The Culture of Apple

Steve Jobs is changing Apple's culture yet again. Many years ago, when he was heading Next, I thought he was too arrogant for his own good. However, a couple of recent examples demonstrate that he knows how to manage corporate culture. One good example is that when Disney started messing around with the creativity of Pixar, he took his business elsewhere (see this for details on the creative issues between Pixar and Disney). Another is the iMac itself. The iMac is a cool product (I have one), but the belief and pride by the company in their own products trickles down to the consumer and makes the product larger than life.

The NY Times has a small profile o­n the iPod and some new changes at Apple:

Since returning seven years ago to Apple, the computer maker he helped to establish in 1976, Mr. Jobs has created a fusion of fashion, brand, industrial design and computing. He has opened a chain of 78 retail stores to showcase Apple's consumer-oriented designs and to surround the company's computers with an array of digital consumer products. The stores themselves have become another billion-dollar business, a feat all the more impressive considering that one of Apple's chief competitors, Gateway, failed with a similar retail strategy during the same period.

As a result, Apple is acting less like a computer company and more like brand-brandishing, multinational companies such as Nike and Virgin. The iPod's success is also the clearest indication that Mr. Jobs, if he is to successfully revamp Apple, will ultimately win not by taking o­n PC rivals directly, but by changing the rules of the game.

This is a clear example of a successful company deliberately constructing a positive, successful culture.

Read the Times article (free subscription required).

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