Inside Apple by Adam Lashinsky explores the inner workings of Apple and how its founder, the late Steve Jobs, returned from exile to transform a floundering computer company into an unrivaled producer of products that inspire near-religious devotion from fans. Jobs’s management style resulted in a commitment to exceptionally high standards, an intense focus on minute points of design, and the tight control of Apple’s image. The company’s obsession with secrecy means that pre-release product information is kept from most employees with the same rigidity as it is kept from the public. In addition to analyzing Jobs’s management techniques, Lashinsky examines the capabilities of Apple’s most promising senior executives, as much speculation has risen concerning Jobs’s replacement and how the company will proceed without him.

2. INSIDE APPLE
How America’s Most Admired—and Secretive—
Company Really Works
AUTHOR: Adam Lashinsky
PUBLISHER: Grand Central Publishing
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2012
224 pages

3. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky
FEATURES OF THE BOOK
Inside Apple by Adam Lashinsky would interest anyone
curious about the inner workings of Apple and the leadership
strategies that Steve Jobs employed to make the company a
tremendously powerful center of innovation.

4. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky
THE BIG IDEA
Apple does not rely on consumer surveys or focus
groups to decide which products to develop. Instead, it
simply decides which products it wishes to make.
Secrecy is highly important at Apple. This is largely
because pre-release speculation has driven up sales.
Information concerning the company’s internal workings
is also suppressed. Organization charts, standard with
most businesses, do not exist at Apple.

5. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky
INTRODUCTION
In Inside Apple, Adam Lashinsky explores the inner workings of
Apple and how its founder, the late Steve Jobs, returned from
exile to transform a floundering computer company into an
unrivaled producer of products that inspire near-religious
devotion from fans. Jobs’s management style resulted in a
commitment to exceptionally high standards, an intense focus on
minute points of design, and the tight control of Apple’s image.

6. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky
RETHINK LEADERSHIP
Apple began when Steve Jobs’s friend Steve Wozniak
developed the Apple I computer in 1976. Jobs realized a greater
market existed for it, and the Apple II followed in 1977. With
impressive sales, the company became hugely successful and
the co-founders became millionaires. Wozniak lost interest and
Jobs assumed sole leadership, supervising the development of
the revolutionary Macintosh computer. After a power struggle
with the board of directors in 1985, he left Apple to attend to
other highly successful projects. By 1997, Apple was on the
brink of bankruptcy and Jobs returned as CEO.

7. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky
EMBRACE SECRECY
Apple employs secrecy both externally and internally. Externally,
its products and operations are concealed from competitors and
the outside world. Employees accept this easily, as it is a
standard practice for many business organizations to keep their
ideas and procedures hidden from others. Internally, however,
employees find this practice more difficult to accept. New
projects can sprout behind newly erected dividers and walls, and
a badge that once took an employee into an area may no longer
work. The concept behind the expression “need to know” is firmly
established at Apple. Employees are made to understand that
termination (and possible prosecution) follows the release,
intentional or unintentional, of Apple’s secrets.

8. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky
FOCUS OBSESSIVELY
More important than deciding what to produce is knowing what
not to produce. Apple’s ability to say no to features, products,
categories, and market segments is how Jobs developed the
company’s strengths. “Focusing is powerful,” he said. “A start-
up’s focus is very clear. Focus is not saying yes. It is saying no
to really great ideas.” Apple has always set itself apart from its
competitors, primarily through its approach to products.
Uniqueness is the goal, and attention to detail is the main
component of this approach.

9. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky
STAY START-UP HUNGRY
Upon rejoining Apple in 1997, Jobs immediately started changing
the corporate culture, which had lost its sense of cohesive
mission under the bureaucracy of the professional managers
who had replaced him. Under the new Jobs regime, employees
would focus on what they did best and nothing else. The
revitalization of Apple was greatly due to its embrace of the start-
up culture—lean, alert, and always hungry.

10. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky
HIRE DISCIPLES
Jobs presciently surrounded himself with executives who would
operate as extensions of himself yet have their own exceptional
capabilities. He did not enlist CEO candidates; rather, he let
people’s aptitudes define their jobs.

11. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky
OWN YOUR MESSAGE
Apple manages its image in a conscious, directed, but casual
manner. For consumers, messages are widely broadcasted but
tightly focused on content. For journalists, messages are issued
judiciously and only after balancing the risk versus the potential
profit.

12. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky
OVERWHELM FRIENDS/DOMINATE FOES
The underdog mentality has permeated Apple throughout its
history, and even though its market share is now enormous, the
mentality persists. The company also has a long institutional
memory, holding grudges from the days when software
designers avoided the Macintosh computer.

13. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky
PLAN FOR AFTER YOUR SUCCESSOR
Prior to his August 2011 death, Jobs had expressed confidence
that Apple’s executive team “will do a terrific job executing the
exciting plans” set forth for the future. It is noteworthy that he
used the term “executing,” as it clearly indicated that his
subordinates would be implementing a plan that he had already
approved. Jobs made no secret of the fact that the company’s
core values—his core values—would be passed on to future
leadership.

14. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky
INSPIRE IMITATORS
For years Silicon Valley rejected the idea that Apple’s business
methodology should be copied. Its cloistered approach to
business and the development of hardware and software was
considered an obstacle to success. Even after the last 10 highly
profitable years, few large companies overtly imitate the Apple
model.

15. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky
ONE MORE THING
The clearest indicator of whether Apple can continue its level of
success after Jobs’s passing will appear first in its organizational
structure and then in its practices concerning partners and
competitors. Initially, it must compensate for the loss of an
irreplaceable leader. Later, it will have to decide how to obtain
entrepreneurial brilliance by adjusting its unique managerial
configuration to attract and welcome entrepreneurial talent from
the outside.

16. Inside Apple By Adam Lashinsky
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