Three Things I Learned

Reading an Article About Apple

As far as I know, the term DRI — Directly Responsible Individual — originated at Apple. It’s the person — always one person — who is solely and completely responsible for the success of a project/initiative.

It’s not a title, it’s a role; and it means that the person has full authority to do whatever it takes to succeed.

Here’s where I first read about DRIs: http://fortune.com/2011/05/09/inside-apple/

I read another article that gave more details about that church wedding filmed for an Apple product roll-out. When the DRI looked at the video from Hawaii, it wasn’t right; so he/she pulled together a team of Apple employees to re-shoot the video over the weekend (the rollout was the following Monday or Tuesday).

That’s the kind of responsibility, and authority, a DRI has at Apple.

When I read those articles a few years ago, I typed up the summary below and posted it at my desk. I also sent it to the CEO. So here are the three things:

1. Every project needs a DRI — a Directly Responsible Individual. One person who is solely responsible for the project’s overall success, and empowered to do whatever it takes to achieve that success, regardless of their current title or position within the company.
2. For everything you do: design it, create it, and execute it as if you will be presenting it to the CEO. If it’s not ready for that presentation, it’s not done.
3. Steve Jobs tells (told) new VPs at Apple that the difference between janitors and VPs is responsibility. If the janitor can’t take out the trash because the locks changed, that’s okay; but for a VP, there is no excuse: you either get the job done, or you don’t. But that isn’t fair to janitors. There are no “janitor” jobs, just janitor people. Regardless of your actual title — Be a VP.