Apple's Next Big Content Push?

I’ve been traveling a lot the last two weeks and missed the curious announcement that sociologist Joel Podolny is being hired by Apple Inc (AAPL). On Wednesday I talked to a friend who, knowing my long history with Apple, assumed that I’d already heard.

Prof. Podolny now works at Yale, where his bio was just updated to reflect his recent decision:

Joel M. Podolny
William S. Beinecke Professor of Management
Joel Podolny was dean of the Yale School of Management from July, 2005 to October, 2008.

The only real account is in the WSJ of Oct 23:

Apple Inc. is hiring the dean of Yale University's business school to start a project that it calls Apple University.

The Cupertino, Calif., computer maker said Joel Podolny, the dean of the Yale School of Management, will join Apple as vice president and dean of Apple University. The company declined to provide details about the university or the position.

Mr. Podolny will be stepping down as dean on Nov. 1, but will stay at Yale until year end, a spokeswoman for Yale said. She said Mr. Podolny will take up his new position in early 2009.

Mr. Podolny wasn't available for comment.

Corporate universities, which typically offer classes to employees, have been introduced elsewhere. One of the earliest and best known is McDonald's Corp.'s Hamburger University, where thousands of employees attend classes each year.

In an e-mail to employees, Yale president Richard Levin notes that “Joel’s unexpected departure challenges each of us to rise to the occasion.” Sounds like Apple made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. 

Podolny’s own farewell e-mail talks about his own history as an Apple II hacker and doing his undergraduate thesis on the original Mac 128. He then praises Apple: 

I am excited to know that I will be joining an organization for which I have so much respect and enthusiasm, a company whose reputation for innovation and excellence is second to none.

The Oct. 22 e-mail says he will be leaving the dean’s job on Nov. 1 and the school “in early 2009.” Presumably that means Apple U will be announced on January 5 by Steve Jobs at Macworld Expo. 

Podolny was an academic superstar. Starting with three degrees in sociology from Harvard, he was a full professor at Stanford b-school by (approx.) age 35, senior associate dean the next year and stolen away by Harvard in 2002.

Talk was he was being groomed for dean of HBS, but Yale hired him as b-school dean in 2005, a job he held from until last Saturday. At (approx.) age 44, he was well on his way to being president of Yale (or Columbia or Harvard) before turning 55. 

Podolny is a widely-cited expert on how individuals and firms use social status to gain power. His resumé shows 11 “A” hits from 1990-2008 — including five years as a full-time administrator — plus an academic book and a co-authored textbook. 

The decision of a tenured professor on the fast track to jump to industry was puzzling to one of his former Stanford colleagues, engineering management professor Bob Sutton:

I as a bit shocked to see the above story about Joel, as I knew him quite well during the 15 years or so he was at Stanford (he then went on to Harvard and later to Yale as dean), and I thought he was a lifetime academic.

To quote my onetime hero, let me make one thing perfectly clear: Joel Podolny did not quit Yale to head internal training at Apple. I’d bet a year’s mortgage payments on that. 

If “Apple University” is like “Hamburger University” then Podolny is nowhere near it. Only two things could have attracted him away. One would be heading up an internal research and/or datamining operation — much as Google (GOOG) lured away Berkeley’s former information school dean to become their chief economist.

The other would be to head up some sort of content play, building upon the existing free iTunes U. Interestingly, the only time “Podolny” appears on the Apple website is where Dean Podolny is narrating an audio track on Yale’s iTunes U site. 

My hunch is the latter. While some companies like Nokia (NOK) and Microsoft  (MSFT) still have active research arms, for most tech companies, research is a cost that’s being cut, even by leading Valley firms.

Meanwhile, Steve Jobs is not one for increasing costs, but he is big on creating new revenue sources. Podolny has a reputation from Yale and Stanford as an effective academic leader. Faculty are nearly impossible to manage — we usually call it “herding cats” — and at best requires an effective use of “soft power” techniques such as moral suasion. If Apple is hoping deliver (and presumably monetize) large amounts of educational content online via iTunes, Podolny would be the man for the job.

Comments

[Stuff and N...:]

Very interesting - and plausible. Although much (if not all) of the content on iTunes U is currently free, Apple could conceivably try to monetize educational content. I'm uncertain as to how much they'd take in, though; for starters, they'd be going into competition against, for example, The Teaching Company, which has a substantial course catalog, and they would be competing against the sometimes excellent free content already on iTunes U.

