. For journalists, messages are issued judiciously and only after balancing the risk versus the potential profit.
- 12. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky OVERWHELM FRIENDS/DOMINATE FOES The underdog mentality has permeated Apple throughout its history, and even though its market share is now enormous, the mentality persists. The company also has a long institutional memory, holding grudges from the days when software designers avoided the Macintosh computer.
- 13. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky PLAN FOR AFTER YOUR SUCCESSOR Prior to his August 2011 death, Jobs had expressed confidence that Apple’s executive team “will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans” set forth for the future. It is noteworthy that he used the term “executing,” as it clearly indicated that his subordinates would be implementing a plan that he had already approved. Jobs made no secret of the fact that the company’s core values—his core values—would be passed on to future leadership.
- 14. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky INSPIRE IMITATORS For years Silicon Valley rejected the idea that Apple’s business methodology should be copied. Its cloistered approach to business and the development of hardware and software was considered an obstacle to success. Even after the last 10 highly profitable years, few large companies overtly imitate the Apple model.
- 15. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky ONE MORE THING The clearest indicator of whether Apple can continue its level of success after Jobs’s passing will appear first in its organizational structure and then in its practices concerning partners and competitors. Initially, it must compensate for the loss of an irreplaceable leader. Later, it will have to decide how to obtain entrepreneurial brilliance by adjusting its unique managerial configuration to attract and welcome entrepreneurial talent from the outside.
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