Sequencing Apple's DNA

7Apple, the Learning Company

7.1. The chasm

You know your core business. You know what you know and you also know what you do not know (which perhaps you should not know either). Your experience guides you. Enough knowledge is enough: concentrating on what you do best is always your safest net for the future.

Do the dynamics of success make companies fall asleep after a while? After the start-up phase, it is said that growth must happen to succeed and reap the benefits of initial investments. Success in one domain attracts success, but the downside of it is that you tend to confine yourself to the same narrow domain, again and again. Does a looming fate of being successful blind us again to the hidden learning needed to perform?

7.1.1. Business school

The traditional school of thought is to put emphasis on how to avoid making any mistakes and failures. This conservative attitude lends to risk aversion, at all levels of management.

Which attitudes tend to develop a company culture hostile to innovations, especially disruptive ones?

7.1.2. Apple

“I have learned from my mistakes, and I am sure I can repeat them exactly.”

Peter Cook

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”

Steve Jobs

In the Apple way of managing a company, the company keeps the agility of a start up, whatever its size. So, ...