The key venue for freewheeling discourse was the Monday morning executive team gathering,
自由发表意见的重要场所是每周一上午的管理团队会议，
which started at 9 and went for three or four hours.
上午9点开始，持续三四个小时。
The focus was always on the future: What should each product do next? What new things should be developed?
讨论的重点常常着眼于未来：每款产品接下来该怎么做，应该开发哪些新东西？
Jobs used the meeting to enforce a sense of shared mission at Apple.
乔布斯会利用这个会议加强苹果公司的共同使命意识。
This served to centralize control, which made the company seem as tightly integrated as a good Apple product,
这种集中式控制，使得苹果公司犹如一个完好的苹果产品那样紧密整合在一起，
and prevented the struggles between divisions that plagued decentralized companies.
并且防止了部门之间的斗争，这种斗争令分散式管理的企业陷于窘境。
Jobs also used the meetings to enforce focus.
乔布斯还利用这个机会强调公司的焦点所在。
At Robert Friedland's farm, his job had been to prune the apple trees so that they would stay strong,
当年在罗伯特·弗里德兰的农场，他的工作是给苹果树剪枝，以让它们茁壮成长，
and that became a metaphor for his pruning at Apple.
这一举动后来成为了他精简苹果公司的隐喻。
Instead of encouraging each group to let product lines proliferate based on marketing considerations,
乔布斯不鼓励每个团队出于营销的考虑增加产品线，
or permitting a thousand ideas to bloom, Jobs insisted that Apple focus on just two or three priorities at a time.
也不允许主意满天飞，他坚持苹果公司一次只着重于两三个优先项目。

"There is no one better at turning off the noise that is going on around him," Cook said.
“在无视身边噪音这方面，没有人比乔布斯做得更好。”库克说道。
"That allows him to focus on a few things and say no to many things. Few people are really good at that."
“这样，他就能够集中精力于几件事情上，拒绝其他许多事情。很少有人擅长于这一点。”
In order to institutionalize the lessons that he and his team were learning,
为了使他和他的团队学到的东西制度化，
Jobs started an in-house center called Apple University.
乔布斯创办了一个内部中心，叫做苹果大学。
He hired Joel Podolny, who was dean of the Yale School of Management,
他聘请了耶鲁大学管理学院院长乔尔·波多尔尼，
to compile a series of case studies analyzing important decisions the company had made,
编写一系列案例研究分析公司的重要决策，
including the switch to the Intel microprocessor and the decision to open the Apple Stores.
包括改用英特尔微处理器以及决定开设苹果商店。
Top executives spent time teaching the cases to new employees,
高管们花时间向新员工讲授这些案例，
so that the Apple style of decision making would be embedded in the culture.
这样苹果公司的决策风格就会根植于公司文化中。