worship the glitch
This is Eric Mortensen's blog. He works @ Blip and lives in Brooklyn.
A really good friend of mine from college recently left a high-profile position at APPL. As background, this guy has been an APPL fanboy since he was 10; in college, he was the only person using a Mac that I knew of in my entire dorm, and he continues to evangelize APPL to this day. Working at APPL, and with Steve Jobs, was his dream.
After several years at APPL, my friend realized that he wasn’t going to advance any farther, as much as he may have wanted to. He was surrounded by hyper-talented guys in their 40s and 50s who had been with APPL for over a decade, who were instrumental to the operation of the company, and who no one has ever heard of. In prominent meetings, the only people allowed to talk are the high-level executives; none of the front-line PMs or designers get to attach their names to or take responsibility for things like big deals or launches. And now that APPL is sitting on a huge pile of money, when they want to recruit for executive-level positions, they hire from outside rather than promote from within. My friend’s theory is that Steve Jobs intentionally hides his best people so that they don’t get poached, and don’t even get the idea that they could be poached. APPL’s secret is burying its talent so that no one knows who they are and so they don’t get recognized publicly for their contributions, a veritable walled garden for employment like the iPhone is for apps.
Meanwhile, we know several mediocre people who work at GOOG who are at the front lines constantly and given tons of responsibility, having their names attached to deals and products, getting in the press, networking like fiends in the industry, etc. Those guys develop public profiles and personas, become known for getting things done, and move on to executive-level positions elsewhere (look, for example, at how AOL is how GOOG 2.0). GOOG is seeding the entire tech industry with ex-Googlers because they have an explicitly flat hierarchy, are open about (almost) everything, and are not afraid of having their people poached. Hell, I think they welcome it because it builds relationships and knowledge across the tech industry that will bear fruit later through partnerships and acquisitions.
In an analogy to technology-centric locales, APPL is Route 128 (in MA, which enforces non-compete agreements) and GOOG is Silicon Valley (in CA, which doesn’t enforce non-compete agreements). Which one will win in the end? I think it’s obvious GOOG will because of the positive network effects of letting its employees flourish, grow, and leave, which just reinforces the desperation behind APPL’s patent lawsuit, and the fact that they’re going to do more desperate things to try to keep GOOG in check.
More to the overall point though, it’s in the best interests of every business, even lawyers, to let their younger people go out there and shine, and build public personas and reputations. If they stay, they become in-house stars and can bring business in on their own; if they leave, they become a source for positive referrals and deal flow in the future. The walled garden approach to employment is tremendously short-sighted and breeds a culture not of innovation or ambition, but of stagnancy and risk-aversion.
