Leading Apple With Steve Jobs: Management Lessons From a Controversial Genius

The Apple Culture: Still in Place

Tim Cook had already, a couple of years earlier, reaffirmed his commitment to the business philosophy that Steve had expressed to me when he and I were fashioning Apple’s first statement of values. Tim’s words reflect how a strong corporate tradition and commitment can be passed along, embraced by the next generation of leadership. In an inspiring statement and affirmation, Tim said,

There is an extraordinary depth and breadth and tenure among the Apple executive team, and these executives lead over 35,000 employees that I would call “all wicked smart.” And that’s in all areas of the company, from engineering to marketing to operations and sales and all the rest. And the values of our company are extremely well entrenched.

We believe that we’re on the face of the Earth to make great products, and that’s not changing. We’re constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.

We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot.

And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty ...