How Apple does it
In the latest issue of Times magazine (yes, I'll pass it on when I've finished it ;-), there is a very interesting article about how Steve Jobs is running Apple and why the company is such a great success at the moment. In the article Jobs tells about the (already legendary) Parable of the Concept Car. It's the story about the thrilling concept cars you see on car shows and why the end up looking terrible when they reach production. According to Jobs the car is getting to look worse every time it passes through the different departments of the organization, because they say that some of the neat things are simply impossible. And in the end you have a Crossfire.
Jobs' resulotion to this is that you shouldn't let the designs pass from department to deparment, but let them all work together at the product and make it work. I like this philosophy very much because you can look at software development in a similar way. When using the "good" old waterfall the product usually ends up not being what we wanted when we started. Using agile and iterative methodologies people are working toghether to get the job done. And when looking at Apple, this can be very proffitable.
But, reading through the lines of the article, there are some very interesting other points to be made. Allthough everybody is looking in the same direction and working together, I don't get the impression that this is all "free will". You either think the way Jobs does or you can go somewhere else. And while I realize that commercial companies aren't about democracy, I very much doubt that this will be working out in the long run. When Jobs runs out of great ideas, will the company still know what to do? When Bill Gates and Steve Jobs both die in a plane crash, Microsoft will probably do fine, but I doubt Apple will.
Anyway, if Santa sells his house for a good price this year, this baby will sure be on my Christmas wishing list ;-)