Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired--and Secretive--Company Really Works by Adam Lashinsky Page A
Authors: Adam Lashinsky
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changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating.
We believe in the simple not the complex.
We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.
We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot. And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change.
And I think regardless of who is in what job those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well. And… I strongly believe that Apple is doing the best work in its history.
The apparently extemporaneous statement was extraordinary on a number of levels. For starters, Cook wasemphatically hitting all the notes of an oft-played Steve Jobs symphony. He evoked Apple’s values. He cited Apple’s messianic mission. He ticked off the boxes of simplicity, focus, and relentlessness, all Jobs hallmarks.
More than that, Cook was introducing himself to a slice of the public that barely knew him. True, Cook had been at Apple for more than a decade and had run the company when Jobs first was treated for pancreatic cancer in 2004. Yet he remained a cipher to almost everyone other than a handful of top Apple executives and some of the company’s important suppliers and business partners. The basic rap on Cook was that he was the drab automaton who ran all the unglamorous parts of the business Jobs abhorred: supply-chain logistics, product fulfillment, customer support, inventory management, channel sales, hardware manufacturing. And even if he did run the company in Jobs’s absence, many believed he’d never be CEO. Right before Jobs stepped down for his 2009 medical leave, a prominent Silicon Valley investor who was unwilling to be quoted by name called the likelihood that Cook would become CEO “laughable,” adding that “they don’t need a guy who merely gets stuff done. They need a brilliant product guy, and Tim is not that guy. He is an ops guy—at a company where ops is outsourced.”
What the investing public, at least, learned from Cook during that earnings call was that there was something of a spark to this fellow, and more than a little ambition. He also revealed himself to be just a bit poetic—or at least someone who can parrot back the poetry learned during time spent inside a prestigious organization. His
We believe
s turned out to have been at least a subconsciousecho of the “Auburn Creed,” an earnest statement of I believes recited at Auburn University, Cook’s alma mater in his native Alabama:
I believe that this is a practical world and that I can count only on what I earn. Therefore, I believe in work, hard work.
I believe in education, which gives me the knowledge to work wisely and trains my mind and my hands to work skillfully.
I believe in honesty and truthfulness, without which I cannot win the respect and confidence of my fellow men.
I believe in a sound mind, in a sound body and a spirit that is not afraid, and in clean sports that develop these qualities.
I believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all.
I believe in the human touch, which cultivates sympathy with my fellow men and mutual helpfulness and brings happiness for all.
I believe in my Country, because it is a land of freedom and because it is my own home, and that I can best serve that country by “doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God.”
And because Auburn men and women believe in these things, I believe in Auburn and love it.
Unbeknownst to his listeners, Cook had simultaneously just offered his own version of the “Apple Creed,” a wordier
We believe in the simple not the complex.
We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.
We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot. And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change.
And I think regardless of who is in what job those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well. And… I strongly believe that Apple is doing the best work in its history.
The apparently extemporaneous statement was extraordinary on a number of levels. For starters, Cook wasemphatically hitting all the notes of an oft-played Steve Jobs symphony. He evoked Apple’s values. He cited Apple’s messianic mission. He ticked off the boxes of simplicity, focus, and relentlessness, all Jobs hallmarks.
More than that, Cook was introducing himself to a slice of the public that barely knew him. True, Cook had been at Apple for more than a decade and had run the company when Jobs first was treated for pancreatic cancer in 2004. Yet he remained a cipher to almost everyone other than a handful of top Apple executives and some of the company’s important suppliers and business partners. The basic rap on Cook was that he was the drab automaton who ran all the unglamorous parts of the business Jobs abhorred: supply-chain logistics, product fulfillment, customer support, inventory management, channel sales, hardware manufacturing. And even if he did run the company in Jobs’s absence, many believed he’d never be CEO. Right before Jobs stepped down for his 2009 medical leave, a prominent Silicon Valley investor who was unwilling to be quoted by name called the likelihood that Cook would become CEO “laughable,” adding that “they don’t need a guy who merely gets stuff done. They need a brilliant product guy, and Tim is not that guy. He is an ops guy—at a company where ops is outsourced.”
What the investing public, at least, learned from Cook during that earnings call was that there was something of a spark to this fellow, and more than a little ambition. He also revealed himself to be just a bit poetic—or at least someone who can parrot back the poetry learned during time spent inside a prestigious organization. His
We believe
s turned out to have been at least a subconsciousecho of the “Auburn Creed,” an earnest statement of I believes recited at Auburn University, Cook’s alma mater in his native Alabama:
I believe that this is a practical world and that I can count only on what I earn. Therefore, I believe in work, hard work.
I believe in education, which gives me the knowledge to work wisely and trains my mind and my hands to work skillfully.
I believe in honesty and truthfulness, without which I cannot win the respect and confidence of my fellow men.
I believe in a sound mind, in a sound body and a spirit that is not afraid, and in clean sports that develop these qualities.
I believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all.
I believe in the human touch, which cultivates sympathy with my fellow men and mutual helpfulness and brings happiness for all.
I believe in my Country, because it is a land of freedom and because it is my own home, and that I can best serve that country by “doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God.”
And because Auburn men and women believe in these things, I believe in Auburn and love it.
Unbeknownst to his listeners, Cook had simultaneously just offered his own version of the “Apple Creed,” a wordier
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