No gold watches for many at Apple

This past year I watched as a number of people I knew at Apple exited the company, some voluntarily with a little help from management and a number shown the door unceremoniously.  Anyone that works for someone these days will tell you that this happens in almost any kind of job today.  I know people who make their living in a variety of occupations, and it is pretty clear that the days of the gold watch are gone no matter where you work.

In most cases someone moves on, finds another job in the same or similar profession and all is well.  Somehow being an Apple employee makes it a little harder.  Many people of the people I knew either came to Apple absolutely hooked on the technology or got enthralled with the products while working at Apple.  Now I know people who went from Apple to Dell, Gateway, Sun, or HP.  Most left still loving the technology.  Some secretly continued to buy or use Macs. 

If your life has been selling Mac technology that you love, it's sometimes hard to admit you were wrong and start flogging Dells.

The popular mythology about Apple is "love products, love to hate the company" at least among those who don't live inside the reality zone.  That almost seems a perfect description of where we have gotten with many of the companies that provide us with products that we can't live without these days.  We seem to be living in a society that has taken the cult of the personality (and maybe products) to the extreme.  We have "Entertainment Tonight" dedicated to bringing us the most minor of details about the stars.  There is a whole army of us who speculate on the next move for Steve Jobs.

There are CEOs, and Steve Jobs is one of them, who are larger than life. The public adoration for the products they provide us has created a teflon shield for criticism of them.   While the company may take some shots, most of the shots being fired are at employees other than the CEO.  I had the pleasure of working with Fred Anderson while I was at Apple.  He was one of the most dedicated and competent people that I knew.  As I hear rumours that Fred might be one of the fall guys for the stock options back dating scandal at Apple, I wonder if he is just taking a bullet for Steve.  In a certain respect, Steve Jobs and Apple, have combined the worst of hero worship and modern management into a company which will likely have a hard time surviving his exit.  The only way to protect Apple is to protect Steve, for Apple won't be Apple without him.

Last night I was watching the MPC Bowl and the commentators discuss Larry Coker's record at the University of Miami.  It was obviously a distinguished record, second best in the country.  He also managed to graduate an unheard of number of players.  Still he had a bad record this year, and he's now looking for a job. While it is a completely wild guess, l wouldn't be surprised if Coker bumped up against some folks who wanted better results and didn't really care about how the results were achieved.  That is the part of modern management that worries me the most.

Unfortunately driving results without caring a whole lot about the details has become the favorite style of management in many companies big and small.  I saw it at Apple.  Yet the cult of personality inside of companies extends well beyond CEOs.  As leaders see the CEOs keep friends and acquaintances at the trough of riches no matter what they have done, it becomes okay for Vice Presidents and others to do the same. 

The cult of personality quickly gets us beyond the realm of who is best for the job to who can be rewarded with a job.  Protection for the favored is also there when we see a failed project.  Perhaps like the University of Miami's season or the stock options backdating scandal at Apple, someone has to pay.  It might not be the person really to blame, but it will be someone that will satisfy the investors or sports boosters.  When combine the cult of personality with results at any cost, it is a very danger mixture, in business or sports.

While companies and sports programs (which are actually businesses anyway) often have to throw someone to the wolves, real celebrities like Steve Jobs or any of the Entertainment Tonight favorites rarely have to take the rap themselves.  Celebrities like Mel Gibson can blame his rants on alcohol.  Steve, however because he get the best of the celebrity and business worlds, doesn't even have to really acknowledge any failings, someone will fall on their sword, Apple and Steve will be preserved for another day.

I'll never forget two events at Apple.  The first came after nearly three years of enterprise sales teams trying to sell to the enterprise by convincing them that they needed iMac kiosks.  I don't think I ever saw sales professionals try harder to do the impossible.  The reward as is often the case in many companies is that the loyal soldiers get laid off.  The Vice President who pushed the idea got a golden parachute.  The sales reps who loved Apple technology so much were devastated and had to find new jobs.

Unfortunately they assumed that a great product meant a great company.  It's hard to say if that was ever the case or just a false assumption.  Just because a movie entertains us well or a product more than meets our expectation there's no reason to believe the movie actors are great people or that the company producing the great products is also a great place to work.

The second memorable event at Apple was when one particularly bad Vice President left Apple.  I even got a note from the VP of HR telling me excitedly that some problems get fixed if you just wait long enough.  It was with a chuckle that I read the announcement notice sent out to his team of direct reports (I was one of them) from the head of Apple sales.  It thanked the VP for his great contributions to Apple and wished him well.  I later heard that he hadn't even told anyone that he was leaving.  He just stopped showing up at meetings in Cupertino and moved his family to Florida.

It was pretty clear that acknowledging a mistake is not something that executives like to do.

In this VP's case at least there was no product separation problems, he was famous for a conference call where he told everyone proudly how he had bought his brother a Dell laptop which in his estimation was much better than a Powerbook.

While I doubt there is much pressure for Apple or any other successful American corporation to change, I suspect the cult of personality and the lack of even internal honesty in corporations will be a challenge in the coming years.   While companies like Apple can depend on a steady stream of new employees who trust the company is as good as the products, I am not sure we have seen the full impact of disillusioned corporate employees yet.  It will be interesting to see if it turns out to be just a blip or perhaps a reforming influence.   

Comments

[Stephen]

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/gunningham.html

[running idiot]

It's hard to hear, but what is needed today are results, results and results. And I doubt Apple is worst that any other company.