APPLE CASE STUDY Apple Computer Inc. was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and two c
ID: 365941 • Letter: A
Question
APPLE CASE STUDY
Apple Computer Inc. was founded in 1976 by Steve
Jobs and two close colleagues. However, in 1985, after
a major bust up with the then CEO, Jobs left the
company he had founded and started a new venture
(NeXT Inc). In the next decade, Apple went through
many changes searching for success and eventually
decided to acquire NeXT Inc. in 1997 thus bringing
Steve Jobs back into Apple (initially as an advisor).
Within months, the board of Apple replaced the CEO
and reinstated Jobs to the position he had held in the
early days of Apple. In 1997, when Steve Jobs returned
to the company, few would have thought that the failing,
niche Apple Computers would one day be recognised as
one of the most innovative companies in the world,
transcending the barriers of the computer industry to
compete in the consumer electronics, telecommunications
and music industries. Since 1997 Apple’s market
capitalisation increased from $2bn to $741.8 billion 1 in
2015, 2 becoming the world’s most valuable company. 3
By 2015, Apple was first by almost any measure,
including the largest sales, profits and assets among
the world’s technology companies. 4 On top of this,
Apple was the world’s most valuable brand according to
Interbrand’s 2015 report (estimated at around
$170.3bn) for the third year in a row, after pushing
Coca-Cola off the top in 2013. 5 Building on innovative
products that have redefined their markets (such as the
iPod, the iPhone and the iPad), a consumer base as
loyal as a fan club, and a business model characterised
by integration and synergies that no competitor could
easily imitate, Apple continued its extraordinary performance.
Under the leadership of Tim Cook (who took
over from Jobs as CEO in 2011) Apple reported sales of
This case looks at the development and success of Apple as an innovative company under the leadership of
Steve Jobs and Tim Cook. After Jobs’ unique approach and record of achievement, Apple transitioned to a
new era where it faced unique challenges. What are the key elements of Apple’s innovative culture and how
does the company maintain its leadership position in innovation? Will the new leadership maintain this
record of achievement under new competitive pressures?
$200bn, net profit of $45bn and assets of $260bn in
April 2015 (for more financial information see Table 1 ). 6
The key question is, ‘can Apple maintain this extraordinary
success?’ Declining iPhone sales during 2016 led
to the first year-over-year decline in revenue in 13 years
for Apple, 7 raising serious concerns about the growth of
the company in the future.
Jobs’ turnaround and rebuilding an innovative
organisation
However, things haven’t always been that rosy for the
company once known as the underdog of the computer
industry. During the time when Steve Jobs was away from
the organisation (1985–1997), Apple’s performance
progressively deteriorated to the point where it was struggling
for survival despite the effort of three different
CEOs to reverse the decline. Jobs’ return to Apple as
Interim CEO in 1997 and CEO in 2000 marked the
beginning of a new era for the company. He worked for a
salary of $1 per year for 30 months (but held plenty of
stock options), leading Apple’s successful turnaround.
His priority was to revitalize Apple’s innovation capability.
As he noted in an interview, ‘ Apple had forgotten who
Apple was’, 6 stressing that it was time for Apple to return
to its core values and build on them. Upon taking charge,
Jobs axed 70 per cent of the new products in development,
kept the 30 per cent that he believed were ‘gems’,
and added some new projects that he believed could
offer breakthrough potential. He also revamped the
marketing message to take advantage of the maverick,
creative Apple brand, and employed stock-based incentives
to retain talented employees. 8 In parallel, Jobs
This case was prepared by Professor Loizos Heracleous and Dr Angeliki Papachroni, Warwick Business School. It is intended as a
basis for class discussion and not as an illustration of good or bad practice. © Loizos Heracleous and Angeliki Papachroni 2016.
Not to be reproduced or quoted without permission
LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION AT APPLE INC.: ENTERING THE POST-JOBS ERA
685
proceeded to simplify Apple’s product mix in terms of
four lines of desktop and portable computers designed
for both the professional and consumer markets. Whereas
most of Apple’s innovations led to even more ‘closed
Apple archipelagos’9 (software and hardware integration),
at the same time Jobs decided to loosen control in other
areas, for example the use of standard interfaces, such
as the USB port.
