Appleのティーム ティム

今週のBusiness WeekはTim Cook’s AppleとAppleのカバーストーリーでした。iPhoneのことなどほとんど触れず、Apple Watchを中心に現在のAppleの内情を知ることができます。「iPhoneはネタ切れ」とドヤ顔で書いていた記事が話題になっていますが、そんな事はAppleが百も承知で、Apple Watchを開発していたことが分かります。R&Dも増額し、新しい人材も入れて新しい方向性を模索しているようです。

興味深かったのはTeam Timという表で、昨年と今年に入った主な技術者などが載っていました。Tag HeuerやYves Saint Laurentなどの時計やファッション業界の人材やNike+FuelBandやメディカル、バイオセンサーの専門家を雇っているのですね。

Apple
Tim Cook Interview: The iPhone 6, the Apple Watch, and Remaking a Company's Culture
By Brad Stone and Adam Satariano September 18, 2014

ソニーがあんなになっているのを見ると、ジョブズがいない中、しっかりと利益を出しているところはすごいと思います。そんな手腕を評価してTim Cook’s Appleと特集をくんだのかもしれません。縦割りではなく、会社を一つにまとめる手腕を評価しています。

Cook’s professional background is in managing supply chains, not changing the character of sprawling, complicated, ego-filled organizations. Yet three years later, veteran Apple executives repeatedly and emphatically say they want the new boss to get credit for pulling off one of the more improbable high wire acts in business history. “I feel damn proud to be working as a part of Tim’s team,” says Eddy Cue, senior vice president for Internet software and services. “If he gets a little bit of recognition from the outside world, that is great. He deserves a lot more than he is going to get.”



多様な人材を雇っていてもApple Watchの開発の中心はJonathan Iveだったようです。フランス人のアンテーィク時計専門家Dominique Fléchonなども交えて、時計の歴史から学んでいくのはリベラルアーツもおろそかにしないAppleらしいですね。

With an Apple Watch wrapped around his hand brass-knuckle style, Ive reveals that the project was conceived in his lab three years ago, shortly after Jobs’s death and before “wearables” became a buzzword in Silicon Valley. “It’s probably one of the most difficult projects I have ever worked on,” he says. There are numerous reasons for this—the complexity of the engineering, the need for new physical interactions between the watch and the human body—but the one most pertinent to Ive is that the Apple Watch is the first Apple product that looks more like the past than the future. The company invited a series of watch historians to Cupertino to speak, including French author Dominique Fléchon, an expert in antique timepieces. Fléchon says only that the “discussion included the philosophy of instruments for measuring time” and notes that the Apple Watch may not be as timeless as some classic Swiss watches: “The evolution of the technologies will render very quickly the Apple Watch obsolete,” he says.
Ive, 47, immersed himself in horological history. Clocks first popped up on top of towers in the center of towns and over time were gradually miniaturized, appearing on belt buckles, as neck pendants, and inside trouser pockets. They eventually migrated to the wrist, first as a way for ship captains to tell time while keeping their hands firmly locked on the wheel. “What was interesting is that it took centuries to find the wrist and then it didn’t go anywhere else,” Ive says. “I would argue the wrist is the right place for the technology.”

Tim CookはJobs’s logical, icy sidekickでスタートレックのthe Spock to his Kirkみたいに思われているが、そんなことはないとこの記事ではCookを好意的に取り上げています。SpockとKirkという例えがいきなり使われているところを見るとスタートレックってやはりメジャーなものなんですね。

A decade ago, when he first became a public figure, Cook, now 53, was often caricatured as Jobs’s logical, icy sidekick—the Spock to his Kirk. In person, Cook defies those expectations. He bounds toward Apple employees, posing for on-campus selfies and answering every question regardless of the holes it eats into his schedule. He can also be quite emotional about a range of subjects close to his heart, from Auburn University football to social justice. It’s easy to project this unfailing politeness onto Apple and deduce that the CEO’s demeanor has trickled down to the corporate ethos. But this gives Cook too little credit.

現在はJeff Williams がCookの右腕となっているそうです。いろいろな面でCookと似ていることから、uncanny Cook cloneとライターは描き、In the new Apple, he’s Tim Cook’s Tim Cook.と結論づけています。Tim Cook’s Tim Cookという表現は構文とか文法とかの話ではないですね。Tim Cookが指揮する新しいAppleでジョブズ体制のときのTim Cookの役割を果たしているという意味でしょう。多読をしていない人はこういうのがピンとこなかったりします。

By last summer, with Apple’s stock down by as much as 40 percent from a record high because of concerns about the lack of new products, Cook was ready to accelerate the project. (The stock, now at around $100, has recovered all that ground and then some.) Apple insiders say that while an executive named Dan Riccio, who leads hardware engineering, would have been the obvious choice to take over the Watch program, Cook assigned it to Jeff Williams, 51, senior vice president for operations. Williams is Cook’s go-to guy—he vets possible acquisitions, coordinates with Foxconn Technology (2354:TT) and other manufacturers, and oversees the logistics needed to get millions of devices from Asian factories to stores around the world. He’s an uncanny Cook clone: tall, soft-spoken, and an avid fitness buff with an inexhaustible memory for operational details. Both men have MBAs from Duke University and spent early parts of their careers at IBM (IBM). In the new Apple, he’s Tim Cook’s Tim Cook.

新しい人材に触れている部分は以下です。ここでdiversityが使われていますが、diversity of viewsで視点や考えなどの多様性のようです。

Apple is also more willing to seek another kind of outside help. Over the last few months, the company’s gone on a hiring spree, vacuuming up accomplished tastemakers such as Patrick Pruniaux, the chief salesman at watchmaker Tag Heuer; Paul Deneve, the former CEO of couture house Yves Saint Laurent; and Angela Ahrendts, Burberry’s (BRBY:LN) former chief executive, who joined Apple to run its stores.
The recruitment spree isn’t only about finding people who know how to sell watches at extravagant markups, but also about adding a diversity of views inside the company. Cook “is very focused on finding a very wide range of people,” says Susan Wagner, founding partner and director of asset-management firm BlackRock (BLK), Apple’s largest shareholder, who joined the company’s board earlier this summer. “It’s not automatically the way you think about diversity. It’s about bringing in experience, skill set, and perspective.”

先日取り上げたdiversityのレポートについては、Appleの課題として触れていました。

In August, Apple released its internal diversity report. Its employment numbers were lopsided toward white and Asian men. “There was a view we shouldn’t” release the report, Cook says. “I didn’t agree. … It clearly says we’re not a perfect company, and we have work to do. And that’s fine.” The company continues to struggle with conditions at its factories in China, with an internal audit this year documenting use of underage laborers and abuse of migrant workers.

提灯記事と批判するのはたやすいですが、Apple Watchに向けた現在の体制を知るにはとてもよい記事だと思います。最後に紹介されていたOneRepulicの曲もよかったです（笑）

For now Cook is just trying to capitalize on the attention and enjoy the moment he worked the past three years for. Backstage at the Flint Center before the Sept. 9 event, he could be found with his white earbuds on, psyching himself up by listening to the OneRepublic song I Lived on his iPhone. “Hope when you take that jump, you don’t fear the fall … / Hope when the crowd screams out, they’re screaming your name.”