You've Got... Adam Lashinsky, Author Of 'Inside Apple'

Fortune magazine editor and author Adam Lashinsky explains the secretive interworkings at Apple. Lashinsky expands on the behind-the-scenes operations at the company in the book, "Inside Apple." Prior to Fortune, Lashinsky covered Silicon Valley for TheStreet.com and the San Jose Mercury News.

Comments

[covyzoo]

11:29 PM on 05/31/2012

This is just an effort to bring Apple stocks down.

[LoudGuitr]

09:06 PM on 05/31/2012

They've been predicting doom for Apple forever. How many iPod killers, iPhone killers, and other portends of doom have we heard? I'll believe it when I see it. This is the greatest company in history, making the best products ever. Prove me wrong before you forecast doom. It's getting boring. This is jealousy and resentment coming from, PC fanboys, Android fanboys, and investors who missed the boat, who hold loads of stagnant Microsoft, Dell, and RIM stock.

[ElAnthony]

12:12 AM on 06/04/2012

I missed the boat on Apple stock. I still have an iPad.

I know good design when I see it.

[crazyamerica]

07:48 PM on 05/31/2012

Sounds just like the cross fit cult people.

[Phythia]

06:39 PM on 05/31/2012

I really think, Jobs' charisma ( in public) made people overlook these issues. Cook does not have what it takes to be the front man in the public eye.
I am sure there is secrecy, I have worked for several IT companies, and confidentiality is key.
I think the author is exaggerating, making such comparison.
I am not surprised though, there are books about those supposed Google "evil doers" as well.

[Yeah I did]

05:02 PM on 05/31/2012

Instead of 72 virgins they get 10 free apps.

[Phythia]

06:27 PM on 05/31/2012

Brilliant:)

[dapalmlv]

08:37 PM on 05/31/2012

No Apple never gives anything for FREE!

[commonesensically]

04:34 PM on 05/31/2012

I've seen how things are at Apple. It's a very human environment where people are encouraged to mix and mingle. This guy is just trying to get attention. Journalism 101 - there should've been some testimony from either a former or current employee, or a rep at Apple to either support or refute this outsider's claims. Of course, if there was - they would've called BS on this guy.

[marqms]

08:19 PM on 05/31/2012

Trust me after I have worked for apple saying that they are run like a terriorist group is an understatement, I would personally describe it like the nazis in germany! You get in trouble for following there policies. Apple is not held accountable for anything, and the worst part is when someone send a survey saying apple sucks, the employee and the members on his team gets bashed!

[Andrew St Ives]

12:42 AM on 06/01/2012

thats generally how a business is supposed to work. If you have a team, you should be able to bounce ideas off of each other, to solve problems and make things easier for customers. If you are incapable of that, you deserve to be cleared out. And if the employee works for Apple then they are a part of Apple, when they get fired Apple is holding itself accountable for "Sucking" because it is removing the part or parts of the company that isn't working and replacing it with a one.

[dapalmlv]

08:41 PM on 05/31/2012

Apple supplies very few jobs in this country because most of their products are produced in Taiwan and other foreign countries. This company is running the biggest scam on the American public I have ever seen. They keep selling the same products with very few changes year and after year and the dummies out there keep buying them, and then next year buy the same produce again, and then again, then again! Apple knows they are dealing with a new Zombie Society that wants to be connected to anything new in technology and for what reason I have no idea. How the hell do people spend their entire days and nights playing around with this stupid and useless stuff. There is no thinking going on just reaction over and over again. Why do people have to have everything so fast? We are heading down a real slippery slope in our society and Apple is the main cause of it.

[ccruzan]

04:34 PM on 05/31/2012

Just another HP story decrying success. They don't like successful companies or people.

[roanie]

03:19 PM on 05/31/2012

Glad I don't own any Apple products. Don't want blood on my hands.

[roanie]

03:16 PM on 05/31/2012

Sounds like a cult.

[oldandcold]

02:38 PM on 05/31/2012

I live in the middle of a terrorist camp. Defined by the author's reasoning of what Apple is. The people here are known to wear uniforms and have the same views of the world. These people are extremely secluded and protective of their trade secrets. Some have been known to make their children work long hard hours sweating to do their masters bidding. They keep secrets and have even developed a language of their own to prevent others from overhearing their conversations. They even expressly demand that their organization use no electronic listening devices that might be compromised. Yes these Amish terrorists are evil to the bone.

[oftenon]

02:00 PM on 05/31/2012

Guy Kawasaki now allows some rueful acknowledgement of Jobs' infamous secrecy while never failing to credit the threshold product brilliance it unleashed. Jobs' legacy for the short run will be re-litigating pissed-off back bencher complaints - in the long run he will remain LEGEND

[mds308]

01:51 PM on 05/31/2012

Apple Qaeda

[laws2]

01:34 PM on 05/31/2012

Many moons ago, an incredibly successful toolmaker focusing on handsaws (The Henry Disston Company), was incredibly secretive about its inner workings, especially its manufacture of its crucible steels used for the saws. Disston released publications about it's plant in Philadelphia, PA and included showing master saw makers working in various department areas. Disston believed in making the very best handsaw that could be manufactured--and his company did that very thing. The details of how the company did their remarkable inner workings were NOT a matter of public knowledge. That's not terrorism--that's just being a smart cookie in my estimation. Quote from Steve Jobs: "I'm not here to make people happy; I'm here to make them better." And he apparently (and obviously) did that very thing, much like Henry Disston did.

[jdshaw]

12:37 PM on 05/31/2012

What a bunch of crapola.

[dapalmlv]

08:44 PM on 05/31/2012

To the non-thinkers in this world it is. Welcome to the Zombie Society you have made it into the membership.

[Mark Gardiner]

11:02 AM on 05/31/2012

I just spent a year working at Trader Joe's, and writing "Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's". In my book, I cite Apple as the another example of a secrecy-obsessed company with an incredibly strong cultural brand. One of the challenges such companies face is, there's a slippery slope from 'culture' to simply, 'cult'. The death of Theo Albrecht seems to have emboldened Trader Joe's current management, and the company seems to have embarked down a path that will, in the long run, decrease its brand equity. Whither Apple without Jobs? Without the leader of that personality cult, it seems to me that the company can either extract value from its group intelligence, or gradually lose momentum. Doing that will require cross-fertilization and openness. More on the Trader Joe's store at my web site, TraderJoesSecrets

[Onutz]

02:08 PM on 05/31/2012

((Whither Apple without Jobs? Without the leader of that personality cult, it seems to me that the company can either extract value from its group intelligence, or gradually lose momentum.))

There was no bigger cult of personality than Walt Disney. Yet Disneyworld wasn't completed until "after" he passed. And the company will surely flourish long after we're gone.

[Kimberly Bruman]

03:55 PM on 05/31/2012

True. They might actually be freed from the beliefs of the leader. The company most likely will evolve. But whether or not this evolution will be a good thing is a toss up. Remember that company of Sam Walton's? Yeah, it's changed and not for the better.