Growing the Apple ecosystem: breakthrough
innovation in the consumer electronics and
entertainment industries
In 2001, Apple introduced its first iPod, launching a new
era for the company as it entered the consumer electronics
industry. Capitalising on the emerging trend of
MP3 music, and despite being a relatively late entrant in
this market (rival systems like Winamp and MPMan were
released in 1997 and 1998 respectively), Apple’s iPod
soon became synonymous with the MP3 music player
category. By the end of 2003, more than one million
iPods were sold marking the first substantial stream of
revenues apart from the iconic Apple Macintosh
computers. Since then the iPod product range has been
often renewed and the company announced in 2007 that
it sold the 100 millionth iPod, making the device the
fastest selling music player in history. One of Apple’s
most important innovations was the launch of the iTunes
Music store in 2003, a service through which consumers
could access and purchase online music for only $0.99
per song. The iTunes Music Store was compatible with all
iPods (running on both Macs and Windows-based
computers) and served as Apple’s Trojan horse to what
Jobs had envisioned as the digital hub where digital
content and Apple devices would be seamlessly interconnected.
The downloaded songs had royalty protection and
could only be played by iPods, bringing the inter-operability
between Apple’s hardware, software and content to
a new level and creating higher barriers to entry into this
ecosystem (as well as exit from it). iPods had the capacity
to display videos and through them Apple became a
significant distributor of movies and TV shows.
Apple’s next ground-breaking innovation, the iPhone,
was launched in 2007, six years after Palm’s first smartphone
in the USA. A year later, Apple launched the App
Store, the only authorised service for loading programmes
onto the iPhone. The App Store was based on the same
principle of seamless integration between hardware and
software, giving Apple 30 per cent of third-party developers’
revenues along the way. The Apple ecosystem was
further reinforced in 2010 with the introduction of the
iPad, a tablet computer that galvanised what had, for ten
years, been a commercially failure-ridden product
Table 1 Selected Apple financial data (2011–2015)
2015 2014 2013 2012 2011
Net sales $233,715 $182,795 $170,910 $156,508 $108,249
Net income $53,394 $39,510 $37,037 $41,733 $25,922
Earnings per share:
Basic $9.28 $6.49 $5.72 $6.38 $4.01
Diluted $9.22 $6.45 $5.68 $6.31 $3.95
Cash dividends declared
per share
$1.98 $1.82 $1.64 $0.38 $0
Shared used in computing
earnings per share:
Basic 5,753,421 6,085,512 6,477,320 6,543,726 6,469,806
Diluted 5,793,069 6,122,663 6,521,634 6,617,483 6,556,514
Total cash, cash
equivalents and
marketable securities
$205,666 $155,239 $146,761 $121,251 $81,570
Total assets $290,479 $231,839 $207,000 $176,064 $116,371
Commercial paper $8,499 $6,308 $0 $0 $0
Total term debt(2) $55,963 $28,987 $16,960 $0 $0
Other long-term
obligations(1)
$33,427 $24,826 $20,206 $16,664 $10,100
Total liabilities $171,124 $120,292 $83,451 $57,854 $39,756
Total shareholders’ equity $119,355 $111,547 $123,549 $118,210 $76,615
(1) Other long-term obligations exclude non-current deferred revenue.
(2) Includes current and long-term portion of term debt.
Source: Apple Inc.
LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION AT APPLE INC.: ENTERING THE POST-JOBS ERA
686
function, relying on outsourced design manufacturers
(ODMs) to develop the products that with minor adaptations
will fit into their product lines. Apple, however,
believes that having all the experts in one place – the
mechanical, electrical, software and industrial engineers,
as well as the product designers – leads to a more
holistic perspective on product development; and that a
critical mass of talent makes existing products better
and opens the door to entirely new products. According
to Jobs:
‘You can’t do what you can do at Apple anywhere else.
The engineering is long gone in the PC companies. In
the consumer electronics companies they don’t understand
the software parts of it. There’s no other company
that could make a MacBook Air and the reason is that
not only do we control the hardware, but we control the
operating system. And it is the intimate interaction
between the operating system and the hardware that
allows us to do that. There is no intimate interaction
between Windows and a Dell computer.’13
Sticking with a proprietary ecosystem
Since the introduction of the iPhone and iTunes, the
Apple ecosystem has been growing steadily with the introduction
of new products like the iPad, the Apple Watch
and Apple TV, all of which share the same operating
system. Buying and sharing content between devices
becomes a seamless experience, increasing users’
dependence on Apple’s iOS and ecosystem of devices.