An alternative hypothesis would be that his new job is to figure out how to train Apple Store employees in "selling cool" and ensuring that Apple remains an aspirational brand even as it is more and more widely adopted. That's much closer to your example of Hamburger University, but it could be an interesting job for someone with serious sociological credentials. As for why he'd leave the academic world for that, the answer is pretty straightforward - large sums of money.

2008 Nov 06 02:42 PM

[Jeff in Alaska:]

My hunch is that this is bigger. Perhaps something like using various Apple tools (iTunes/iPod, Macintosh, MacTV and some new things) to create the platform to deliver accredited content for the completion of degrees. That would enable member institutions to reach further into unserved or under-served areas and compete for students where they live and work. Distance learning with a more aggressive edge, if you will, all coordinated and delivered by Apple for a piece of the tuition fees paid. I think they will start with business education since executive MBA programs fetch tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars per year per student, which could be very lucrative if they can make the delivery method appealing.

2008 Nov 06 03:00 PM

[chano:]

You miss an important point despite your 'long history' with Apple.
I posited the same idea several weeks ago concerning Podolny's extraordinary move to Apple. I was the first to do so at a time when all the so-called experts struggled to understand this inexplicable departure from academia and arrival at Apple.
Jobs may be committed to profit, quelle surprise? So, this is bad?
He is also committed to exceptional value.
Even more, he is committed to democratising content distribution. Lowering the cost of ownership while allowing consumers to choose only the items they want, not a track more. In this way, especially with CD tracks, a lot of wheat is being bought and a lot of the chaff remains, rightly, unsold.
In education, iTunesU provides the same model. Take the content that owners want to publish and sell it for a very low price. It provides Academia with a way to repurpose their content for sale to an otherwise inaccessible market. Each U makes more money than it could imagine from a resource it never thought of repurposing for sale. Apple makes loadsamoney ($3+ billion in 2008 anyone?). Buyers get content of (sometimes) inestimable value for a small outlay.
I would call that Win-Win-Win.
It is possible to make a lot of money doing good and democratising a market like higher Ed.
I can see millions of people lining up to subscribe to such a new service floated out of iTunes and made fully commercial.
Did you say you elsewhere that you were an MBA? Is that for Maximum Bullshit Artist btw?
I would call your article simplistic. I've made the same observation about you before. Hmmm.

2008 Nov 06 03:56 PM

[20smoney:]

Interesting article. Apple, in my opinion, remains one of the best investments out there with a 3-5 year time horizon. Read more at 20smoney.com

2008 Nov 06 04:10 PM

[20smoney:]

Interesting article. Apple remains one of the best investments out there with a 3-5 year time horizon. Read more about why I think so at 20smoney.com

2008 Nov 06 04:12 PM

[Timeline St...:]

@Chano - You need to chill out dude. Make your points in a more civil fashion.

Here is a sample of your negative interactions on this board. None of these quotes adds to any discourse that should be occurring:

"If you had an intelligent thought in your head, it would die of loneliness."
"Stick to peeling potatoes. That is your level."
"dummy."
"Become a hairdresser or something."
"You and this post are a waste of space."

We all want the quality of the thinking on this board to rise, but you can make your point without insults. Thanks.

2008 Nov 06 04:33 PM

[mollytjm:]

i think Jeff in Alaska makes a valid point and it's what i thought as i read this interesting article. you don't hire a guy like this to do something small..i'm sure they're paying him a bundle. Apple is about innovation and something big is up their sleeve with this deal! can't wait to see what it is.

and...i agree with TimboM... most of us aren't reading these posts to waste our time reading insults and personal attacks. we can argue the content without that.

2008 Nov 07 11:06 AM

[PK de C'ville:]

This has to be big, given Joel P's level of achievement.

I think he will spend a year or two innovating a totally new turbocharged distance learning educational model. I imagine it would include 'live' video chat classes and team meetings.

From all parts of globe: On Macs/PCs AND iPhone/touch

- Prof and class sees every student via iChat,
- Slides, docs, screens. media shared w/ students being able to mark these up in real time.
- Teams able to work together and 'cloak' themselves from other teams.

- Advanced record keeping of class grades, tuition, purchases
- Advanced support of testing
- Easy creation of ad hoc team chat rooms (video face to face)

- Continued R&D to make the experiences as real and easy as possible.

2008 Nov 08 02:55 PM