2019年经济学人 苹果公司的忧患意识(1)（在线收听）

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来源于《商论》版块

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熊彼特商业专栏

iPhoney war

苹果的忧患意识

Does Apple’s boss have a Plan B?

苹果公司的老板有备用计划吗？

Long before Tim Cook became Apple’s boss, when his job was to wring costs out of the company’s supply chain, he learned of a problem with a supplier in China. “This is really bad,” he told his staff. “Someone should be in China driving this.” Thirty minutes later he saw one of his executives sitting at a table. “Why are you still here?” he asked quietly. The executive stood up, drove directly to San Francisco’s airport and bought a ticket to China.

早在蒂姆?库克成为苹果公司首席执行官之前，他的工作就是从公司的供应链中挤出成本。“刻不容缓，”他对员工讲，“应该有人在中国推动这件事。”30分钟后，他看见一位经理坐在桌旁。“你为什么还在这？” 库克平静地问道。这位高管站起身，直接开车去旧金山机场，买了一张去中国的机票。

This anecdote, recounted in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, Apple’s founder, is one of only a few tales in print that offer an insight into the management style of Mr Cook, who took over from Jobs shortly before he died of cancer in October 2011. It is telling. While Jobs, the irascible creative genius behind Apple’s bestselling products, stole the show, Mr Cook, who is both courtly and deeply private, plugged away behind the scenes to cement a relationship crucial to Apple’s soaring success: that with China.

在沃尔特?艾萨克森为苹果创始人史蒂夫?乔布斯撰写的传记中，讲述了这段轶事。这是为数不多的能让人们深入了解库克管理风格的故事之一。乔布斯于2011年10月因癌症去世，在此之前不久，库克接替了乔布斯的职位。这段记述很写实。乔布斯是苹果最畅销产品背后暴躁的创新天才，抢尽风头，而库克则在幕后埋头巩固一种关系：与中国的关系。

In the early days of Apple, Jobs wanted to make his Macintosh computers in America. With his trademark obsessiveness, he built a factory of pure white to produce them (and wore white gloves to check for dust). When Mr Cook joined the company in 1998 he changed all that, deploying his soothing Alabama lilt and a fearsome work ethic (he gets up at 4am) to forge an unrivalled supply chain running through Asia. Today labels on nearly all iDevices read, “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China”.

在苹果的早期，乔布斯想在美国制造麦金塔电脑（Mac机）。带着标志性的执着，乔布斯建造了一座纯白的工厂来生产这种电脑(并且戴着白手套来检查灰尘)。1998年，库克加入苹果，改变了这一切，他运用那令人宽心的来自阿拉巴马的抑扬顿挫和令人生畏的职业道德(凌晨4点起床)，打造了一条贯穿亚洲的无与伦比的供应链。今天几乎所有苹果产品的标签上都写着“由位于美国加利福尼亚的苹果公司设计，在中国组装”。