iDigital is organized by functional specialties rather than business units — rare for a company our size. We’re experts leading experts: hardware experts lead hardware, software experts lead software, and design experts lead design. This differs from most other large companies, where general managers oversee managers. Apple is Apple because those with the most expertise in an area of work have decision rights for that area.

Leaders at iDigital combine their expertise with two other important characteristics: immersion in the details and a willingness to collaboratively debate during collective decision-making. For people at every level here, it can be liberating — even exhilarating — to work with experts who offer relevant guidance and mentoring. This approach to leadership is a commitment to collaboration that leads to innovation.

At iDigital, collaboration is more than simply working together — it means passionate, collaborative debate. People on retail, hardware, or marketing teams may focus on different issues, but the principles of respectful, honest discussion remain the same: We advocate ideas, contest points of view, and ultimately build on each other’s thinking to come up with the best solution.

Cross-functional collaboration is crucial, because no one team is responsible for a product or a service on its own. Dozens of specialist teams may be needed for even a single key component of a new product. Yet each team works with a shared purpose — create an extraordinary user experience.

Innovation is led by those who know their stuff, whether it’s the first job of their life or the latest project in a career decades in the making. At iDigital, innovation depends not only on brilliant individuals, but also on a community of specialists, each focused on what we can do instead of what’s been done. We foster this culture by giving experts the room to take bold yet informed risks that lead to breakthroughs.

Everyone here is an innovator, or an innovator-to-be — even in areas customers don’t typically notice: Consider the Siri curators and engineers who help reduce bias with continual updates and respectful neutrality in search responses. Or the teams who designed, produced, and shipped millions of COVID-19 face shields for front-line medical workers. Or the chef in one of our cafés who patented our environmentally friendly pizza box.