The Apple Beat: Lashinsky's "Inside Apple" peeks behind the most admired and secretive company

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

I have been reading Adam Lashinsky's behind-the-scenes tell all  Inside Apple - How America's Most Admired- And Secretive -Company Really Works. The 240 page book looks at Apple's corporate culture, many of the executives behind the products and services as well as how its extreme secrecy has enabled it to develop and launch successful products and maintain an edge in the tech industry despite a struggling economy.

Author Adam Lashinsky : “Apple, the second most valuable company the world, does business exactly the opposite way that business is taught in business schools."This book can very well serve as a companion to Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

While the Isaacson book is focused mostly on Steve Jobs' rise and personality, Inside Apple uses a series of interviews with former Apple employees and board members, industry insiders and analysts to demystify the workings of one of the most enigmatic companies in the world today.

This isn't a typical management book that will teach companies to be like Apple or attain Apple's success. It instead tries to lift the veil and understand how the company works from the point of view of very senior staff and from the observations of employees.

Inside Apple starts off a bit slow, it appears to be regurgitating a number of facts about Steve Jobs and Apple that people who have read Isaacson's book would have already known.

It does in fact reference the Isaacson book quite freely. But just when I was starting to wonder what Lashinsky had to so say that I hadn't heard of before, it starts to get quite engrossing.

Based on numerous interviews, the book offers exclusive new information about how Apple innovates, deals with its suppliers and is handling the transition into the Post Jobs Era.

Lashinsky, a Senior Editor at Large for Fortune and profiled various tech CEOs.

For an Apple watcher such as myself, the executive profiles and backstories are both informative and entertaining and a number of little known facts are brought to surface. For example, I didn't know Apple CEO Tim Cook was an IBMer for 16 years, or that he had worked at Compaq prior to joining Apple. 

The book also discusses how Apple's board of directors is one of the most impressive in American business and how each member of that same board actually influences various aspects of the running and development of Apple with their own areas of expertise.

The secrecy surrounding Apple, which most of us who cover the company are quite familiar with, is part of the company's DNA and adds to its aura of mystery.

Secrecy extends to the various buildings at One Infinite Loop in Cupertino where many of the different teams, or in Apple's parlance- cells, work at certain aspects of a product being unaware what people around them are involved in. Many Apple employees are just as surprised as the public at large when the new products are unveiled.

More importantly, the book focuses on Apple post-Jobs and what it needs to succeed (or rather, what it already has). Aside from looking at the VPs and their strengths, it taps into the company's spirit and gives a glimpse at the processes and dynamics that sets Apple apart from any other company in the world. If Isaacson's tome is devoted to demystify Steve Jobs, Lashinky's book is the closest thing to a biography on Tim Cook and the supporting cast that we will get today. 

Inside Apple actually came about as an extension of a must-read article Lashinsky did on Tim Cook titled The genius behind Steve in 2008,  when the public at large knew little of Apple's COO. Back then, Lashinsky already picked up the possibility that Cook would be the heir apparent to Jobs.

This isn't the first book on Apple as a company and it is certainly not going to be the last but this offers a great snapshot of Apple 2012 just as the company is coasting with peak earnings and a ton of cash on hand.

We learned many things about Apple that we didn't know even after 20 years of studying the company, its products and personalities. Here are some of the cool tidbits we learned from the book.

• Apple may be a huge multinational company but it runs like a startup and is incredibly nimble
• They have an 'unboxing room' where various packaging options and treatments for each product is studied and tested
• The amount of work that goes into their keynotes is simply incredible, everything is distilled and timed to perfection
• The secretive nature of Apple stems from Jobs' admiration of how Walt Disney managed information tightly and as a result 'created magic.'
• Life as an Apple employee isn't all fun and games and it isn't about the money. People who excel in the company work incredibly hard at their jobs and gain satisfaction from creating great experiences and products.

 Inside Apple - How America's Most Admired- And Secretive -Company Really Works. is avalable from your favourite bookstore and as digital downloads in most eBook stores as well. We recommend it to anyone who is curious and passionate about Apple as a company.

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Gadjo Sevilla has been covering Apple's business and products for over 15 years. The Apple Beat is a weekly opinion column focusing on the latest Apple news.