Apple's Tao
Disclaimer: the translation is not accurate, it rather conveys the ideas of the author and my personal vision of these words. The text contains a huge number of quotes and I do not pretend that all of them are translated correctly.
Apple now
The best creation of Steve Jobs - Apple as such
The most important, though not the most notable contribution Jobs made not as a visionary, designer or seller, but as an innovator of management. When asked what was his greatest product: ipad or iphone, he replied:
')
With Jobs, Apple showed what happens when a company realigns its priorities to fully focus on user values. As a result, it is not surprising that the company earns
Apple’s continued success depends on the current leadership’s ability to understand and expand the principles laid down by Jobs, while recognizing and minimizing the flaws in its principles.
Traditional companies, driven by monetary incentives and managed by a hierarchical bureaucracy, have their limitations and do not seem to have a chance to become truly innovative. Apple is on a different path.
Apple - a functional organization
Jobs rebuilt Apple into a functional organization. He put users at the forefront, eliminated middle management, eliminated traditional monetary and career incentives, and closed the company on himself.
Functional company is ideal for innovation. This is Apple’s strength, but it’s also its weakness.
Yin and Yang Apple
Critics say Apple focuses too much; cannot combine multiple mission-critical projects; spends too much time, energy and money on product features that are not important and will not be appreciated by users; makes only very modest updates to existing products; does not keep up with market trends; always plays the role of "catching up" with overpriced; produces products that are easy to copy, too late, too functional and limited.
Perhaps even worse, this is Apple's overall relationship. They are often arrogant, stubborn, isolated from reality, pretentious and intrusive. They are undemocratic, their products are designed according to the principle “we decided for you that you don’t need it”, for many this attitude is a slap in the face.
You know what? All this criticism is for the most part true, but at the same time it is inappropriate. Apple gets much more for every aspect of criticism than it does. Unlike the critics themselves, who compromise everything and everyone.
None of these criticisms is a threat to Apple’s continued success. On the contrary, most of the things and actions criticized turn out to be a huge success for Apple.
So if this is not the problem, then what?
"How" in Apple
Guiding Star for Apple
Let's take a look at the following Apple priorities:
You can say that declaring priority on users, and not on profit and growth - this is slyness, but actions are more important than words. And each action taken by Apple reinforces their words about the secondary profit and growth. But there is one thing but for everyone else, including Apple employees, Apple's lenders and investors - profits and growth are IMPORTANT.
Priority on users is in itself very noble, but it does not meet the needs of investors and employees.
Apple has exactly the opposite problem than Microsoft. Microsoft is stimulating to make money, so innovation suffers. Apple encourages innovation, so focusing on career prospects, market share and profits suffers.
What can be measured is manageable
Peter Drucker
Functional organization at Apple puts traditional management at the forefront. The problem with most companies is that they measure the wrong things, so their management forces subordinates to do the wrong things. Apple’s problem is that its priorities are difficult to measure in any meaningful way, so it’s very difficult, or even impossible, to manage and motivate based on these priorities.
The problem is the management of Steve Jobs in the absence of focus.
Again, the problem of most companies is that they are very effective in controlling the execution of tasks, in lifting people up the stairs. However, priorities are not set correctly, the ladder is put on the wrong wall.
The Apple is wrong. Apple has the right priorities, the ladder is on the right wall, but there are no leaders and motivation to push people up this ladder.
- In Microsoft, the main problem is that no one is adapted, not charged, does not protect, not a champion of innovation. No one "owns" the innovations at Microsoft.
- In Apple, the main problem is that no one is adapted, not charged, does not protect, not a champion of market share and profitability. No one "owns" Apple's profitability.
- At Microsoft, merchants and financiers run the show.
- In Apple, designers rule the ball.
- In Microsoft, they are engaged not only in holding a “look at the win,” but they cannot take their eyes off the win for a long time in order to understand that without innovation their companies will die.
- At Apple, all attention is paid to projects that they find right. Money? Market share? Good, but it's a side effect. Paradoxical strategy, which at the same time with such a side effect also does not give chances to such competitors as Palm, Nokia, RIM, HTC and Microsoft.
Great leader
Of course, the answer to the question “Who is responsible for all this?” Is obvious - Steve Jobs. He was the driving force behind Apple.
Now founder and visionary Steve Jobs is gone. Many experts believe that without his leadership, Apple’s current leadership has no choice but to introduce a traditional hierarchical bureaucracy to manage the company. The company will steadily go on the defensive; sellers and financiers will take over; and, over time, management will no longer understand the products and their users, and Apple itself will inevitably slide into mediocrity.
