The Apple Way of Management

DRIs, STEVE REQUESTS, Death March and so on…

Synonymous with innovation, Apple Inc. is one of the world’s most valuable companies by market capitalization. It’s the birthplace of revolutionary products such as Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad, known throughout the world. Steve Jobs, the former CEO, who passed away on October 5 2011, is widely believed to be the spirit of Apple Inc. that recorded $156.5 billion in sales revenue in 2012. A Productive Narcissist as Michael Maccoby called his ilk in his classic HBR article, Steve Jobs is a visionary, a genius and a legend. But his leadership style and the way he and his executive team runs the company go right against the best management practices dished out by business pundits. Still, Apple has prospered. It’s intriguing to peer into Apple and see what drives their extraordinary success.

Writes Adam Lashinsky in his book ‘Inside Apple: The Secrets Behind the Past and Future Success of Steve Jobs’s Iconic Brand’, “Apple employees know something big is afoot when the carpenters appear in their office building. New walls are quickly erected. Doors are added and new security protocols put into place. Windows that once were transparent are now frosted. Other rooms have no windows at all. These are called lockdown rooms. No information goes in or out without a reason….”

Understandably, all businesses keep their innovations under wraps so that their rivals can’t lay their hands on the particular technologies or on the materials used. But Apple is simply the corporate equivalent of CIA. Its internal secrecy as evidenced by those lockdown rooms and other off-limits areas is much too far from the internal security practices most companies generally adopt. Apple clings so tightly to the notion that loose lips sink ships that a T-shirt for sale in the company store, which is open to the public, reads: I VISITED THE APPLE CAMPUS. BUT THAT’S ALL I’M ALLOWED TO SAY.

The new hires are deliberately placed in dummy roles until the management can trust them with information about the project and their responsibilities. “They wouldn’t tell me what it was,” says a former software engineer, “I knew it was related to the iPod, but not what the job was.” The secrecy pays off Apple well. As Apple keeps its new products under wraps up until the launch, the company attracts immense press and coverage and buzz, which is worth millions of dollars. Even at its highest ranks, only a chosen few are allowed to speak to the media about Apple.

When an Apple employee gets an email from a colleague with ‘STEVE REQUEST’ at the head of the subject lines, it immediately grabs his or her attention. Steve Jobs, their boss wants something done and it’s a serious business always. They know the boss will heed no excuses for any mistakes on their part. And people won’t put STEVE REQUEST on the subject line for no reason. Small wonder they immediately get down to the job.

Tasks with blurred boundaries aren’t assigned to Apple people. Whatever is the job, there is always a Directly Responsible Individual (DRI). And it is the DRI who will be called on the carpet if something goes wrong. Because personal accountability is a cultural imperative at Apple, relentless focus on one’s job or domain of expertise is an absolute necessity for all people from those at the top ranks to those on the bottom. Graphic people do graphic. Marketing people do marketing of all sorts. Programmers engage only in programming. What we can witness here is a classic example of division of labour successfully applied in the modern day. General management-managers doing all sorts of things such as production, marketing, finance and HR- is something that Apple studiedly discourages and eschews from. Apple hires only the best people. But they’re hired solely for their expertise, not for managerial skills.

What Apple engineers refer to as ‘the death march’ is the stage of product development when a launch draws near. The macabre military term encapsulates the rigorous discipline and relentless efforts demanded from them. When the annual Macworld tradeshow was held shortly after New Year’s Day, people had to work through the holidays year after year. 

“Apple runs so fast and so lean, it requires people to really work hard and take on a lot of tasks and do them in a short period of time”, says a former recruiter who is close to Apple employees. “There’s a mystique about Apple that is intriguing to people, so they want to check it out. They want to be part of something cool, but then they get in there and they’re like, Oh, this really isn’t the hip company that I thought it was.” Apple people are known to quip “Everybody at Apple wants out, and everybody outside Apple wants in.”

In fact, Apple is not for everyone. A famous example is the brief unhappy Apple career of IBM veteran Mark Papermaster who joined Apple in April 2009 to head the divisions that manufactured iPods and iPhones. Says someone who had interacted with Papermaster at Apple “He is warm, patient, and willing to listen - just not the right qualities for Apple. It was so painfully obvious to everyone.”  He was out by September 2010.

The wonder is, despite all those blatant contradictions, Apple continues to prosper.