I spent ten years inside three Big Tech companies, most of it at Apple. For a long time, I thought of corporations as ruthless business machines — designed to maximize revenue, or shareholder value, depending on my level of cynicism at the time.
What I didn’t expect was how quickly business logic faded once you moved deep enough inside the organization.
Past a certain point, the environment stopped resembling a company and started resembling an imperial court. There were enclaves, wars, and palace intrigue. Fair and unfair rulers. And for the commonfolk, little left to do but fight someone else’s wars.
In one story from Apple, I spent over a year fighting for what I believed were straightforward business values.
What I didn’t expect was how quickly business logic faded once you moved deep enough inside the organization. Past a certain point, the environment stopped resembling a company and started resembling an imperial court. There were enclaves, wars, and palace intrigue. Fair and unfair rulers. And for the commonfolk, little left to do but fight someone else’s wars.
In one story from Apple, I spent over a year fighting for what I believed were straightforward business values.
We still lost.