However, for the time being, Tim Cook and Apple are not following this path. They continue to operate as a functional organization. But they do it without a person who brings in a “fan” to the functionality.
It does not matter that the great Apple ship lost its Captain, its visionary. But has he lost his vision?
Will the Apple ship drift in a fog of indecision, float in a sea of ​​doubt, helplessly wait for the next wave of innovation, which will throw them on the rocks and smash them to smithereens?
Old guard
Steve Jobs knew that he was dying, and tried to do everything that depended on him to convey his management philosophy to his Lieutenants. If we look at the words and actions of the current leadership of Apple, we will see that they are doing everything to conform to the management philosophy that Jobs tried to convey to them.
The old guard was with Apple at a difficult time. They forced Apple to survive in very difficult conditions. They have not forgotten. They did everything to extend the legacy of Steve Jobs and their own.
But what happens when the old guard leaves? What will happen when a new blood, those who have not seen anything but great success, will stand at the helm? Will they be able, and will they want to maintain the discipline and focus that is needed to keep Steve Jobs’s managerial dream?
Here is the main question and dilemma for Apple.
Tao Apple
Priorities tell us what to do. Values ​​say how we should do it. Motivation tells us why it's worth doing. Principles tell us who we aim to be. Culture supports and strengthens us in who we really are.
Apple is trying to institutionalize priorities, values, motivation, and principles of functional organization. They use culture to counter and combat the negative effects of entropy and internal emptiness from the loss of the visionary.
Priorities are “what”
Apple decided very clearly for itself: the number one priority is users.
Only fools believe that everything is a priority. But, of course, if you prioritize everything, in fact you do not prioritize anything.
A successful person is an ordinary person, just focused. Apple is hyper-focused on what they need to do in order to remain hyper-successful.
Values ​​are “how”
In most cases, 80% of quality is not just normal, it is actually optimal, because the cost of achieving higher quality is unreasonably high.
The reverse is true, for example, in surgery on the brain, in scuba diving or in space flights. The last 1% is just as important as the previous 99%, because anything less than 100% is a failure.
Apple doesn’t do brain operations and space science, but they chose not to stop at 80% quality. Instead, they decided to go another mile and pay a higher price to get closer to unattainable perfection.
Motivation is why
- Making the computer work is an engineering challenge.
- Making the computer work as we want is a design challenge.
- Create a computer that does the real work - an engineering challenge.
- To create a computer that makes work similar to a game is a task for a genius.
I think this is one of the key differences between Microsoft and Apple:
- Microsoft makes working computers
- Apple makes computers fun
(suggest a normal translation for this phrase:)
Principles are who
People need to know for what beliefs you are ready to stand on a mountain. They should also know what you will not tolerate.
Culture can begin with top management, but it should become a habit enough to permeate the entire organization.
Corporate culture is not ping-pong tables or vacations. This is a set of principles on which decisions are made when the boss is not looking.
Watch your thoughts - they turn into words. Watch your words - they turn into actions. Watch your actions - they become habits. Watch your habits - they turn into character. Watch your character - it turns into your destiny.
Questions is a solution
Apple asks itself the best questions among all the companies I know about.
I think you can continue to ask questions, but I think it's best to watch 2 short videos:
Some critics ridiculed this video, said that they are meaningless and pretentious. No need to waste words on people who can not understand them and appreciate.
Apple tells us:
We are Apple.
We have not yet grown to rest on our laurels.
We have not forgotten the road.
We will continue to ask ourselves these and other questions in order to make sure that we are correct in our direction, that we are following our Guiding Star.
Apple wow effect
Stay hungry.
Stay reckless.
Stay focused.
I agree. Apple desperately, as always, proves to itself that it does not rest on its laurels. Skeptics, although they don’t want it, give Apple a great present - concentration.
Successful business is not without difficulties and anxieties. A successful business is a structure that must be rebuilt every day.
As for courage, Apple seems to have more than enough. Despite all the storms in which they survived perfectly, despite the shoals they successfully roused, they rise every day to grin at opponents who claim that today is the day when they lead a good Apple ship to oblivion to the ends of the earth.
I will end with a powerful quote from the greatest Albert Einstein. It seems that he meant Apple when he wrote these words:
There are 3 rules for successful business.
Unfortunately, no one knows which ones.
Apple now
The man is known for the company he created.
Amboz Beers
The best creation of Steve Jobs - Apple as such
The most important, though not the most notable contribution Jobs made not as a visionary, designer or seller, but as an innovator of management. When asked what was his greatest product: ipad or iphone, he replied:
')
Not. Apple as a company. Because anyone can create a product, but Apple continues to create great products again and again.
