"The Apple Way"

Author	:	Jeffrey L. Cruikshank
Publisher	:	McGraw-Hill
Price	:	RM 99
Rating	:

Before reading Jeffrey Cruikshank's "The Apple Way", I was expecting a dry, serious business management book. I was very pleasantly surprised to find it a fun and enjoyable read.

The book is divided into twelve chapters, each one describing a management principle. Through each of these chapters Cruikshank delves into Apple's history and relays the story of its successes and failures. He then summarises from these stories the key points and the managerial lessons we can learn.

In other words, through the fascinating story of Apple Computer, through its ups and downs (and ups again) we are told of what we should and should not do in business. It's good to note that some of these lessons are derived from Apple's mistakes or failures, just to illustrate that Cruikshank is not biased and that he acknowledges that Apple is not a perfect company.

One thing which intrigued me is that Cruikshank makes many references throughout his book. There are 15 pages of notes at the back which list all the sources of his information, ranging from books such as Linzmayer's "Apple Confidential 2.0" and Amelio's "On the Firing Line" to news websites. On one hand it's reassuring to know how authentic or reliable the facts are. But on the other hand it sometimes feel like Cruikshank merely extracted information from a variety of sources and put them together as a book without having to do much new work. But at the end of the day there are some very important lessons to be learnt.

It is timely that "The Apple Way" should be published during Apple's 30th anniversary. It's a wonderful way of celebrating our favourite computer company - by looking back and learning from it's remarkable history.