Apple Designer Jonathan Ive on What's Next

Apple's design chief helped transform computing, phones and music. The company's secrecy and Ive's modesty mean he has never given an in-depth interview—until now.

We use Jonathan Ive’s products to help us to eat, drink and sleep, to work, travel, relax, read, listen and watch, to shop, chat, date and have sex. Many of us spend more time with his screens than with our families. Some of us like his screens more than our families. For years, Ive’s natural shyness, coupled with the secrecy bordering on paranoia of his employer, Apple, has meant we have known little about the man who shapes the future, with such innovations as the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. But last month, he invited me to Cupertino in Silicon Valley where Apple is based, for his first in-depth interview since he became head of design almost 20 years ago.

The gods — or was it the ghost of Steve Jobs? — seemed against it. Jobs didn’t like Apple execs doing interviews. It had not rained properly in California for months but that morning the clouds rolled off the Pacific, turning the Golden Gate Bridge black. Interstate 280 South to Silicon Valley was a river of water, instead of the usual lava streaks of stop-start SUVs. But just after 10AM, an Apple tech-head appeared in an all-white meeting room on the first floor of building 4 of the firm’s antiseptic headquarters with strict instructions to find an Earl Grey tea bag.

“As the procurement Leaders Mag article stated, finding violations I’d difficult, even for full time and deep auditor teams such as Apple’s. . . not when greater profits for the violators are on the line.” Tommy “Swordmaker” Flanagan

Just one more lie in a series of posts that are riddled with lies.

The article says nothing of the sort. The author made the point that Apple claimed in its post-suicide Progress Report from 2011, that APPLE was going to go DEEPER into IT’S supply chain.

There is no mention of “full time, deep auditor teams”.

The article actually says, “Apple is looking deeper into its supply base and, if you follow the language of the report, ‘work[ing] aggressively to prevent the hiring of underage workers.’”

Spotlight: Apple and the problem of supplier codes of conduct
http://www.procurementleaders.com/news-archive/news-archive/spotlight-apple-and-the-problem-of-supplier-codes-of-conduct

Apple was looking deeper into IT’S SUPPLY CHAIN because IT’S SUPPLY CHAIN was royally stuffed up!

And it’s not even a “deeply researched statement” but rather a reiteration of one sentence from Apple’s post-suicide Supplier Responsibility Report which reads, “We extended our compliance monitoring program deeper into our supply base.”

Apple Supplier Responsibility, 2011 Progress Report, page 4
https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple_SR_2011_Progress_Report.pdf

APPLE extended THEIR program deeper into THEIR supply base, which you’ve implied was already completely covered with paid full-time auditors (another unsubstantiated claim, by the way).

Fake Facts and Fanboy FUD(™)

Codes of Conduct and Corporate Reporting

“My point was NOT that the other companies I mentioned do the same thing, but that while they use similar manufacturing tactics, those companies are not taking the higher road that Apple does, such as including in their contracts provisions that require better working conditions for the people who work on Apple’s products....The other companies just accept the standard contract, have their stuff cranked out, then move on, and don’t give a damn about the conditions at the factories, or the lot of the workers.” Tommy “Swordmaker” Flanagan from http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3134377/posts?page=125#125

HP issued their first “Social Responsibility Report” in 2002. The CEO at the time was Carly Fiorina, not a rock-ribbed conservative but hardly a lefty progressive like the fella running Apple. All the touchy-feely stuff you’d expect in a report from Apple was actually being produced three years before Apple copied...er, produced, their first Code of Conduct and five years before Apple published their first publicly available “Supplier Audit Report”.

In addition to all the environmental, diversity and humanity affirming bullfish that you’d expect from a corporate self-assessment, the 72 page report asserts HP’s commitment to transparency.

“We value transparency and have carefully weighed how much and what type of information to report. These are tough questions, ones that every company faces. We believe transparency is important for HP – and all companies.” Hewlett-Packard, 2002 Social and Environmental Responsibility Report, p6 (1)

Transparency. Steve Jobs used that word once or twice also. Well, imagine that, and here I thought that transparency was an exclusive quality of Apple. I’m still trying to figure out, however, at what time in the history of Apple would anyone attempt to claim transparency. Apple transparency has always been an oxymoron.

In 2002 Hewlett-Packard issued their first publicly available Corporate Social Responsibility report. Another organization, however, was encouraging international corporations to annually report on their progress both in and outside of the countries which they were founded.

