亚当•莱辛斯基的著作《苹果解密》（Inside Apple）虽然只有240页，但比起656页的《乔布斯传》，前者更能让我们理解苹果（Apple）作为一家公司的运作情况。最近，莱辛斯基为本期《财富》杂志英文版撰写了封面文章：《蒂姆•库克如何改变苹果》（How Tim Cook Is Changing Apple）。

    莱辛斯基的文章涉及了此前已经被媒体曝光的一系列基础问题，包括新股息、中国与华盛顿特区之旅、在高盛（Goldman Sachs）科技与互联网大会上的发言等等。

    除此之外，他还点明了一些我们前所未闻的微妙的内部变化，它们日后可能产生深远的影响：

    比如，拥有MBA学历的员工数量增加。“几年前，高盛银行家艾德里安•佩瑞卡几年前加盟苹果时，他还是唯一一位除了撮合交易外别无所长的高管，”莱辛斯基写道。“当时，苹果的兼并与收购事务几乎由史蒂夫•乔布斯一手包办。如今，佩瑞卡执掌着一个部门，三位企业发展方面的专业人士受他领导，还有一群员工支持他们的工作，因此苹果有能力同时处理三项交易。事实上，用一位苹果前员工的话来说，总体气氛是苹果正变得‘传统了很多’，意味着公司有了更多的MBA毕业生、更复杂的流程与更丰富的架构。（事实上，除去专卖店从事零售业务的员工，苹果约有2.8万名雇员，其中有2,153人的商务社交网站LinkedIn资料上写明自己是MBA，而他们当中有一半以上都是在过去两年内才刚刚加入苹果的新人。）”

    另一个变化是提高了对执行效率的重视。“看起来它正变成更为保守的执行引擎，而不是不断挑战极限的工程引擎，”苹果前工程副总裁马科斯•派里（曾为苹果效力长达14年，2011年末离职）表示。“有人告诉我说，如今任何重大会议总是有项目管理和全球供应链管理的负责人参与，”他说。“我还在苹果的时候，工程部门决定苹果想要的是什么，产品管理与供应链管理人士的职责则是实现这个目标。如今优先顺序发生了变化。”

    苹果老臣们往往对此忧心忡忡，怀疑这些变化表明老东家已经变得“越来越普通”，失去“苹果特色”。但它们也可能意味着苹果正趋于成熟。

    点击此处阅读莱辛斯基的文章《蒂姆•库克如何改变苹果》（英文）。

    译者：小宇

    Adam Lashinsky, whose 240-page book Inside Apple taught us more about how Apple (AAPL) works as a company than 656 pages of the Steve Jobs biography, has the cover of the current issue of Fortune: How Tim Cook Is Changing Apple.

    Lashinsky touches all the bases that had previously been reported -- the new dividend, the trips to China and Washington, D.C., the Goldman Sachs presentation, etc.

    But he also identifies some subtle, internal changes we hadn't heard about, and which could turn out to be significant:

    • More MBAs: "When Adrian Perica, a former Goldman Sachs (GS) banker, joined Apple several years ago, he was the only executive whose sole remit was dealmaking," Lashinsky writes. "Steve Jobs basically ran M&A for Apple. Today Perica heads a department with three corporate-development professionals under him and a staff supporting them, so that Apple can work on three deals simultaneously. Indeed, the vibe, in the words of a former employee, is of an Apple that is becoming "far more traditional," meaning more MBAs, more process, and more structure. (In point of fact, 2,153 Apple employees reference the term "MBA" in their LinkedIn profiles out of a nonretail workforce of nearly 28,000. More than half the employees who reference "MBA" have been at Apple less than two years.)"

    • More emphasis on operational efficiency: "It looks like it has become a more conservative execution engine rather than a pushing-the-envelope engineering engine," says Max Paley, a former engineering vice president who worked at Apple for 14 years until late 2011. "I've been told that any meeting of significance is now always populated by project management and global-supply management," he says. "When I was there, engineering decided what we wanted, and it was the job of product management and supply management to go get it. It shows a shift in priority."

    Old Apple hands tend to worry that changes like these mean that the company is becoming more "normal," less "Apple-like."

    But they could also mean that the company is growing up.

    You can read Lashinsky's piece here.