Hardly any other company stands for secrecy as much as Apple. But lately more and more internals are leaking out. And make it difficult to preserve the desired image to the outside world.
Hardly any other group stands for a perfectly maintained image as much as Apple does. From the well-planned product presentations to the skilfully managed corporate communications to the stores that were designed down to the smallest detail: Apple held all the strings in its own image. At least so far. But in the last few months the control over the self-portrayal is slipping more and more often. A court case and the Corona crisis suddenly allow unimagined insights.
This is a new situation for the group. Rumors and shaky images of new devices regularly made their way through the curtain of secrecy, but they usually came from suppliers. Apple itself remained closed, and insights into day-to-day business were a very rare exception. But in the last few months the monolith Apple broke open more and more often. And revealed the view of a corporation in which conflicts were conducted with rigor.
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Hotly debated decisions
The latest example is the internal discussion about the announcement that iPhones will automatically search for child pornographic material in the future. While there were quickly critics outside the group who saw the measure as a step in a possible monitoring of users, the group remained silent about the fears. But there was a heated debate internally, reports “Reuters”.
Accordingly, there was extensive argument among the employees in the Slack chat tool about whether the measure actually represented a kind of back door for government agencies, as some critics pointed out. Among other things, they feared it could damage Apple’s reputation as a protector of customer privacy. Others defended the action. The discussion had lasted for days and its intensity was also unusual for Apple, said several anonymous employees of the news agency.
Although the internal debate is not in itself surprising, it would have been inconceivable a year ago that it could penetrate the outside world. But over the past few months, the strict secrecy has been weakening. And allowed deep insights into a corporate culture that for a long time was only perceived as a mystery from the outside. There have been no real scandals so far, but it is becoming more and more evident that only people work behind the perfectly preserved facade.
A lawsuit and corona
The fact that the conflicts are now increasingly getting to the outside is primarily due to two factors: On the one hand, “Fortnite” developer Epic sued Apple and, in his finding of evidence for the procedure, also made numerous emails from the management public, some of which were decisions were fought hard. On the other hand, the Corona crisis also forced Apple to work from home. And brought conversations that were previously held privately and in person to a large stage much more often using chat tools such as Slack. The result: More employees noticed the intensity of the debates – and at the same time, because of the larger number of participants, they did not have to fear being discovered as a source of the press.
That must be uncomfortable for Apple. In the past, the group had built up a legendary system of secrecy, which, however, was primarily about its new products. They were so well guarded that often even the employees themselves did not know what they were working on. There is a story that the developer of the iPad interface never knew that the company was building a tablet. With a team that partly consisted of former NSA employees, the group hunted for possible chat bags as early as 2017.
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Mystery Apple
There is a tradition of secrecy. It serves the maximum effect: When founder Steve Jobs pulled the first Macbook Air out of an envelope, the audience was stunned – because nobody had expected such a slim device. His famous sentence – “there is one more thing” – could only develop its full force because the announcements usually came as a complete surprise. However, secrecy about internal processes that do not affect products also play an important role. The fact that hardly any details from everyday work are known keeps the Apple mystery alive.
Not only in view of this, the group management should not like the latest revelations. The group had prevented internal surveys about the salaries of colleagues. Some employees wanted to point out injustices in pay. The fight of numerous employees against the end of the home office had also been punctured. While the management relies on a quick return to the office, many employees prefer not to give up the freedom and security of the home office. The company is also likely to be able to increase the secrecy that has suffered from work at home and the chat tools. In an internal video, Vice President Deirdre O’Brien justified the move: “We believe that face-to-face collaboration is essential for our corporate culture and our future.” The video quickly got into the hands of the media.
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