Used Book Review: The Apple Way

There have been a ton of ups and downs at Apple through the years. So much so, that one would think there's has to be a compelling business lesson or lessons lurking in the halls of Cupertino. Well, The Apple Way: 12 Management Lessons From The World's Most Innovative Company tries to be that book, but not with the greatest of success.

First, the name is a bit of a misnomer. The book has 12 chapters, but each chapter tries to impart 6 - 8 business lessons. The problem with trying to learn from Apple is that often the same thinking and methods that lead to huge success, also put the company on the brink of bankruptcy. This leads to watered down lessons like, "Gross margin is a great measure -- until the day it isn't," or "innovate but don't force it." Also, although the author says in the preface that it is not his intent to create an authoritative history of the company, it does seem a majority of the pages focus on history heavily borrowed from previous books, especially Gil Amelio's On The Firing Line.

In the end, rather than a look at a dozen memorable business lessons, The Apple Way offers a Cliff's Notes of sorts to the history of the company, found in more detail in other books.