Inside Apple: Fortune Sheds A Light On What It Takes To Come Up With Your Favorite iDevices
May 7, 2011
Apple's seemingly unstoppable success is the business equivalent of the philosopher's stone. Everyone wants to know what it is that makes the company tick or, rather what makes Steve Jobs... Steve Jobs.
As someone who spends a fair amount of time trying to answer that question, I can tell you right now that nobody really has the straight answer you're looking for. Every now and then however, you can get a little glimpse into Apple's world. There's been Steve's answer to the Flash debate, the D8 interviews, and many more. To celebrate Apple's ascension into Fortune's top 50, the publication put together a great feature available today in their iPad app on that very matter. What their writer Adam Lashinsky put together for his Inside Apple story is one of those rare and valuable insights.
I won't spoil all of it for you, as it's a must-read. There are however a few trends and anecdotes worth pointing out.
First of all, Apple puts an incredible emphasis on accountability. There is always a person accountable for each project or task, and failure is never an option. Whether you're a member of the MobileMe team (to whom Steve Jobs told they tarnished Apple's reputation and should hate each other after the service's early issues) or a Vice President, you'll learn that somewhere between the janitor and the CEO, reasons stop mattering. That is, you don't get to have any excuses.
They push this idea even further, to an extent where the guy in charge of Apple's website has no say over the pictures that are displayed, which come from the art department. Each person has his own speciality, and he better be amazing at it. To make sure, Steve gathers the executive team every Monday to go over the entire company's strategy and product plans. Then every Wednesday, he takes care of communication and PR. Also once a year, he gathers the best 100 people from the company, and spends a few days drilling them.
Actually, that's most of what Steve does lately. He put together something of an Apple college on campus, where he gathered some great scholars. Their goal, through cases studies and the input of Apple’s execs, is to institutionalize “Steve Jobs," the untold goal being clearly to help the company survive after he’s gone.
Inside Apple will be available in Fortune Magazine starting May 23rd in kiosks, or right now in their iPad app if you're ready to drop $4.99 on the next issue.
[Image Credit: Fortune Magazine]