With Jobs, Apple showed what happens when a company realigns its priorities to fully focus on user values. As a result, it is not surprising that the company earns
My passion was to build a company where people would like to create great products.
Apple’s continued success depends on the current leadership’s ability to understand and expand the principles laid down by Jobs, while recognizing and minimizing the flaws in its principles.
I want to make Apple a great company for $ 10 billion. Apple has an opportunity to show an example of what an American corporation can be, built at the intersection of science and aesthetics. Something happens to companies that reach a value of several million - their soul disappears. And the most important thing on which I will be concentrated: can we create a company of $ 10 billion, which will not lose the soul?
Traditional companies, driven by monetary incentives and managed by a hierarchical bureaucracy, have their limitations and do not seem to have a chance to become truly innovative. Apple is on a different path.
Apple - a functional organization
Jobs rebuilt Apple into a functional organization. He put users at the forefront, eliminated middle management, eliminated traditional monetary and career incentives, and closed the company on himself.
Functional company is ideal for innovation. This is Apple’s strength, but it’s also its weakness.
Yin and Yang Apple
Critics say Apple focuses too much; cannot combine multiple mission-critical projects; spends too much time, energy and money on product features that are not important and will not be appreciated by users; makes only very modest updates to existing products; does not keep up with market trends; always plays the role of "catching up" with overpriced; produces products that are easy to copy, too late, too functional and limited.
Perhaps even worse, this is Apple's overall relationship. They are often arrogant, stubborn, isolated from reality, pretentious and intrusive. They are undemocratic, their products are designed according to the principle “we decided for you that you don’t need it”, for many this attitude is a slap in the face.
You know what? All this criticism is for the most part true, but at the same time it is inappropriate. Apple gets much more for every aspect of criticism than it does. Unlike the critics themselves, who compromise everything and everyone.
None of these criticisms is a threat to Apple’s continued success. On the contrary, most of the things and actions criticized turn out to be a huge success for Apple.
So if this is not the problem, then what?
"How" in Apple
To finish first, you first need to finish.
Rick Mears
Guiding Star for Apple
Let's take a look at the following Apple priorities:
Our guiding star is to make the best products ... we are talking about the best user experience and the happiest users ... Apple focuses primarily on the quality of the product, the price is secondary ... we are motivated by products, not profits ... The company's goal is enthusiastic users ... we want truly enrich people's lives in the end, not just make money.
You can say that declaring priority on users, and not on profit and growth - this is slyness, but actions are more important than words. And each action taken by Apple reinforces their words about the secondary profit and growth. But there is one thing but for everyone else, including Apple employees, Apple's lenders and investors - profits and growth are IMPORTANT.
Priority on users is in itself very noble, but it does not meet the needs of investors and employees.
Apple's priority is not growth. You may think this is wonderful, I can, but on Wall Street nobody cares. And frankly - should not.
Ban Thomson ( @monkbent )
Apple has exactly the opposite problem than Microsoft. Microsoft is stimulating to make money, so innovation suffers. Apple encourages innovation, so focusing on career prospects, market share and profits suffers.
There is no internal incentive for Apple to chase profits and market share. Which, of course, is a problem for the company owning the platform.
Ban Thomson ( @monkbent )
What can be measured is manageable
Peter Drucker
The danger of bad metrics in what will be measured will be done.
Roger Kai ( @RogerKay )
Functional organization at Apple puts traditional management at the forefront. The problem with most companies is that they measure the wrong things, so their management forces subordinates to do the wrong things. Apple’s problem is that its priorities are difficult to measure in any meaningful way, so it’s very difficult, or even impossible, to manage and motivate based on these priorities.
The problem is the management of Steve Jobs in the absence of focus.
Effective leadership puts all things in order. Effective management is a discipline in their implementation.
Stephen Covey
Management is an effective climb of the ladder of success, leadership determines whether this ladder is attached to the correct wall.
Stephen Covey
Again, the problem of most companies is that they are very effective in controlling the execution of tasks, in lifting people up the stairs. However, priorities are not set correctly, the ladder is put on the wrong wall.
The Apple is wrong. Apple has the right priorities, the ladder is on the right wall, but there are no leaders and motivation to push people up this ladder.
- In Microsoft, the main problem is that no one is adapted, not charged, does not protect, not a champion of innovation. No one "owns" the innovations at Microsoft.
- In Apple, the main problem is that no one is adapted, not charged, does not protect, not a champion of market share and profitability. No one "owns" Apple's profitability.
- At Microsoft, merchants and financiers run the show.
- In Apple, designers rule the ball.
