Chapter 59 Section 5 From Handyman to Vice President

In recent years, at Apple, almost every time a new manager was promoted to the vice president level, Jobs would tell the new executive a story about the handyman. Once, Jobs saw that the trash can in his office hadn't been cleared, so he called the handyman and asked, "Why wasn't the trash can cleaned? Were you on duty yesterday? Why didn't you clean my room?" The handyman said to Jobs: "The door locks of these offices were just changed yesterday. I haven't got the key to the new door locks yet. I can't go into the office to clean up the trash after you get off work."

"Well," Jobs nodded, "I see. It's not your fault." After telling this story, Jobs would always ask the vice presidents: "Do you think the reason given by the handyman is a reasonable explanation for this matter?" "Yeah, no problem." People usually say. "So, I ask you, if a VP is responsible for a product that has a problem, and the VP, like the handyman, gives a reasonable Like, would I be satisfied?" At this time, the vice presidents will probably look blank. They can't figure out what Jobs meant by comparing the handyman with the vice president.

"When you're a handyman, it's okay to find a reason for something not being done well." Jobs finally gave the answer, "But when you rise from handyman to CEO, once you pass After a certain point, it no longer makes any sense to try to find a reason for something not being done well. Because you are the sole person responsible for this matter, no matter how reasonable and reasonable the objective reasons are, they cannot cover up your failure. This The turning point in the promotion process is the level of vice president." In 2011, excluding stores, Apple had about 25,000 employees worldwide, including more than 70 vice presidents.Taking full responsibility for matters within the scope of his authority is Jobs' basic requirement for executives above the vice president level.

In fact, after more than 30 years of ups and downs and experience, today's Jobs has almost reached the point where he can run Apple, a huge IT kingdom. First of all, Jobs required the entire internal organizational structure of Apple to be very simple and the decision-making process very clear.This can be said to be the experience accumulated by the "pirate team" for Jobs more than 20 years ago.Jobs once compared Apple with Sony. He said: "Sony has too many departments, and they can't make iPod. Apple as a whole is not a combination of multiple teams, but a single team."

Inside Apple today, the decision-making line from top to bottom is very short.In fact, no decision-maker was very far from Jobs in the reporting relationship.Jobs also paid great attention to the communication between superiors and subordinates and between teams, requiring his instructions to be delivered to all relevant employees accurately and within the shortest possible time.A former Apple employee recalled: "Every Apple employee knows exactly the company's strategy and decisions proposed by Jobs. You can ask everyone at Apple, and they know it very well, although about 90% of them may Never met Jobs at all."

In order to make decisions and execute more effectively, Jobs also specially set up the so-called Top100 team in Apple.This team consists of about 100 people, including executives above the vice president level and elites in various departments personally selected by Jobs. Top100 meetings are always held in extremely confidential places on a regular basis. Discussion of the list of participants or the content of the meeting is prohibited within Apple. Participants cannot drive by themselves, and must take a uniformly arranged bus to attend the meeting.Usually, meetings are held at seaside resorts, and the venue must meet two conditions set by Jobs: good food and no golf courses.

The Top100 meeting is an important way for Jobs to deploy company-level strategic decisions.On the one hand, this meeting plays a role in planning the company's strategy, and on the other hand, it is also one of the methods of corporate culture construction. Usually, at the Top100 meeting, Jobs will reveal the latest products that the company is developing to the core team of 100 people.For example, the first appearance of the iPod within the company was at the Top100 conference.But Jobs will also review and plan the work of each department at the meeting, which will bring great pressure to the top managers.A former Apple vice president recalled: "Every time a Top100 meeting is held, there are always about 10 people trembling for fear of being named and criticized by Jobs, while the other 90 people will spend the best days of their lives."

Regarding the selection of Top100 participants, Jobs said: "My job is to deal with Top100 people. This is not to say that they all have to be vice presidents. Some of them are key individual contributors. So, when a When a new idea comes along, part of my job is to drive that idea among those 100 people. If I had to start a new business, those 100 people are the ones I’d have to take with me.” Secondly, Jobs emphasized that in Apple's management structure, everyone's responsibilities must be very clear.In terms of organizational structure and operational order, Apple tries to ensure that there is no ambiguity or overlap in the job responsibilities of people in each key position.For example, Apple requires that every time a meeting is held, the person who is directly responsible for the meeting (DRI, Directly Responsible Individual) must be clearly listed, so that everyone participating in the meeting knows who is in charge of the meeting and who makes the final decision. It is not easy for mutual buck-passing and wrangling.

The division of labor between different responsibilities within Apple is also very clear.For example, the vice president in charge of Apple's online store operations, whose authority is limited to the operation of the online store, does not even have the right to interfere with what product images are used on the online store website, because that is the responsibility of the graphic arts department.Similarly, the vice president of store sales has no authority over production and inventory planning.At Apple, critical work always has a clear, single owner. Of course, Apple, like any other big company, has bureaucracy that can sometimes hurt employee motivation.Some Apple employees commented: "Sometimes, a project without Jobs' participation may take several months to make progress, but as long as Jobs gives an order, the project will move forward at an 'inhuman' speed."

Once a job was not done well, Jobs would directly confront the person responsible for the job.For example, after the release of Apple's MobileMe data synchronization service, there were many quality problems, and users complained.Jobs gathered the MobileMe team angrily, crossed his hands and said loudly: "Can someone tell me what MobileMe is for?" After getting a satisfactory answer, Jobs said angrily: "Then why is his grandma's Software can’t do these things?” An angry Jobs almost immediately removed the manager and related responsible persons of the MobileMe team. Interestingly, in June 2011, when the iCloud cloud computing service was announced at the WWDC Developers Conference, Jobs once again joked about the MobileMe team.Because the iCloud cloud computing service was also built by the MobileMe team, Jobs said to the developers present: "You may ask, why should I trust them? Aren't they the same team that made MobileMe? We're happy with the product. However, we've learned a lot from it. The syncing functionality provided by MobileMe has been completely redesigned and redeveloped into the new iCloud."

In 2005, Apple China had a famous "big shake-up" of its sales team.At that time, there were many phenomena in Apple's sales force in China that did not operate according to the headquarters' norms. For example, some sales staff abused powers such as discounts and special prices in order to adapt to the so-called local characteristics in their work, which actually harmed the interests of the company. Jobs could not accept this kind of "workaround" behavior with local characteristics.Apple executives told Apple China bluntly: "You don't want to be Apple China, and you don't want to be a Chinese apple. Apple is an American company, or more precisely, Apple is a California company." For the irregular behavior of Apple's China sales team, Apple headquarters conducted a strict investigation, and according to Jobs' instructions, the relevant responsible persons were severely dealt with.As a result, Li Bin, the general manager of Apple China, who had just taken office at that time, the channel director of China, the general managers of East China, South China and Southwest China, and a large number of sales leaders were collectively fired by Apple on August 17. In Jobs' Apple, decision-making, execution, and rewards and punishments are so swift and resolute that no mistakes can be tolerated.