Hire Disciples

Inside Apple - Chapter 5 "Hire Disciples"

On January 21, 2009, exactly a week after Steve Jobs announced a six-month medical leave of absence. Tim Cook presided over a conference call with Wall Street analyst and investors following the release of Apple’s quarterly earnings. The analyst asked the awkward question on everyone’s mind: Would Cook succeed Jobs if the CEO didn’t return?

Work Culture @ Apple

Jobs was smart in surrounding himself with a crew who could function as extensions of himself yet had their own superpowers. He let people’s talent define their jobs, not the jobs define the people.

Apple is a company where there is obsessive focus on detail and paranoid guarding of secrets, and where employees are asked to work in a state of permanent start-up where they are willing to mesh their personal ambitions with those of the corporation.

Sidekick Relationship

Steve Jobs was a narcissist who could develop a close relationship with one person, a sidekick is someone who acts as an anchor, keeping the narcissistic partner grounded. However, given that narcissistic leader trust only their own insights and view of reality, the sidekick has to understand the narcissistic leader and what he is trying to achieve. The narcissist must feel that this person, or in some cases persons is practically an extension of himself. The sidekick must also be sensitive enough to manage the relationship. Cook grabbed responsibility after responsibility so gradually that almost until he became CEO no one seemed to notice.

Accept no excuses

Like Jobs, Cook accepted no excuses. Early in his tenure, Cook remarked at a meeting with his team that a certain situation in Asia was a real problem and that one of his executives ought to be in China dealing with it. The meeting continued for another half an hour and Cook stopped abruptly. Looked up at one of his executives, and asked in all seriousness. “Why are you still here?” The executive stood up, drove to the airport without a change of clothes, and flew to China.

Think Early, Act Fast

When Apple knew it would move away from disk drives in its iPods and MacBook Air notebooks, it invested in billion-dollar forward purchases of Flash memory. Cook’s supply chain organization executed this masterstroke, which accomplished the trifecta of securing Apple’s supply. Locking in the lowest price and hobbling the competitions access to components. This is referred as ambidexterity - a dynamic capability. The two ways Apple made money was by growing revenues and cutting costs.

As CEO, Steve Jobs developed a loyal and able corps of lieutenants, a group he continued to direct up until nearly the last days of his life, despite having given up the chief executive’s post. Job’s similarly dominated Apple’s board of directors, even though he was its chairman only after stepping down as CEO.