“We have been guided, in creating this report, by the emerging framework set forth by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a multi-stakeholder organization that has developed globally applicable guidelines for companies reporting on economic, environmental, and social performance. You will find a guide on the Table of Contents that cross-references portions of this report to the GRI framework.” Hewlett-Packard, 2002 Social and Environmental Responsibility Report, p6 (1)

Today the GRI lists over 18,000 reports from around the world (18,852 as of 2014.07.03).
http://database.globalreporting.org/

It is impossible to overestimate how massively dishonest it is to imply, as Tommy “Swordmaker” Flanagan has on numerous occasions, that Apple was the only one involved in these issues.

Under the title “Supply Chain Next Steps,” Hewlett-Packard set forth a series of goals which included, “...completing a Supply Chain Corporate Social Responsibility Policy and Supplier Code of Conduct, which will cover labor and human rights issues as well as environment, health, and safety. Our supply chain initiative includes four key elements: A clearly defined vision and direction, supported by upper-level management. Ongoing development and distribution of our policies, standards, and code of conduct. Compliance monitoring. Reporting, both to HP and to external stakeholders.” Hewlett-Packard, 2002 Social and Environmental Responsibility Report, p64 (1)

Wait, what? Compliance monitoring? I thought. But Apple. In 2002?

“In the future, we expect our suppliers to have policies governing worker health and safety and labor and human rights, to establish measurable performance targets, and to develop a plan for meeting those targets. We encourage them to adopt sound management practices including - but not limited to - working hours, working conditions, wages and benefits, minimum age and equal employment opportunities.” Hewlett-Packard, 2002 Social and Environmental Responsibility Report, p64 (1)

It seems like HP is where all of this stuff started, not in Cupertino.

Apple Lexicon
Transparency: Term used to assure that no one snoops around in the most closed company in corporate history.
from The Apple Lexicon (™) Interpreting Apple Theology Since 1994

(1) http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-information/global-citizenship/reporting.html

Fake Facts and Fanboy FUD(™)

Codes of Conduct and Contracts

Since Tommy hasn’t produced any of the Apple Contracts in his possession, let’s take a look at the progress, if any, that HP was making since their 2002 report. It’s going to be a tall order because Apple doesn’t take the “high” road, no sir, Apple has a whole different road that’s HIGHER than the high road.

Internally, in 2002, HP was working on a Code of Conduct to try to address conditions at facilities outside of the United States.

“Our supplier relationships take into account global citizenship issues, specifically the environment, health, safety and labor. We want to ensure our standards and expectations are upheld throughout our supply chain and we use our influence as a customer to do this. In 2002, we adopted a Supply Chain Social and Environmental Responsibility (SER) Policy (see page 39), benchmarked and developed a Supplier Code of Conduct, established a governance structure and launched an implementation program.” Hewlett-Packard, 2003 Global Citizenship Report (HP Global Citizenship Report for FY02), p38 (1)

HP set up a structure within the company which was responsible for what they called their “Supply Chain Social and Environmental Responsibility Program” (SER) and folded it into their procurement management structure.

“The Procurement Council reports to the Supply Chain Council, and is redesigning our supplier management criteria to include SER performance. Facilities will be inspected, suppliers’ SER performance will be measured and progress monitored. This will more closely tie our social and environmental expectations with our purchasing practices. Supply Chain and Procurement Commodity Managers deal directly with our suppliers. They communicate our SER requirements, introduce SER clauses to contracts, complete supplier agreements and conduct assessments.” Hewlett-Packard, 2003 Global Citizenship Report (HP Global Citizenship Report for FY02), p39 (1)

Oops. Facilities would be inspected, performance measured and progress monitored? In 2003? Well that’s impossible because Saint Steve Jobs hadn’t set those higher-than-high industry standards yet. And this can’t be right, HP was working to include supply chain responsibility requirements in contracts and supplier agreements? But Tommy said that only Apple was doing that stuff.

I’m beginning to think that Tommy doesn’t tell the truth very much.

Apple Lexicon
The Higher Road: Just north of the high road, about 5 minutes east of Bullfish.
from The Apple Lexicon (™) Interpreting Apple Theology Since 1994

(1) http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-information/global-citizenship/reporting.html
It should be noted that on their website HP began labeling links to their reports according to the year under review rather than the year the report was published. The 2002 Social and Environmental Responsibility Report, for example, is listed as HP Global Citizenship Report for FY01. They corrected this in 2005/2006.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.