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Client: McGraw-Hill
Project/product: The Apple Way

Sometimes publishers generate book ideas and seek out appropriate authors to write those books. McGraw-Hill's business book division produces a series of "Way" books, which explain how outstanding companies do business. They asked us to write a book about computer- and gadget-maker Apple.

The result was The Apple Way, published in 2006. In a tongue-in-cheek way, the book describes what works—and what doesn't work—about the Apple formula. So far, The Apple Way has been translated into six languages (most recently, Vietnamese).

Excerpt:

The Return of the Prince

Here the story becomes almost exquisitely familiar, like a fairly tale remembered from childhood: The prince returns, swings his sword, works some magic, and the Little Kingdom is rescued from the forces of darkness.

And there's more than a little truth to the legend. Swinging his sword at his predecessors' pet project, Jobs immediately killed the cloning program (Spindler and Amelio) and the Newton (Sculley). He whacked away at the still-too-complicated Apple product line—which had resisted efforts by both Spindler and Amelio to simplify it—and began an intensive development of both next-generation Macs (the iMac family) and the long-delayed operating system (based almost entirely on the NeXT OS). He also broomed out the board stable, replacing almost every director with individuals more to his liking. Swept out in this purge, notably, was board member Mike Markkula, who had helped invent the company some 21 years earlier. "This is good news," opined a Times op-ed columnist, "since Mr. Markkula was the kingmaker at Apple who hired chief executive officers too quickly, and then fired them too slowly."

But Jobs also buried hatchets. For example, he made peace with Bill Gates, and sold Microsoft a $150 million equity stake in the company. So whatever jotivated Jobs, it wasn't simply a yearning to return to the "good old days," back before there was a Microsoft. Jobs clearly had his eye on the future that, only a year or two earlier, he was publicly saying that Apple didn't have.

And he imposed discipline on Apple, a quality that the company hadn't enjoyed for many years. The company that used to be known as the "ship that leaks from the top" was soon transformed into a tightly controlled, team-oriented machine—to the point of being secretive, and even insular. "Jobs & Company"—another nickname that sprang up across the Valley in this era—would not be shooting itself in the foot or strangling on its own politics.

It worked. By 1998, only a year into Jobs's tenure, Apple appeared to be turning the corner. The moderator of the Seybold publishing seminar held that year put it this way:

In the past 12 months and 12 weeks since Steve took over as interim CEO, I have had a lot of faith back in my blook that I won't have to give up my beloved Mac. Although you might not agree with all the decisions he's made, I think most of you would agree with me that he has done an awesome job of bringing Apple back from the brink of extinction.

Jobs, for his part, didn't disagree:

The company is in the best financial shape it's been in years. It's on focus. The successful introduction of this cute little product called the iMac and the consumer product marketplace has resurrected Apple's reputation as an innovative design company and a powerhouse marketing company.

By early 1999, Jobs had not only turned the company around, he had delivered five consecutive quarters of profits. And the most dramatic departures—and successes—were still to come. . . .