Daniel Hruska Internal training and company training programs are nothing new. Apple went even further and decided to start its own university. Since 2008, Apple employees have been able to attend courses to explain in detail and help them adopt the company's values, as well as share the experience gained over decades in the IT field.
All classes are taught on Apple's campus in a part called City Center, which is - as usual - carefully designed. The rooms have a trapezoidal floor plan and are very well lit. The seats in the back rows are above the level of the previous ones so that everyone can see the speaker. Exceptionally, lessons are also held in China, where some lecturers have to fly.
The university's internal pages can be accessed by employees who attend courses or are enrolled in the program. They choose the courses that are related to their positions. In one, for example, they learned how to smoothly integrate resources obtained through acquisitions into Apple, whether they are talented individuals or resources of a different nature. Who knows, maybe a course tailored for employees has been created Beats.
None of the courses are compulsory, however there is no need to worry about little interest from the staff. Few people would miss the opportunity to learn about the history of the company, its growth and downfalls. Important decisions that had to be made during its course are also taught in detail. One of them is to create a version of iTunes for Windows. Jobs hated the idea of an iPod connected to a Windows computer. But he eventually relented, which skyrocketed sales of iPods and iTunes Store content and helped lay the foundation for a robust ecosystem of devices and services that would later be followed by the iPhone and iPad.
heard how to properly convey your thoughts further. It's one thing to create an intuitive product, but there's a lot of hard work behind it before you get there. Many ideas have already disappeared simply because the person concerned could not explain it clearly enough to others. You need to express yourself as simply as possible, but at the same time you must not leave out any information. Pixar's Randy Nelson, who teaches this course, demonstrated this principle with Pablo Picasso's drawings.
In the picture above you can see four different interpretations of the bull. On the first of them, there are details such as fur or muscles, on the other images there are already details, until the bull on the last one is composed of only a few lines. The important thing is that even these few lines can represent the bull in the same way as the first drawing. Now take a look at an image composed of four generations of Apple mice. Do you see the analogy? "You have to go through it several times so that you can also pass on information in this way," explains one of the employees, who wished to remain anonymous.
As another example, Nelson occasionally mentions the Google TV remote control. This controller has a whopping 78 buttons. Then Nelson showed a photo of the Apple TV remote, a thin piece of aluminum with the three buttons necessary to operate it—one for selection, one for playback, and one for menu navigation. Exactly this little is enough to do what the competition with 78 buttons. The engineers and designers at Google each got their way, and everyone was happy. However, the engineers at Apple debated (communicated) with each other until they reached what was really needed. And this is exactly what makes Apple Apple.
There is not much information directly about the university. Even in Walter Isaacason's biography, the university itself is only briefly mentioned. Of course, employees cannot talk about the company as such, about its inner workings. Courses at the university are no exception. And no wonder, because knowledge is the most valuable thing in a company, and this does not only apply to Apple. To each their own know-how guards.
The above-mentioned information comes from a total of three employees. According to them, the entire program is the embodiment of Apple as we know it now in the present. Like an Apple product, the "curriculum" is carefully planned and then precisely presented. "Even the toilet paper in the toilets is really nice," adds one employee.
