她曾得到一餐之諾。2008年初，蘋果公司首席執行官史蒂夫?喬布斯邀請葛越到自己家一敘并共進晚餐。這次邀請是蘋果不斷拉葛越“入伙”的舉措之一，當時她還是Palm公司負責無線軟件工程的副總裁。對于跳槽，這位呈上升趨勢的工程師當時態度猶豫。葛越說：“我基本上是從無到有建立了Palm的無線技術團隊，而且當時我們正要重振Palm品牌。”不出意料，喬布斯不愿聽到“不”這個答案。

因此，他決定親自上陣進行游說。見面后，這位已故蘋果聯合創始人的務實態度給葛越留下了深刻的印象。

只是喬布斯一直都沒提到大家吃什么，當然最終也沒有晚餐上桌。回想起此事，葛越大笑著說：“整整兩個小時，就只有水。這多少有點兒誘購的味道吧。”

但喬布斯確實提到了一份很有吸引力的新工作。他希望葛越建立一個團隊，專門為幾個月前上市的iPhone打造無線功能。談話期間，喬布斯講了個類似寓言的小故事來說明自己的觀點。他告訴葛越，他有一位十幾歲的鄰居，想開法拉利，所以就把自己的大眾改裝得幾乎跟法拉利差不多。但到了最后，大家看到的依然是一輛聲音非常大的大眾。葛越說：“他想告訴我，無論我做什么，Palm只會是Palm。”最終，葛越選擇了法拉利——她在2008年晚些時候開始在蘋果工作。

現在，43歲的葛越在蘋果走上了新的關鍵崗位——今年7月，CEO蒂姆?庫克任命她為蘋果首位負責大中華區（包括大陸、香港和臺灣地區），的副總裁兼董事總經理。蘋果的其他銷售區域都沒有牽頭高管，而且公司以自己的“職能”結構為榮，或者說，組建團隊的基礎是成員干什么，而不是在哪里。不過，蘋果也該轉換一下在中國市場的思路了。 （財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

She was promised dinner. In early 2008, Apple CEO Steve Jobs asked Isabel Ge Mahe over to his house to talk and share a meal. The invitation was part of Apple’s ongoing effort to recruit Mahe, who at the time was vice president of wireless software engineering at Palm Inc. The engineer-on-the-rise was hesitant to make a move. “I had built the wireless technology team for Palm pretty much from the ground up, and, at the time, we were trying to revive the Palm brand,” she says. Jobs, unsurprisingly, was unwilling to take no for an answer.

So he decided to make his pitch in person. Mahe was impressed with how “down-to-earth” the late Apple cofounder was face to face.

There was just one problem: Jobs never proposed that they eat, and no food ever materialized. “Just water for the whole two hours,” Mahe says, laughing at the memory. “So that was a little bit of a bait and switch!”

What he did offer was a high-profile new gig. Jobs wanted her to build a team to focus on the wireless capability of the iPhone, which Apple had released months earlier. At one point, Jobs pleaded his case with a parable of sorts. He told Mahe about his neighbor, a teenager who, in want of a Ferrari, had souped up his Volkswagen as the next best thing. In the end, though, all the neighbor had was a really loud Volkswagen. “He was trying to tell me that no matter what I do, Palm will always be Palm,” she says. Eventually, she opted for the ?Ferrari. Mahe started at Apple later that year.

Now Mahe, 43, is taking on a critical new role at Apple: In July, CEO Tim Cook named her the first-ever vice president and managing director for Apple in what it calls Greater China—the mainland plus Hong Kong and Taiwan. Apple’s other sales regions don’t have lead execs; the company prides itself on its “functional” structure, with teams grouped by what they do, not location. But it’s time for Apple to think different in China.