Inside Apple, one of the most secretive organisations
A new book lifts the lid on what it’s really like to work for it
A 12,000-person mile-round glass mothership is about to land in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Futuristic, with its own self-contained electricity plant: plans for Apple’s new disc-shaped headquarters encompass the lasting legacy of the late Steve Jobs — a slick design, with an uber-efficient core.
Over the years, dozens of technophiles have made the pilgrimage to One Infinite Loop, Apple’s current base in Cupertino, in the hope of getting under the skin of the highly-secretive company.
Few make it inside the main Apple building. A throng of security guards greets them instead, escorting them back onto the sidewalk, sometimes pointing them in the direction of the on-campus shop where they can buy a token Apple T-Shirt.
But a new book, released in the UK this week, finally gives a non-partisan insight into life as an Apple employee. And it isn’t what most expect.
According to Inside Apple, Apple is a glut of windowless offices, a neutering of egos and an ethos of fear with “cultish” overtones.
“Apple doesn’t talk about Apple. Apple talks about Apple products,” Adam Lashinsky, author of the book and editor of Fortune magazine, told The Daily Telegraph.
Perhaps for good reason; the illusion of a free-spirited workforce sitting around on bean bags playing on the latest gizmos before they have their free lunch would be shattered.
Instead, a dictatorial CEO rules with an iron fist, Lashinsky said. Employees don’t ask questions and they leave their egos at the door. There is only one person who was allowed to have a public ego and that was Steve Jobs, he said.
“It is a tough place to work. It is not a joyous place the way Google presents itself,” Lashinsky said. “It’s not a particularly happy place but it breeds people who can thrive in that environment. It’s a pressure-cooker and some people like that.”
Apple employees are like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle and the only person who knows how to fit the pieces together is the CEO, a role Steve Jobs held until it was handed to Tim Cook last year.
Amid the wires, nodules and circuit board designs, is a company that is so clandestine, its own workers don’t know what they are creating, he said.
Windowless chambers, called lock-down rooms, are the only place where the next iPad or iPhone can be discussed, and even then senior vice-presidents only enter the room to discuss their part in a design before being asked to leave, he said.
Information is strictly restricted to a select 100, hand-picked by Steve Jobs himself.
When it comes to product launch day, Apple employees gather around the television in the cafeteria to find out about the new product. They will be as surprised as everyone else despite having helped build it, said Lashinsky. Daily Telegraph
A new book lifts the lid on what it’s really like to work for it
A 12,000-person mile-round glass mothership is about to land in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Futuristic, with its own self-contained electricity plant: plans for Apple’s new disc-shaped headquarters encompass the lasting legacy of the late Steve Jobs — a slick design, with an uber-efficient core.
Over the years, dozens of technophiles have made the pilgrimage to One Infinite Loop, Apple’s current base in Cupertino, in the hope of getting under the skin of the highly-secretive company.
Few make it inside the main Apple building. A throng of security guards greets them instead, escorting them back onto the sidewalk, sometimes pointing them in the direction of the on-campus shop where they can buy a token Apple T-Shirt.
But a new book, released in the UK this week, finally gives a non-partisan insight into life as an Apple employee. And it isn’t what most expect.
According to Inside Apple, Apple is a glut of windowless offices, a neutering of egos and an ethos of fear with “cultish” overtones.
“Apple doesn’t talk about Apple. Apple talks about Apple products,” Adam Lashinsky, author of the book and editor of Fortune magazine, told The Daily Telegraph.
Perhaps for good reason; the illusion of a free-spirited workforce sitting around on bean bags playing on the latest gizmos before they have their free lunch would be shattered.
Instead, a dictatorial CEO rules with an iron fist, Lashinsky said. Employees don’t ask questions and they leave their egos at the door. There is only one person who was allowed to have a public ego and that was Steve Jobs, he said.
“It is a tough place to work. It is not a joyous place the way Google presents itself,” Lashinsky said. “It’s not a particularly happy place but it breeds people who can thrive in that environment. It’s a pressure-cooker and some people like that.”
Apple employees are like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle and the only person who knows how to fit the pieces together is the CEO, a role Steve Jobs held until it was handed to Tim Cook last year.
Amid the wires, nodules and circuit board designs, is a company that is so clandestine, its own workers don’t know what they are creating, he said.
Windowless chambers, called lock-down rooms, are the only place where the next iPad or iPhone can be discussed, and even then senior vice-presidents only enter the room to discuss their part in a design before being asked to leave, he said.
Information is strictly restricted to a select 100, hand-picked by Steve Jobs himself.
When it comes to product launch day, Apple employees gather around the television in the cafeteria to find out about the new product. They will be as surprised as everyone else despite having helped build it, said Lashinsky. Daily Telegraph
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