Excerpt From New Book Offers Look at Tim Cook's Management Style

[peterdevries]

Don't assume that money spent results in innovation. That path leads you down the Sony route. You can have all he money in the world,

You should the rest of my posts, because that is exactly my point. Too many people here assume that innovation is just a button to press to get some money spent and then the rest will come.

Yeah cause as a result of the 2012-2013 spend we are rocking some incredibly new devices

-snip-

without he right individuals innovation does not happen. And that is apples current problem.

Sorry, but with these sentences you showed that you also don't get the situation. Apple has enough people capable of innovation, and acquired quite an amount of new companies and people recently in addition. It basically boils down to the following elements:

• Innovation takes time. A disruptive innovation can take 5-10 years to get to market.
• The size of the company is impeding its agility.
• The strategy is for a large part determined by powerful investors that focus on profit generation from legacy product lines.
• The balance between innovating departments and production / sales departments has through the growth of the company shifted to the latter, which increases the difficulty of getting new innovations to market.
• The consumer electronics market has matured and it has become more difficult for anyone to generate disruptive innovations in this field, no matter the investment.
• Structures within Apple have formalized, making costly entrepreneurial environments less likely and innovative processes more difficult to manage. You can't manage Apple the same way you would a start-up.

In general innovation is really really hard in a really really large corporation. To be effective it requires constant changes to the business' strategy to stay in step with the growth of the company, the market and the development of its technology.

 

[MRCow]

You should the rest of my posts, because that is exactly my point. Too many people here assume that innovation is just a button to press to get some money spent and then the rest will come.



Sorry, but with that last part of the sentence you showed that you also don't get the situation. Apple has enough people capable of innovation, and acquired quite an amount of new companies and people recently in addition. It basically boils down to the following elements:

• The size of the company is impeding its agility.
• The strategy is for a large part determined by powerful investors that focus on profit generation from legacy product lines.
• The balance between innovating departments and production / sales departments has through the growth of the company shifted to the latter, which increases the difficulty of getting new innovations to market.
• The consumer electronics market has matured and it has become more difficult for anyone to generate disruptive innovations in this field, no matter the investment.
• Structures within Apple have formalized, making costly entrepreneurial environments less likely and innovative processes more difficult to manage. You can't manage Apple the same way you would a start-up.

In general innovation is really really hard in a really really large corporation. To be effective it requires constant changes to the business' strategy to stay in step with the growth of the company, the market and the development of its technology.

Apple's quickest leap from one innovation to the next has been 3 years. (iPhone 2007—iPad 2010). According to my calendar, the 4th year has not yet ended...

 

[eva00r]

I would love to read Ive's management style also ...

 

[peterdevries]

Apple's quickest leap from one innovation to the next has been 3 years. (iPhone 2007—iPad 2010). According to my calendar, the 4th year has not yet ended...

I understand what you are saying, but that doesn't disprove my points. Although from a market point of view the iPad was certainly disruptive, it wasn't from a technology point of view. In that sense the iPad was an incremental innovation from the iPhone and a logical next step.

To truly understand what is happening, you need to look wider than just individual elements such as R&D expenditure, product launches and competitor behaviour. It is an incredibly complex tapestry of levers and effects that are very difficult to understand let alone control.

 

[adeedew]

There's never going to be another Steve jobs in our lifetime. Let's hope this great company continues to make incredible products.

 

[lolkthxbai]

Since he did not get any answer, maybe he asked the wrong question. Or the wrong person. Or his question was not clear.

I think a good leader should be able to work with strong personalities. Cook just "weeds out" people who threaten his harmony. A great manager does not adapt a company to his abilities.

Apple has it's own culture. If you can't deal then GTFO.

 

[Alumeenium]

how are

"we're working on some great things"

and

"innovation takes time"

a management style ??


the Stock has dropped to a plateau of $520
the Stores are full of morons, both working and shopping there
the incremental updates to the same old products are tiresome

 

[Sy7ygy]

how are

"we're working on some great things"

and

"innovation takes time"

a management style ??


the Stock has dropped to a plateau of $520
the Stores are full of morons, both working and shopping there
the incremental updates to the same old products are tiresome

Maybe Apple products are not for you then.

Simplez.

 

[unplugme71]

I don't find any of these intimidation tactics impressive in the least.

Didn't like the stuff Jobs used to pull (yelling at people, etc.) and don't care for this either.

I mean, look -- the person who can't answer your question satisfactorily in a meeting already gets it; he screwed up. How much productivity is going to happen in the meeting during long periods of awkward silence?

It's so next time you are more prepared. If at every meeting you didn't have the answer and the boss said, okay, get back to me.. Would you change? Most likely not.

After this, you'd be sure to be well prepared and have the answers ready. And if not, you better have a damn good reason as to why.

Apple thrives on excellence. If you aren't excellent, you don't work at Apple.

 

[Alumeenium]

Apple thrives on excellence. If you aren't excellent, you don't work at Apple.

keep telling yourself that, they suffer from the same detritus of corporate politics, bloat, and frightened middle management as every other company

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Given the Wall Street Urinal's massive bias, I'd not believe anything they said.

Given the row over Apple's environmental aims, I'd expect anything negative to be the typical 'Fox News' crap washing in hopes that some of it sticks and covers Apple and Tim.

