Sequencing Apple's DNA (Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Management) 1st Edition

What a wonderful book!I was very afraid, after the Preface and Introduction that it was going to be a very “French” book heavy on philosophy but it is nothing of the sort. Parts 1 and 2 are absolutely great, very factual, drawing brilliant, crystal clear and extremely well-reasoned conclusions from a mass of superbly well presented data. Summary and lessons learned are then drawn in Part 3.It has to be said that, though Apple is a striking example of innovation and the size of its success is phenomenal, many of its genes are present in (a) US companies (as opposed to European ones) and (b) companies led by entrepreneurs (as opposed to companies led by managers). US managers have, by and large, a much healthier attitude to taking risks and they do not get pilloried for any eventual failures the same way Europeans do. Also, for any hands-on technically-minded entrepreneur who understands his products, the perceived risks are at all times much smaller and more manageable than for a remote high-level manager who has to take on trust what his underlings tell him.Given that Apple is an American company led (In Job’s days) by a hands-on entrepreneur, it is not surprising that it inherited its genes from both of these parent strands – but it certainly displayed them in a superlative way, which is of course what enabled the authors to dissect them and list them in such a convincing and masterful way.

What a wonderful book!I was very afraid, after the Preface and Introduction that it was going to be a very “French” book heavy on philosophy but it is nothing of the sort. Parts 1 and 2 are absolutely great, very factual, drawing brilliant, crystal clear and extremely well-reasoned conclusions from a mass of superbly well presented data. Summary and lessons learned are then drawn in Part 3.It has to be said that, though Apple is a striking example of innovation and the size of its success is phenomenal, many of its genes are present in (a) US companies (as opposed to European ones) and (b) companies led by entrepreneurs (as opposed to companies led by managers). US managers have, by and large, a much healthier attitude to taking risks and they do not get pilloried for any eventual failures the same way Europeans do. Also, for any hands-on technically-minded entrepreneur who understands his products, the perceived risks are at all times much smaller and more manageable than for a remote high-level manager who has to take on trust what his underlings tell him.Given that Apple is an American company led (In Job’s days) by a hands-on entrepreneur, it is not surprising that it inherited its genes from both of these parent strands – but it certainly displayed them in a superlative way, which is of course what enabled the authors to dissect them and list them in such a convincing and masterful way.