[bigiain]

That's true, but I suspect there's at least a large part of "I can do 'the right thing' and know my boss (and his boss) will back me up for doing it."

I've seen this personally on a small scale at the Genius Bar - Apple have _clearly_ explicitly given even quite junior staff the authority to "fix things", with a _big_ emphasis on "make the customer happy" outcomes. I have no doubt that there are checks and measures in place to ensure staff don't abuse that authority, but my gut feel is that the response would be "better training" first, rather than reprimanding.

And I suspect _that_ is the important bit of "Apple culture" at work here.

It's not remarkable that normal people want to help others out. It is remarkable, and admirable, when those people can quickly assume responsibility on behalf of their employer without thinking they need to get time consuming sign-off on their plans from high enough up the org chart that it's too late to help b the time it's approved.

Big congrats to Apple Store Tokyo, their staff, management, and corporate overseers. I'm sure they're not the _only_ company to have responded this way, but they _did_ repond this way, and I'm impressed.

[Zak]

Apple have _clearly_ explicitly given even quite junior staff the authority to "fix things", with a _big_ emphasis on "make the customer happy" outcomes.

I've often wondered why this isn't more common. It clearly creates loyal customers and has obvious potential to lead to increased profits long-term. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've been told an employee wasn't allowed to solve my problem in a simple, cost-effective and obvious way.

[statictype]

I guess I'm kind of implying the same thing but you said it better than I did.