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keep telling yourself that, they suffer from the same detritus of corporate politics, bloat, and frightened middle management as every other company

Gosh, they will if they have people that buy that line of crap.

I have worked in companies that expected the best from me, and were still incredibly great places to work. I've worked in way to many that expect the best in me, and give me the back of their hand.

It IS a choice. You can treat people well, or be a dick and treat people like livestock. It IS a choice...

 

[kaos0271]

Funny!

I love all the comments where people think Steve Jobs did it all. Wonder what success he would have had without the likes of Jony Ive and the rest of the brilliant minds behind the scenes. Tim Cook is the same way, he has that core group of brilliant minds that he leads.

So many people that are never satisfied with what Apple does. So many people that would love for Apple to fail just so they can post to a message forum saying "I told you so!!!" and expect their prize in the mail. Go do something constructive with your lives! Perhaps you should go buy an Android phone and tablet along with a Windows desktop if Apple is doing so bad.

Cook, like Jobs, has to be on his top game all the time. Under Jobs, they didn't necessarily have all the competition knocking at the door. Now they have everyone that has copied what Apple has done and spinned it with their own flavor. Samsung simply used what Apple did instead of spending heavily on their own R&D. Apple WAS and still IS their R&D dept. Simply copy instead of innovating. Apple was smart enough to SELL music instead of pirating it like Napster. Now everyone wants to sell music in their own flavor of iTunes. Look at Apple's iPhone with all those great apps...let's just copy that and spin it over to Android.

Cook has far far more pressure from the competition than Jobs ever had. Jobs was a great leader and visionary with a lot of that being passed down to that core group of minds that he led for many years.

As far as Apple's stock price, thats simply Wall Street being Wall Street. Apple continues to post record revenues, yet their stock drops? They far and away blow Google out of the water in terms of revenue and profit...yet Google stock is almost double? Makes ZERO sense to me!

Apple will be just fine!

 

[kaos0271]

Apple's quickest leap from one innovation to the next has been 3 years. (iPhone 2007—iPad 2010). According to my calendar, the 4th year has not yet ended...

iTunes and iPod were introduced in 2001. Wasn't till 2007 that they introduced the iPhone, then 2010 the iPad (as you stated).

People are looking for Apple to come out with some amazing product every year now and when they don't, it's nothing but screams and cries that they lack vision and direction.

Not everything Apple did under Jobs was a success. Anyone remember mobileMe? DISASTER! Remember that short lived part of iTunes that attempted some type of social networking called Ping? Yeah, I thought not. Another failure!

Apple will have another hit. Just takes lots of time and refinement.

 

[mccldwll]

how are

"we're working on some great things"

and

"innovation takes time"

a management style ??


the Stock has dropped to a plateau of $520
the Stores are full of morons, both working and shopping there
the incremental updates to the same old products are tiresome

Inaccuracies aside, sounds like you definitely must either work or shop at the Stores.

 

[nsayer]

Hire a photog

I just can't get over what an ugly picture of Tim Cook that is. It makes him look like he's a toothless dottering old man.

 

[MarvinMartian]

I wouldn't like to be under such a boss, but I understand why it would be necessary from a management point of view.

But good lord...6 hour meetings ?!?

Yep. You can't get things done for having meetings about what needs to get done. Sheesh.

At six hours, it's not a meeting, it's an inquisition or a torture session; neither of which is productive.

Management by intimidation. Tony Robbins wouldn't be pleased. ;-)

----------

Apple thrives on excellence. If you aren't excellent, you don't work at Apple.

Supposedly Apple takes extreme measures to assure that they only hired excellent people to begin with. So if someone made it to the table who wasn't excellent, either the hiring measures are ineffective or bogus, or the person has suffered a mental breakdown. Neither of those cases merit the public embarrassment.

Basic leadership training states "Praise in public. Admonish in private." If you browbeat your employees in front of others, either for your enjoyment, or their public humiliation, you're an azzhat. And you're anything BUT an effective leader.

 

[dannysal]

He kind sounds like a dick just like his predecessor. The folks who work at Apple, the engineers specifically, make Apple what is it today. Not Jobs or Cook. I know, the true hurts sometimes.

 

[Rossatron]

I wouldn't like to be under such a boss, but I understand why it would be necessary from a management point of view.

But good lord...6 hour meetings ?!?

Yeah, I hope the sandwiches are great

 

[SusanK]

Cook has far far more pressure from the competition than Jobs ever had. Jobs was a great leader and visionary with a lot of that being passed down to that core group of minds that he led for many years.

When Steve returned to Apple the company had 90 days worth of operating capital. Jobs had to turn things around in a very short time or paychecks would bounce.

That's pressure. Competition and some questionable corporate decisions had Apple on the ropes. Steve got it done. Did Steve ever miss a beat? Sure but he saved Apple with the help of good people.

Jony was there and Steve recognized his value. There were many others at Apple who contributed. Steve was able to retain and recruit best of the best

Cook fell into a bed of roses positioned on top of a pile of cash. Apple was debt free then.

As for Wall Street, when a CEO tells shareholders to get out at a shareholder's meeting--well?

Hoping things go well for Apple.