中国市场疲软，苹果把希望寄托这位女高管身上

她曾得到一餐之诺。2008年初，苹果公司首席执行官史蒂夫•乔布斯邀请葛越到自己家一叙并共进晚餐。这次邀请是苹果不断拉葛越“入伙”的举措之一，当时她还是Palm公司负责无线软件工程的副总裁。对于跳槽，这位呈上升趋势的工程师当时态度犹豫。葛越说：“我基本上是从无到有建立了Palm的无线技术团队，而且当时我们正要重振Palm品牌。”不出意料，乔布斯不愿听到“不”这个答案。

因此，他决定亲自上阵进行游说。见面后，这位已故苹果联合创始人的务实态度给葛越留下了深刻的印象。

只是乔布斯一直都没提到大家吃什么，当然最终也没有晚餐上桌。回想起此事，葛越大笑着说：“整整两个小时，就只有水。这多少有点儿诱购的味道吧。”

但乔布斯确实提到了一份很有吸引力的新工作。他希望葛越建立一个团队，专门为几个月前上市的iPhone打造无线功能。谈话期间，乔布斯讲了个类似寓言的小故事来说明自己的观点。他告诉葛越，他有一位十几岁的邻居，想开法拉利，所以就把自己的大众改装得几乎跟法拉利差不多。但到了最后，大家看到的依然是一辆声音非常大的大众。葛越说：“他想告诉我，无论我做什么，Palm只会是Palm。”最终，葛越选择了法拉利——她在2008年晚些时候开始在苹果工作。

现在，43岁的葛越在苹果走上了新的关键岗位——今年7月，CEO蒂姆•库克任命她为苹果首位负责大中华区（包括大陆、香港和台湾地区），的副总裁兼董事总经理。苹果的其他销售区域都没有牵头高管，而且公司以自己的“职能”结构为荣，或者说，组建团队的基础是成员干什么，而不是在哪里。不过，苹果也该转换一下在中国市场的思路了。 （财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林

She was promised dinner. In early 2008, Apple CEO Steve Jobs asked Isabel Ge Mahe over to his house to talk and share a meal. The invitation was part of Apple’s ongoing effort to recruit Mahe, who at the time was vice president of wireless software engineering at Palm Inc. The engineer-on-the-rise was hesitant to make a move. “I had built the wireless technology team for Palm pretty much from the ground up, and, at the time, we were trying to revive the Palm brand,” she says. Jobs, unsurprisingly, was unwilling to take no for an answer.

So he decided to make his pitch in person. Mahe was impressed with how “down-to-earth” the late Apple cofounder was face to face.

There was just one problem: Jobs never proposed that they eat, and no food ever materialized. “Just water for the whole two hours,” Mahe says, laughing at the memory. “So that was a little bit of a bait and switch!”

What he did offer was a high-profile new gig. Jobs wanted her to build a team to focus on the wireless capability of the iPhone, which Apple had released months earlier. At one point, Jobs pleaded his case with a parable of sorts. He told Mahe about his neighbor, a teenager who, in want of a Ferrari, had souped up his Volkswagen as the next best thing. In the end, though, all the neighbor had was a really loud Volkswagen. “He was trying to tell me that no matter what I do, Palm will always be Palm,” she says. Eventually, she opted for the ¬Ferrari. Mahe started at Apple later that year.

Now Mahe, 43, is taking on a critical new role at Apple: In July, CEO Tim Cook named her the first-ever vice president and managing director for Apple in what it calls Greater China—the mainland plus Hong Kong and Taiwan. Apple’s other sales regions don’t have lead execs; the company prides itself on its “functional” structure, with teams grouped by what they do, not location. But it’s time for Apple to think different in China.