Write anything negative slamming Apple (the company, its products, its customer base, etc).
Like Dan Lyons, the man who was behind the whole “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs” blog a couple of years ago. Lyons previously worked at Forbes and then Newsweek. He also began a satirical blog with himself cast as Fake Steve Jobs (anonymously at the time). Ever since he was outed as the one behind the FSJ persona by the New York Times, Lyon’s postings as it related to Apple, has managed to have a negative undertone to them (just search online for Dan Lyons on Apple and you’ll eventually come up on hit piece after hit piece since 2007 to the present).
He is now the editor in chief at ReadWrite. Unsurprisingly, it has yet another hit piece where he interviews the former director of Federal sales (David Sobotta, who spent 20 years at Apple and left the company in 2004). I’m not going to bother to directly link Lyon’s article but that can be easily found by searching for “What’s It Like To Work For Tim Cook? A Former Sales Exec Dishes.”
Now whenever someone says that they don’t have an axe to grind, but the entire interview comes across as pretty much that, then if it quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. I previously used to read Sobotta’s blog called Applepeels when he first launched it (rarely do former Apple corporate employees tend to write in depth about their personal experiences online with the exception of Sobotta, Matt Drance of Apple Outsider, or John Martellaro, who wrote about some of his experiences at the Mac Observer, where he is currently one of its main writers). I personally stopped reading Applepeels around 2006 when I noticed the postings becoming tinged with more personal bitterness. The way I took it is that when Sobotta first started his blog, it was indeed meant to offer a view as to what it was like to work at Apple (corporate).
Like any work environment, there are good and bad points when it comes to corporate culture/politics. With Apple being led by such a mercurial leader as Steve Jobs from 1997 until Sobotta’s departure in 2004 though, it isn’t very surprising that there is some dysfunction in the executive leadership ranks. Some of that naturally filters down through the ranks. It’s important to look at Sobotta’s experience in the context of his time there though. He left in 2004, when Apple’s primary revenue generator was the iPod. Apple had yet to even announce the switch to Intel (which was one of those “needs to know” decisions that only the highest level executives were privy to until the announcement was made public at WWDC 2005). Furthermore, it was well known that Jobs did not particularly care for those in sales (the attention was mainly on the product side with hardware and software engineering). And Federal sales (let alone, Enterprise sales/marketing) was even further down on that list. Since then, the company has dramatically grown in not just their product porfolio, but also its overall influence.
Apple of 2004 is not the same as the Apple post-iPhone. Cook also was tasked on several occasions to run the company during those times that Jobs took his medical leaves. Sure, and I’ve acknowledged it on this site, that Cook is a “numbers” guy, and that folks like this normally don’t relate to people very well. However, I’ve also seen in action, that Cook does seem to think about the people working for the company. He instituted extra time off for employees during the Thanksgiving holiday, instituted company matching funds for charitable giving. Maybe he has changed from the pure manager that Sobotta experienced after having to run the company twice during Jobs’ leaves, as well as having to deal with the final few months in having personal knowledge that Jobs time was limited. Certain events have life changing epiphanies where it can dramatically alter your priorities. I’m not saying that this is actually how Mr. Cook is; all I’m saying is that I cannot take just one persons word at face value especially based on an outdated experience.
My point is that Lyon’s decides to interview an ex-employee (that has been out of the company for 8 years), who while he may have had contact with a few higher level executives (including Cook, who at times oversaw Apple’s sales team after a VP departed), on what it was like to “work for Cook”. That’s a bit disingenuous on Lyon’s part. But it’s all good for link baiting and getting a ton of clicks for all that ad revenue. As for Sobotta, when he first started his blog, it was filled with the writings of someone who is obviously quite knowledgeable and passionate about the company. However, what I often times find especially with Apple, is that this passion, can turn to bitterness (where some of its most staunchest supporters, can also turn into its most staunchest antagonists when a sea of change occurs). With the Applepeels blog, the later Apple postings tended to have an “axe to grind” angle to them (I think it was purely unintentional though).
In that one regard, I do agree with Sobotta’s final point in the interview, that Apple is losing the “pro” market that Apple could always rely on during the tough times (because I myself have written about this issue in the past as it relates to Apple’s enterprise efforts). However, I make my decisions not from an “axe to grind” point of view just to spite Apple, but one that makes sense both rationally and logically when I’m wearing that consulting hat and have to deal with the accountability behind those decisions. That’s the biggest difference compared to the “spurned” pro customers who are making their decisions to take their ball home and going with any product except Apple (while taking pot shots in slamming the company they once used to support). But it all makes for great link baiting because there is nothing like trying to make a dent in taking down the goliath (something that both IBM and Microsoft are all too familiar with).
