Apple's process of introducing new employees into its work culture is a tightly-guarded secret that's akin to CIA operations and regrettable drunken hook-ups.
Now details about the clandestine training program, which is more commonly called "Apple University," has been revealed, and it provides a glimpse into the company's philosophy on everything, from design to making business decisions.
According to an investigative report from the New York Times, instructors for the program regularly draw comparisons between Apple's methods for making smartphones and devices from Picasso's 1945 abstract masterpiece "The Bull." The artwork, which is comprised of eleven lithographs, shows the animal's form gradually being reduced to lines and broad strokes. The report was sourced through three unnamed Apple employees who have taken classes through the program.
"The idea: Apple designers strive for simplicity just as Picasso eliminated details to create a great work of art," the report read.
"You go through more iterations until you can simply deliver your message in a very concise way, and that is true to the Apple brand and everything we do," one of the sources said.
Apple University is said to be in operation the whole year round, with a full-time faculty in charge of indoctrinating new hires. The company's employee training program was established in 2008 by late co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs. Course is not mandatory. However, the sources said that attendance is high among new hires.
When it was first established, Jobs tapped Joel Podolny, the former dean of Yale's School of Management to design the program. He is still in charge of the initiative. The faculty members are said to come from prestigious schools like MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Yale and the University of California, Berkeley.
Employees sign up for the program through an internal Apple website that can only be accessed by staff members. The classes are said to be tailored to a person's position. For instance, the head of a company that Apple has acquired would be prescribed classes on how to integrate resources and employees into the way Apple does things. The courses have titles such as "What Makes Apple, Apple" and "The Best Things" (lifted from a Jobs quote).
