Apple’s success
Apple’s success is enormous. What’s the reason for this success?
Steve Jobs surrounded himself with remarkably talented designers, retailers, and engineers because he understood that the most talented performers aren’t motivated primarily by money or status. -Bill Taylor - Harvard Business Review
I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while. Other companies can copy Apple as much as they want, they will never reach the same results. You can copy certain processes or products but you can’t copy Apple’s people. Apple has a human capital advantage that cannot be achieved by other companies.
There is only one Steve Jobs, there is only one Tim Cook and there is only one Jonathan Ive. It’s the talent that’s working at Apple that’s making the difference. Apple hired people with extraordinary skills that their competitors simply don’t have (for now).
Here’s an example: Other firms can try and make a laptop like the MacBook Air that’s equally thin and powerful at the same price but they can’t manage to get it done. The competitors aren’t able to manufacture a tablet like the iPad and sell it for $499 that has the same quality like the iPad. You can’t buy a better laptop for the price of a MacBook Air, you can’t buy a tablet for the same price like the iPad. They simply are not able to do it, how hard they try.
Apple’s economies of scale are huge. This gives them the opportunity to sell an iPad at $499 while others apparently can’t match this price with a device that has equal quality to the iPad (serious iPad competitors are mostly more expensive). Tim Cook is brilliant in supply chain management so Apple can keep costs as low as possible and meanwhile creating high quality stuff.
Apple’s economies of scale cannot be matched by their competitors. Tim Cook is responsible for that. You can copy design and features but you can’t copy people and their skills. Because of Tim Cook Apple has these economies of scale. I better rephrase that sentence: because of Tim Cook’s extraordinary skills Apple has this advantage over their competitors.
While Steve Jobs isn’t the CEO anymore, this philosophy is baked into Apple itself. They will keep attracting the best skills of the industry thus leading to the best result they possibly can reach.
I think there are loads of people with remarkable skill that want to work for Apple. Apple pushes boundaries like nobody else. Innovation is their trademark and I think this is a very attractive environment to work in. Apple itself is an attractive company to work for as well. This is positive to enforce productive work.
The corporate structure of Apple is also different from its competitors. They are configured like a startup. A big startup that is. From a Human Resource perspective this is a very productive environment to work in where people can fully explore their skills and potentials and most importantly grow. If you can reach this stage in your Human Resource planning, you create an advantage that others don’t have.
It’s all about having the best skills in your company and give them to chance to keep developing. These skills create an advantage for the company itself.
“My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better.” - Steve Jobs
After Steve Jobs came back in 1997 there were still many talented people working at Apple. Despite these people Apple was 60 days away from chapter 11. Steve came back and introduced some new people as well as keeping the best of those who already were working at Apple. Having great talented people in your company is not enough, it’s what you do with them. You have to present them with challenges and opportunities. You need to convince them of the vision the company has and get them on board. Who can do this better than Steve Jobs himself right?
Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it. - Steve Jobs
It’s all about the people at Apple. It always has been and it always will be. After all, they are the ones who make the difference, not how many dollars you put in R&D. Careful, it’s important to invest in R&D, but having great people in your company is equally important!
