Apple nog steeds 'innovation-driven'
15 december 2021 - 16:19   
geplaatst door: boiing
Een leuk artikel van vorig jaar over de organisatie structuur van Apple die nog steeds a-typisch is vergeleken met andere bedrijven van deze omvang. Een belangrijke en minder vaak genoemde verdienste van Steve Jobs. Het laat mooi zien dat het DNA van Apple nog steeds innovatie is en niet op de eerste plaats winst en shareholder value zoals zo vaak te makkelijk wordt beweerd.

https://hbr.org/2020/11/how-apple-is-organized-for-innovation

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Thus product decisions are somewhat insulated from short-term financial pressures. The finance team is not involved in the product road map meetings of engineering teams, and engineering teams are not involved in pricing decisions.
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Apple is not a company where general managers oversee managers; rather, it is a company where experts lead experts. The assumption is that it’s easier to train an expert to manage well than to train a manager to be an expert.

En het verklaart de soms obsessieve aandacht voor detail:

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Apple’s leaders insist on continuous curves, resulting in a shape known in the design community as a “squircle”: The slope starts sooner but is less abrupt. An advantage of hardware products without abrupt changes in curvature is that they produce softer highlights (that is, little to no jump in light reflection along the corner). The difference is subtle, and executing on it isn’t simply a matter of a more complicated mathematical formula. It demands that Apple’s operations leaders commit to extremely precise manufacturing tolerances to produce millions of iPhones and other products with squircles. This deep immersion in detail isn’t just a concern that is pushed down to lower-level people; it is central at the leadership level.

Having leaders who are experts in their areas and can go deep into the details has profound implications for how Apple is run. Leaders can push, probe, and “smell” an issue. They know which details are important and where to focus their attention. Many people at Apple see it as liberating, even exhilarating, to work for experts, who provide better guidance and mentoring than a general manager would. Together, all can strive to do the best work of their lives in their chosen area.

Nog veel meer leuke details en weetjes in de rest van het stuk. Aanrader!

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Apple’s functional organization is rare, if not unique, among very large companies. It flies in the face of prevailing management theory that companies should be reorganized into divisions and business units as they become large. But something vital gets lost in a shift to business units: the alignment of decision rights with expertise.
Apple nog steeds 'innovation-driven'
15 december 2021 - 16:25    reactie #1
geplaatst door: nnsa
Voor onder de 🎄  :thumbs-up:
Apple nog steeds 'innovation-driven'
15 december 2021 - 18:08    reactie #2
geplaatst door: puk1980
Bedankt voor de tip. Later lezen.  :reading:
Apple nog steeds 'innovation-driven'
15 december 2021 - 21:31    reactie #3
geplaatst door: GeorgeM
Bedankt voor deze link, uitstekend artikel (wist hier al aardig wat van, maar nog nooit een artikel gelezen dat het zo helder uiteenzet).

In deze context ook interessant, Joel Podolny, het hoofd van Apple University die jarenlang mensen opleidde in deze structuur, verlaat Apple om bij een startup te gaan werken.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-13/apple-management-training-chief-joel-podolny-leaves-for-startup