In the latest version of the famous publication FortuneMagazine there is an article in which the inside of Apple's management team is presented, but also some of the most memorable events that proved to be decisive for the direction in which EVOLVED company. Among the most interesting stories in the article is the speech that Steve Jobs gives to each newly appointed vice president, but also an incident that took place immediately after the launch of the iPhone 3G and MobileMe.
Difference Between a Janitor and the Vice President or the difference between an office worker and a vice president is called the speech that Steve Jobs gives to each newly appointed vice president. Steve Jobs tries to explain to his vice presidents what is the difference between excuses and reasons, but also how important is the responsibility that each VP has on his shoulders. He tells a little story about a servant who does not clean his office of garbage and has as an excuse the fact that he did not have the key. The reason why the office worker did not clean the office matters and is excusable, but when you become VP at Apple there are no excuses or reasons, you are responsible for all your mistakes. A rather interesting philosophy that Steve Jobs strictly imposes on everyone.
Jobs imagines his garbage regularly not being emptied in his office, and when he asks the janitor why, he gets an excuse: The locks have been changed, and the janitor doesn't have a key. This is an acceptable excuse coming from someone who empties trash bins for a living. The janitor gets to explain why something went wrong. Senior people do not. "When you're the janitor," Jobs has repeatedly told incoming VPs, "reasons matter." He continues: "Somewhere between the janitor and the CEO, reasons stop mattering." That "Rubicon," he has said, "is crossed when you become a VP.
The second story focuses on a meeting that took place after the launch of the iPhone 3G and MobileMe in the summer of 2008, a launch that did not bring much admiration for the Apple company. Shortly after the launch of the 2 products, Steve Jobs called all the company's employees to a meeting in the auditorium inside the Apple campus in Cupertino. The reason for this meeting was the fact that the services offered through MobileMe were working far below the expectations of the customers and of Steve Jobs. The company's servers had very big problems in dealing with the traffic, there were long periods of unavailability, the customers were becoming more and more satisfied, but Apple received $99 annually for the service. Steve Jobs was so angry about the situation that he fired some of the project managers and appointed another team on the spot.
Can anyone tell me what MobileMe is supposed to do?” Having received a satisfactory answer, he continues, “So why the f*** doesn't it do that? Mossberg, our friend, is no longer writing good things about us.
Apple is a company that has evolved enormously in recent years and everything is due to Steve Jobs, a dictator in the view of Fortune. In the image at the beginning of the article, we have the entire management structure of Apple with Steve Jobs in the middle, several SVPs and an army of vice presidents who answer to one SVP, Jonny Ive being the only SVP who does not have a vice president under him. Apple is a very well-established machine that will gradually become the most valuable company in the US and in the world.
Finally, here are some things you probably didn't know about Apple.
- Just two people wrote the code to convert Safari for the iPad
- At Apple there's never confusion "as to who is responsible for what." In Apple's parlance, a DRI's name (directly responsible individual) always appears on the agenda for a meeting, so that everyone knows who's the right contact for a project
- Steve Jobs meets with executives on Mondays to review every important project. On Wednesdays, he holds a marketing and communications meeting
- Jobs's approach to design and "feel" of a product is shared among the whole company, even if 90% of employees have never met Steve Jobs, Lashinsky writes
- Once a project is nearing completion, Apple spends whatever they need to make it perfect. For example, they contracted the London Symphony Orchestra to record the iMovie soundtracks; they sent a camera crew to Hawaii to film a demo video for a wedding scene; they even staged a fake wedding in a San Francisco church to get a different take on the video, with Apple employees playing guests
- The executive who runs the Apple online store has no control over the photographic material that goes on the website. Apple's graphic arts department creates and chooses and photographs
- Steve Jobs hired dean of Yale School of Management Joel Podolny to run the Apple University, an internal group also featuring business professors and Harvard veterans that are writing a series of case studies to prepare employees for life at Apple after Jobs. These case studies focus on Apple's recent business decisions and internal culture, they are exclusive to employees and taught by top executives like Tim Cook and Ron Johnson
