Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired--and Secretive--Company Really Works Read Online Free PDF Page A

that point,” said Jordan. “I realized it was just a complete stress test, a highly efficient winnowing process.”
    The rough treatment was a signature Jobs move. Another executive who interviewed with Jobs remembered his condescendingly challenging the assertion that Apple should sell music. This was a time when the iPod already was a modest success, but users lacked an easy way to buy songs. Jobs dismissed the idea during this executive’s interview, but within months he announced the iTunes Music Store. Whether by pre-planned design or simply because it was his way, the confrontational interview questions allowed Jobs to learn if a recruit could handle Apple’s rough culture. It would not be the last time the incoming employee would face a withering assault on his ideas.
    E ven during his ascetic days as a dope-smoking hippie in need of a shower, Steve Jobs exhibited the charismaticbearing around Apple that provoked comparisons not with Narcissus but with a messianic figure. Insiders referred to him merely as SJ. And as early as 1986,
Esquire
magazine titled a profile of Jobs in the wilderness of his new computer company, NeXT, as “The Second Coming of Steve Jobs.” Journalist Alan Deutschman used the same trope as the title of his 2000 book, which chronicled the beginning of what truly became Apple’s rebirth. The metaphor took hold even more firmly in later years. Anticipation of Apple’s iPad was so intense in 2009 that bloggers began referring to the unreleased product as the “Jesus tablet.” Following its release, the
Economist
ran an illustration of Jobs on its cover, caricaturing him as Jesus Christ, complete with a golden halo, under the headline: “Book of Jobs: Hope, Hype and Apple’s iPad.”
    Jobs’s spirit permeated Apple. Most big tech companies rely on massive acquisition programs to grow. Cisco, IBM, HP, and Oracle are the best examples. All are acquisitions machines. Apple, in stark contrast, has announced twelve acquisitions in the last decade, none exceeding $300 million in size. One r hi size. eason is that the people who join through acquisitions haven’t received the same inculcation as more carefully chosen employees. Given the challenges of integrating apostates and agnostics into a culture of true believers, Apple’s CEO showed intense interest in each deal that did take place, even those that didn’t tip any financial scales. Lars Albright, a co-founder and senior vice president for business development of Quattro Wireless, which Apple bought for $275 million in December 2009, recounted Jobs’s role in what for Apple was a relatively small transaction. “Over time it became extremely clear that Steve was the voice of the company,”said Albright. “We always thought it was something of a negotiating tactic for them to frequently say, ‘We’re going to check with Steve’ or ‘Steve has to weigh in.’ But it turned out that at every major step he was briefed and giving opinions and setting the tone for the discussions.”
    The prelude to concluding a deal with Apple typically included an extended sit-down for the CEO of the target company with Jobs. The discussion had less to do with the strategic imperatives of the acquisition than it did with Jobs’s attempts to feel out the talent he was acquiring. “There’s a lot of Steve worshiping at the company,” said an ex–Apple employee who joined by way of acquisition. “People will say, ‘Well, Steve wants this, Steve wants that.’ There are a lot of ‘Steve’ references in everyday life there. Some references are more relevant than others.”
    Some executives formalized the process of evoking the co-founder in written form. “The easiest way to get something done was to write an email with STEVE REQUEST in the subject line,” said a former employee. “If you saw an email with a STEVE REQUEST at the top that would definitely get your attention.” The result was a company that marched in lockstep with the