Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired—and Secretive—Company Really Works

Adam Lashinsky

May 2025 · Hachette+ORM

About this ebook

A New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller goes behind the scenes of the tech giant that inspired a cult-like following for its products.

If Apple is Silicon Valley's answer to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, then author Adam Lashinsky provides readers with a golden ticket to step inside. In this primer on leadership and innovation, the author introduces readers to concepts like the "DRI" (Apple's practice of assigning a Directly Responsible Individual to every task) and the Top one hundred (an annual ritual in which one hundred up-and-coming executives are tapped a la Skull & Bones for a secret retreat with company founder Steve Jobs).

Based on numerous interviews, Inside Apple offers exclusive information about how the company innovates, deals with its suppliers and handled the transition into the Post Jobs Era. Lashinsky, a former executive editor for Fortune, knows the subject cold: In a 2008 cover story for the magazine entitled "The Genius Behind Steve: Could Operations Whiz Tim Cook Run the Company Someday", he predicted that Tim Cook, then an unknown, would eventually succeed Steve Jobs as CEO.

While Inside Apple is ostensibly a deep dive into one, unique company (and its ecosystem of suppliers, investors, employees and competitors), the lessons about Jobs, leadership, product design and marketing are universal. They should appeal to anyone hoping to bring some of that Apple magic to their own company, career, or creative endeavor.

"A revealing guided tour of [Jobs's] greatest creation." — San Francisco Chronicle

With an Afterword on the Tim Cook era

Ratings and reviews

Unlike Isaacson’s biography, Inside Apple is an unauthorized work. However, Lashinsky’s credentials as editor-as-large at Fortune magazine as a diligent technology reporter provides the requisite credibility for treating Inside Apple as an honest and unbiased narrative. Lashinsky interviewed many of Jobs’ disciples, including Scott Forstall (SVP iOS), Jonathan Ive (SVP design) and of course new CEO Tim Cook on how they’re handling the transition into the Post Jobs Era. JJ.P.Miller. Cambridge, MA

An average book that doesn't really reveal anything new about Apple. Several of the chapter titles were misleading to me. The book really fell short in that it described Apple but didn't really pull out any lessons learned that could be applied elsewhere, although the author does make the point that might not be best anyways.

About the author

Lashinsky is a Senior Editor At Large for Fortune Magazine, where he covers technology and finance. He is also a Fox News contributor and frequent speaker and moderator. Prior to joining Fortune, Lashinsky was a columnist for TheStreet.com and the San Jose Mercury News. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughter.