Why Some High-Profile Hires Don’t Thrive at Apple

Recently, a high profile executive, Yoky Matsuoka, left Apple. Often, the temptation is to surmise that a departure of any given executive at Apple is a sign that Apple is losing interest in a particular technology. However, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, certain high-powered people just don’t know what they’re getting into and decide that the Apple culture isn’t for them. I’m not saying any of this is what happened with Ms. Matsuoka, But it does offer an opportunity to explain a few things about Apple.

Failure is an Option

There are few adults who haven’t had the experience of being uncomfortable, uneasy or unhappy in at least one job in their lives. It can happen at Apple as well. It’s just that our expectation of Apple is a little skewed. That is to say, how can a company with such an exciting vision and exciting products not be a joy to work for? Who would ever want to depart hallowed ground?

It turns out Apple, like any other company, can be be a bad fit for some eager new hires. Or there can be rare instances of a really bad boss. Transferring between departments is difficult at Apple, at least when I worked there, and so an really unhappy employee’s only option is to resign.

The Apple Atmosphere

I can’t speak for the Tim Cook regime. I was there when Steve Jobs was in his prime. But I think enough of the culture has survived that I can describe a few things with a broad brush.

First, Apple is a company that is intensely envied and copied by competitors. For Apple to thrive, it has to keep its roadmaps and product plans secret. That should be obvious to any academic, but it’s often surprising how academic types, accustomed to working and thinking with peers in their field, feel trapped when they can no longer attend conferences, trade emails about their research and publish papers about their amazing work.

In addition, at Apple there is stressful combination of long hours and lack of tolerance for mistakes. It’s expected that any employee work very hard, have considerable achievements and do so without error.

That apocryphal story about a frightening encounter with Steve Jobs in the IL1 elevator and being unable to brilliantly articulate your role at Apple always loomed. It drove one’s mindset and carried along with it stress that some found hard to deal with. My take is that Tim Cook has done a lot to eliminate needless fear while still setting high standards.

Make no mistake. Apple employees have a lot of fun.

Another source of frustration for people hired as Directors, Senior Directors and Vice Presidents is that they are accustomed to calling the shots in their former job. But at Apple, the corporate vision is tightly held by the 11 senior members of the Apple executive team. That means that any lesser executive’s imperative is to implement the vision, not create their own. This is part of the legacy of Steve Jobs. Maverick VPs who engage in turf-building are not tolerated.

And so, these senior people, who thrive on creativity and authority often find themselves in a situation, contrary to military doctrine, with a lot of responsibility to perform but not as much authority as they assumed they’d have. It requires a unique, flexible, intelligent, patient, graceful and introspective mind to get one’s head around the Apple vision, then work as a manager to execute it with leadership and a smile.

Finally, and my list is by no means exhaustive, Apple has a strong legacy of speaking with only one voice. The Communications group, formerly led by Katie Cotton and now by Steve Dowling alone speaks for Apple, in general, with media relations. Executive Team members are typically “press certified” and can also speak for Apple, notably Tim Cook and Phil Schiller.

Any lesser executive who decides they should speak to the press or even send out an innocent tweet on some policy matter will be in hot water. They may or may not be given a second chance.

Next page: A personal story from my Apple days.

Page 2 – A Personal Story From Apple

A related example of something that happened to me is instructive because it’s a mild mix of some of the above factors.

Apple Paradox

It was November, 2003. As a federal account executive, I was at the annual Supercomputing conference in Phoenix with many from the Federal sales team. One of my major federal customers (not the photo below) was also there with his small team. My boss and I arranged an NDA meeting. The backstory is that Apple was preparing to convert the Xserve from PowerPC to Intel, but few outside the company knew this at the time.

Author with customer’s small cluster of Xserves.

When it came time for the Xserve product manager to brief my customer on the secret Intel-based Xserves, I was directed to leave the room. The reason was that account executives, responsible for sales to their customers, were not deemed eligible to learn about such deep Apple secrets.

I pondered what kind of a message this sent to my customer. The Apple exec most in touch with their problems, plans and needs wasn’t trusted by Apple. It was especially troubling to me because I had come from Lockheed Martin Astronautics where I held a security clearance. I was infuriated.

I came close to quitting. My boss talked me out of it.

In hindsight, I can see how limits had to be set somewhere on how deep into the organization chart Apple’s deepest secrets could be divulged. But it’s also easy to see how such a determination by Apple’s most senior executives could still rub a sales executive, responsible for his sales quota, the wrong way. Paradoxes like this are either handled by the new hires or not. Some come to to the conclusion that the glory of working to change the world at Apple is incompatible with their personal values or needs.

Later, right here at TMO, I saw variations of this theme. Occasionally, a prospective senior hire would contact me, as a writer, and ask “What’s it like to work for Apple?” Sometimes, despite my counsel, unbounded enthusiasm turned to disillusionment and they lasted a year or so.

On the other hand, some personality types respond well to the Apple atmosphere, and we hear about beloved employees who spend an entire career at Apple. It just depends on who they work for in the org chart, how they (and their families) adjust, and how their personality fits in.

Final Thoughts

I’m not saying any of this is what happened with Ms. Matsuoka, The Bloomberg article by Mark Gurman didn’t provide any details. Remember, sometimes people must leave a company for family, health, career or other perfectly respectable reasons. Accordingly, I want to affirm that not every executive departure from Apple should be taken as an ominous sign regarding Apple’s future intentions.

People change jobs and careers depending on their personal dreams and goals. Sometimes those are fulfilled at Apple. And sometimes, no matter how cool Apple is as a company, the human side of the equation makes for a bad fit. This is when we get a chance to refrain from wild speculation and express values of our own: respect and understanding.

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