Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has become such a hug consumer brand over the last 25 years that it has developed its own culture. But that culture distinctiveness of the Apple culture isn’t reserved only in the end-user experience. That culture that is unique has been cultivated from the very inner workings of Redmond, according to a former executive with the company who spoke at the Bloomberg Design conference this week.
Tony Fadell, chief executive officer of Nest and a former designer at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) spoke about his experiences within the culture of Apple and when he’s worked for other companies, like Philips. To Fadell, the reason Apple is so successful and is outdistancing many other companies in terms of its transcendentalist nature and is large impact on the markets (as the most valuable company in terms of market cap) is simply due to the culture of seeing projects through from conception to final distribution.
Fadell said that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) operates as design company instead of a company that is focused on the financial bottom line. And that is determined simply by how they handle projects differently. He used Philips as a comparison with Apple, saying that Philips and similar companies tend to cancel, postpone or outright dismiss the majority of projects before they see the light of day. “Nine times out of ten, or 99 times out of 100, they would kill the project, either at the beginning, the middle or right before the product was supposed to be shipped,” Fadell said. And later, if the management changed at some point and the new leadership didn’t know about or didn’t understand the project, it would be dropped.
That then led to a question that he said many people in the company would likely ask themselves.
Fadell said those in the company would then ask themselves: If you were a designer or a marketer, would you focus and put in your very best work every day when the chances of your work getting to an end-user was so slim? Why work so hard and try to be so innovative every time, when the project might be too expensive or complicated for the company to invest in?
At Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), however, he said that the culture was such that there was an expectation that every project just might be shipped. And with this mentality, Fadell said, everyone was on the same page that the company had a philosophy, a perspective, that every project was designed to reach a certain market and meet a certain need – and being prepared every day was the expectation. “When you’re in a culture that has a point of view, and drives to launch everything it does, you know you’re on the hook and you better bring your best game every time,” he said.
What do you think? Do you agree with Fadell’s assessment, or is there more to Apple’s success? We’d love your thoughts about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and your projections for the stock and the company this year.
DISCLOSURE: I hold no position in any stock mentioned.
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