- In Microsoft, they are engaged not only in holding a “look at the win,” but they cannot take their eyes off the win for a long time in order to understand that without innovation their companies will die.
- At Apple, all attention is paid to projects that they find right. Money? Market share? Good, but it's a side effect. Paradoxical strategy, which at the same time with such a side effect also does not give chances to such competitors as Palm, Nokia, RIM, HTC and Microsoft.
Great leader
Of course, the answer to the question “Who is responsible for all this?” Is obvious - Steve Jobs. He was the driving force behind Apple.
Now founder and visionary Steve Jobs is gone. Many experts believe that without his leadership, Apple’s current leadership has no choice but to introduce a traditional hierarchical bureaucracy to manage the company. The company will steadily go on the defensive; sellers and financiers will take over; and, over time, management will no longer understand the products and their users, and Apple itself will inevitably slide into mediocrity.
However, for the time being, Tim Cook and Apple are not following this path. They continue to operate as a functional organization. But they do it without a person who brings in a “fan” to the functionality.
It does not matter that the great Apple ship lost its Captain, its visionary. But has he lost his vision?
Will the Apple ship drift in a fog of indecision, float in a sea of ​​doubt, helplessly wait for the next wave of innovation, which will throw them on the rocks and smash them to smithereens?
Old guard
Steve Jobs knew that he was dying, and tried to do everything that depended on him to convey his management philosophy to his Lieutenants. If we look at the words and actions of the current leadership of Apple, we will see that they are doing everything to conform to the management philosophy that Jobs tried to convey to them.
The old guard was with Apple at a difficult time. They forced Apple to survive in very difficult conditions. They have not forgotten. They did everything to extend the legacy of Steve Jobs and their own.
But what happens when the old guard leaves? What will happen when a new blood, those who have not seen anything but great success, will stand at the helm? Will they be able, and will they want to maintain the discipline and focus that is needed to keep Steve Jobs’s managerial dream?
Here is the main question and dilemma for Apple.
Tao Apple
Tao (Chinese, literally - the way) - one of the most important categories of Chinese philosophy. Confucius and the early Confucianists gave it an ethical meaning, interpreting it as a “human way”, that is, moral behavior and a social order based on morality ... a polarization of Yin and Yang arises from Tao, and as a result, opposites arise, from the consistency of actions change, movement and mutual penetration - and therefore a world arises.
ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%E0%EE
Priorities tell us what to do. Values ​​say how we should do it. Motivation tells us why it's worth doing. Principles tell us who we aim to be. Culture supports and strengthens us in who we really are.
Apple is trying to institutionalize priorities, values, motivation, and principles of functional organization. They use culture to counter and combat the negative effects of entropy and internal emptiness from the loss of the visionary.
Priorities are “what”
The most important thing in life is to know the most important things in life.
David F. Jackielo
Apple decided very clearly for itself: the number one priority is users.
We do not want to start with an idea, and then move towards customers. We want to start with the problem of the client, and then invent its solution.
The words of Jeff Bezos. Apple philosophy.
Anyone who wants to do everything in the end will not do anything.
André Mauuris
Only fools believe that everything is a priority. But, of course, if you prioritize everything, in fact you do not prioritize anything.
The whole point of getting things done is not knowing what to do.
Lady Stella Reading
The point is that when people clearly understand the main priorities of the company and the team, they build their work around these top priorities, they not only become much more productive, but also find time to live a full life.
Stephen Covey
The likelihood of hitting the target increases dramatically when you heal it.
Mal Pankoast
A successful person is an ordinary person, just focused. Apple is hyper-focused on what they need to do in order to remain hyper-successful.
Values ​​are “how”
In most cases, 80% of quality is not just normal, it is actually optimal, because the cost of achieving higher quality is unreasonably high.
The reverse is true, for example, in surgery on the brain, in scuba diving or in space flights. The last 1% is just as important as the previous 99%, because anything less than 100% is a failure.
Ensign enters the service on the submarine, where he wanted to be since he was a child. He was impatient to share the knowledge that he learned in the school of scuba diving. The master quickly cut short his story and said: “Listen, everything is simple here. Add the number of dives to the number of ascents and divide by 2. If the result is not an even number, do not open the hatch.
Anektdot.
You have to solve only two problems when you go to the moon: how to get there and how to get back. The main thing is that you can not retreat until you solve both problems.
Neil Armstrong
Apple doesn’t do brain operations and space science, but they chose not to stop at 80% quality. Instead, they decided to go another mile and pay a higher price to get closer to unattainable perfection.
Frankly speaking: we have never agreed to anything less than perfection in every group within the company, and we have enough honesty to admit that we are wrong and enough courage to change.
