Apple is in Cupertino, the author was an Apple executive, and was likely privy to enough firings to recognize what the prelude to his own sounded like.

It's like when you're in the mob, and are called in to a meeting with the capo and see that there's a big plastic tarp on the floor.

Or get a nice big kiss on the lips only to remember halfway through that your boss doesn't typically kiss you on the lips

Yeah that's better. More subtle.

thats exactly why I am always too busy coding to attend meetings

For context: this is written by a Frenchmen from Paris who had moved to SV. Gasseé previously has written about his French/US cultural mis-understandings. Especially regarding being too blunt and assertive

Is "Frankness" in the title a double entendre that I missed until just now?

Oh, OK. I was working with a French guy recently. I really liked that we could bluntly tell each other when we're full of shit. Didn't realize it's characteristic of French organizational behavior.

It's not typical French behavior, it's typical behavior everywhere but the US and Asia. Only there you are expected to lie all the time. In Europe you are better off telling the truth, even to your customers, not only the managers.

Got a link? I'm actually French, born in France but mostly raised in the US, and I identify too much with that last sentence (about being blunt. I'm not that assertive).

edit: Never mind, found it https://mondaynote.com/50-years-in-tech-part-12-cupertino-cu....

So much of navigating being upper management / senior is in the learning of the language of politics.

I wasn't there of course, but I can speculate on why Jean-Louis felt the way he did. I did have a number of friends at Apple at that time, some of them quite senior, who talked about the politics of the organization. Based on their input, my own experiences, and what Jean-Louis wrote, I'm guessing it went down like this.

At that exact moment in time, that response from Sullivan would tell Jean-Louis that he had been played.

My friends worked at Apple during the "Scully years" remarked that Scully had two things which were really hurting his effectiveness. The first was that he was trying to apply brand marketing to a market that was still technology and feature driven, and second was that he was not good at taking feedback that didn't agree with his world view. The senior people who were perceived as successful at that time, were similarly perceived as "yes" people. When people disagreed with Scully they ended up leaving the company. When they brought up their disagreement to Scully directly, they left more quickly.

So put yourselves in the shoes of the VP of HR. You have a senior leader who you know is not doing well, you need to give them feedback that they are screwing up but you also know that this person has a tendency to fire anyone who does so. How do you both give this person feedback and leave yourself with a way to talk to them about it without putting yourself at risk? Answer, find someone who is willing to give them that feedback who isn't you.

After the dinner when Sullivan says "I'm proud of you," I am guessing that Jean-Louis realized he had done exactly what Sullivan wanted, gave Scully the negative feedback that Sullivan wanted to give but was unwilling to pay the cost for doing so. Like the test subject who volunteered to test the vaccine for the fatal disease, and ends up becoming terminally ill because the vaccine didn't work. "I'm proud of you, you did this thing and everyone will be better off because of it." What is left unspoken is "Too bad about the dying part."

Its not life or death of course, its just a job, but Jean-Louis is aware enough of the dynamic to know, at that moment, what has transpired and what it will cost him.

> find someone who is willing to give them that feedback who isn't you

Thanks - that is an interesting tool to deal with an arrogant boss.

Interesting. Thanks.

His “soft touch” was actually the touch of death. Sometimes in those moments there’s a feeling that something is seriously off.

I think that was such a moment.

In the minds of many, the city of Cupertino, California IS Apple.

He's saying "After half a decade at Apple"

He had been at Apple longer than that. He had been at Apple HEADQUARTERS for "half a decade".