The author of the article discusses how Apple does everything that companies are not supposed to do if they want to be a creative company. As stated in the article, Apple’s organizational structure and business culture more closely resemble “an old-school industrial manufacturer like General Motors than the typical tech firm.”
Apple is a hierarchical organization with the top dog (Steve Jobs) micromanaging every aspect of the company. Supposedly, this micromanaging includes even little details such as the number of screws to place on the bottom of a laptop or the amount of curve in the corners of a monitor. There is little or no individual autonomy.
This top-down management style isn’t implemented in a soft and fuzzy manner in which employees are reassured about their value to the company and their role in the development and future success of the Apple brand. Oh No. It is of the in-your-face, do it, do it well, or do it somewhere else style.
Extreme secrecy is one of the cultural values. Of course we knew this as it regards telling anyone outside of Apple about Apple’s game plan or in-the-works projects. However, this secrecy extends to individuals and units within the organization as well. Employees only have access to certain areas of the workplace. Teams working on different aspects of the same project do not communicate with each other or are even aware of what the other teams are working on.
What the author of the article points out is really surprising though is that this strategy is actually working for Apple. The secrecy increases the excitement at the unveiling of new products and actually adds to the mystique of the Apple brand. With a visionary such as Steve Jobs leading the company,many of the products are changing the paradigms for that class of product. And Jobs’ managerial style? Well, it appears that people try even harder to please the big boss and earn his approval.

So…does this mean that all the suggestions for making your organization an organization capable of innovating and adapting to a fluid variable marketplace are wrong? We DON’T need flat organizations that emphasize teamwork and open communication? Knowledge workers and innovators don’t need autonomy? We don’t need transparency both within the organization and without? I doubt it.

I think this type of organizational structure works BECAUSE Steve Jobs is at the helm. Have Jobs manage a company such as Google with an organization that is designed to promote creativity and I don’t think creativity and innovation will result. Similarly, put someone else in charge of Apple with it’s current culture and organizational structure and I don’t think you would see the level of success the company has exhibited since Jobs took the helm. I believe that this would be the case even if the CEO managed in a fashion to how Steve Jobs currently manages the organization.

I am just hypothesizing at this point but I think the reason that traditional organizations have trouble with innovation and creativity is because they need a visionary such as Steve Jobs at the helm to be innovative. These people are few and far between. So what do you do if you don’t have a visionary at the helm? You need to fully utilize the resources of the people you do have in an environment that has been shown to promote creativity and innovation.