Tim Cook
Perfection is rare, but even less often appreciated.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Quality is doing something right, even when no one is looking.
Henry Ford
Motivation is why
The purpose of life is to live for the sake of the goal.
Robert Byrne
Being the richest man in the cemetery is not the main thing ... Going to bed and telling yourself that you have done something really beautiful is the main thing.
Steve Jobs
The best things in the world are not things.
John ruskin
We believe that we are on Earth to do great things, and this will never change.
Tim Cook
- Making the computer work is an engineering challenge.
- Making the computer work as we want is a design challenge.
- Create a computer that does the real work - an engineering challenge.
- To create a computer that makes work similar to a game is a task for a genius.
I think this is one of the key differences between Microsoft and Apple:
- Microsoft makes working computers
- Apple makes computers fun
(suggest a normal translation for this phrase:)
Principles are who
Understand who you are and make it your goal.
Dolly Parton
People need to know for what beliefs you are ready to stand on a mountain. They should also know what you will not tolerate.
Culture can begin with top management, but it should become a habit enough to permeate the entire organization.
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit makes not stop,
Jim rohn
Corporate culture is not ping-pong tables or vacations. This is a set of principles on which decisions are made when the boss is not looking.
Watch your thoughts - they turn into words. Watch your words - they turn into actions. Watch your actions - they become habits. Watch your habits - they turn into character. Watch your character - it turns into your destiny.
Questions is a solution
Someone once said to me: “Start with the basics, the rest will follow.” What are the basics? This is, for example, why we did it in the first place? What is our strategy? What will our users say? How responsive are we? Do we have the best products and the best people? These are the questions you should focus on.
Steve Jobs
Apple asks itself the best questions among all the companies I know about.
The most difficult task for any thinker is to put the problem in such a way that it implies the possibility of a solution.
I think you can continue to ask questions, but I think it's best to watch 2 short videos:
Some critics ridiculed this video, said that they are meaningless and pretentious. No need to waste words on people who can not understand them and appreciate.
A person can fulfill his mission by asking questions that he cannot answer and setting goals that he cannot achieve.
Oliver wendell holmes
Apple tells us:
We are Apple.
A wise man’s question contains half the answer.
Solomon Ibn Gabirol
We have not yet grown to rest on our laurels.
Enlighten is not the answer, but the questions.
Eugene Ionesco
We have not forgotten the road.
Judge a person by his questions, not by answers.
Voltaire
We will continue to ask ourselves these and other questions in order to make sure that we are correct in our direction, that we are following our Guiding Star.
Apple wow effect
Stay hungry.
See widely and simplify.
Wilverd A. Peterson
The cure for boredom is curiosity. No cure for curiosity.
Ellen parr
An intelligent person adapts to the world; unreasonable - persistently trying to adapt the world to itself. Therefore, progress depends on unreasonable people.
George Bernard Shaw
Stay reckless.
Absolutely all new ideas were kind of stupid when they were just starting to talk about them.
Alfred North Whitehead
Today’s mighty oak just yesterday was a nut that was looking for its place.
David Ikke
If no one tells you that your idea is crazy, perhaps this is not a good idea.
Francis Ford Coppola
You receive the greatest pleasure when you do things about which people said that it is impossible.
Walter Badget
It's a little fun to do the impossible.
Walt Disney
When life gives you lemons, make grape juice, and then sit down and let the world understand how you did it.
Truth passes through three stages: first it is mocked, then it is fiercely resisted, and finally it is accepted as obvious.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Stay focused.
Recently, I was confronted with a small insight: I think the non-ending flow of anxiety about Apple’s future is good for the company.
Jean-Louis Gasse
I agree. Apple desperately, as always, proves to itself that it does not rest on its laurels. Skeptics, although they don’t want it, give Apple a great present - concentration.
Unhappiness is your best teacher.
Greek Evans
As a rule, failures do not hide geniuses and success hides them.
Horace
Successful business is not without difficulties and anxieties. A successful business is a structure that must be rebuilt every day.
Success is not final, failures are not fatal, only courage to continue is important.
Winston Churchill
As for courage, Apple seems to have more than enough. Despite all the storms in which they survived perfectly, despite the shoals they successfully roused, they rise every day to grin at opponents who claim that today is the day when they lead a good Apple ship to oblivion to the ends of the earth.
Life is not to wait for the rain to subside. She is learning to dance in the rain.
I will end with a powerful quote from the greatest Albert Einstein. It seems that he meant Apple when he wrote these words:
Remember the past, live for today, hope for the future. Most importantly, never stop asking questions.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/197326/
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