Job’s vision of integration between hardware and software
has followed Apple throughout the years, offering a superior
consumer experience. As a result, Apple has managed
to attract a high-value customer base. According to the
industry estimates, Google’s Android OS accounted for
83.6 per cent of smartphone shipments in the third
quarter of 2014 while Apple’s iOS accounted for only
12.3 per cent of the shipments. However, Apple’s smartphone
is much more lucrative as it attracted a high-value
customer base and its smartphones accounted for 60 per
cent of mobile web usage in 2014.14
Over the years, there have been some notable exceptions
to this proprietary approach. In late 2003, in order
to reach a broader consumer base, Apple offered a
Windows-compatible version of iTunes not only allowing
Windows users to use the iPod but more importantly
familiarising them with Apple products. Another milestone
came with the company’s switch from PowerPC
processors made by IBM to Intel chips, a decision
announced in mid-2005. This decision allowed Macs to
run Windows software, implied lower switching costs for
new Mac consumers and also allowed software developers
to adapt their programs for Apple more easily. A
category. Consumers could play games, read books, load
all sorts of applications and access the internet through
their iPad. In October 2011, Apple introduced iCloud, a
cloud service for storing music, photos, applications,
calendars and documents that can be wirelessly transferred
to multiple iOS devices, Macs and Windows-based
computers. By providing a means of integrating the use
of multiple Apple devices, iCloud was a significant move
towards a mobile Apple ecosystem.
Apple has also developed a series of strategic alliances
in the course of its efforts to become the center of
the digital hub, where digital content would be easily
created and transferred to any Apple device. Development
of the iPod, iTunes and iPhone has necessitated this
collaborative approach, since entry in the entertainment
and consumer electronics markets would not have been
as successful without some key strategic partners (for
example, the big record labels such as EMI, Sony BMG,
Universal and Warner Brothers for iTunes, or YouTube for
the iPhone). At the same time, Apple proceeded with a
number of acquisitions of relatively small, innovative
firms in fields such as video creation and microprocessor
production intended to strengthen its own technological
core competencies. In 2014, the company acquired
headphone maker Beats Electronics for $3bn, marking
its biggest acquisition in its history.10
Playing with different rules
Deep collaboration
Long before Apple was first recognised as the world’s
most innovative company in 2005 by the Boston
Consulting Group, Apple had placed its trademark on a
long list of technological breakthroughs including the
mouse, the graphical user interface, colour graphics,
built-in sound, networking and wireless LAN, FireWire
and many more. Some of these, such as the graphical
user interface, were seen by Jobs on visits to research
facilities such as Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, and
adapted for broader use in Apple’s offerings. Apple’s
approach over the years had been to make the use of a
personal computer as easy and intuitive as possible
through developing a highly responsive operating system,
establishing standard specifications to which all applications’
software packages were expected to conform,
strict control of outside developers, and delivering
computers with high performance.11 Apple practises
what employees call ‘deep collaboration’, ‘cross-pollination’
or ‘concurrent engineering’. This refers to products
not developed in discrete stages but by ‘all departments
at once – design, hardware, software – in endless rounds
of interdisciplinary design reviews’.12 Other companies
have outsourced most, or all, of their product design
LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION AT APPLE INC.: ENTERING THE POST-JOBS ERA
687
expenses being the Chief Financial Officer.20 Apart from
ensuring confidentiality, other aspects of Apple’s organisational
design provide the necessary agility and focus.
Small teams bear responsibility for crucial projects, a
characteristic that is reminiscent of start-up companies.
Committees are not prevalent at Apple. As Jobs said:
‘We are organised like a startup. . . . We are the biggest
startup on the planet. And we all meet for three hours
once a week and we talk about everything we are doing,
the whole business.’21
In addition to secrecy and a start-up mentality,
Apple’s culture focuses on intense work, creativity and
perfectionism. Each manufacturing and software detail is
worked and reworked until a product is considered
perfect, aiming for seamless integration of software and
hardware. Apple’s employees are not paid significantly
more than those in other technology companies nor are
they pampered, nor do they enjoy unique privileges
beyond what most large companies offer, yet Apple
recruited talent of the highest calibre. Specialisation and
clear specification of responsibilities at Apple was a way
of employing the best people for particular roles,
reflecting Jobs’ aversion towards a general management
approach.22
In August 2011, Jobs resigned from his position as
CEO and Tim Cook, former chief operating officer, was
appointed as CEO. Cook’s leadership role in Apple’s operations
since 1998 had given him a deep understanding
of the company and a prominent position, being the only
person to have a vast area of responsibility apart from
Jobs (and he replaced him during his medical absences).
Jobs remained at Apple as chairman until his death in
October 2011.
Entering a new Apple era
‘In the 26 years that Fortune has been ranking America’s
Most Admired Companies never has the corporation at
the head of the list so closely resembled a one-man
show.’23
This inextricable link between Apple and its visionary
founder Steve Jobs was one of the main reasons analysts
thought that the future of Apple under a new leader
would never recreate past glories. Upon becoming
Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook maintained a low profile and
focused on managing the transition to the post-Jobs era
as smoothly as possible. In stark contrast to his predecessor’s
flamboyant personality, Cook is known as a
low-key and soft-spoken workaholic, who guards his
privacy closely. At the same time he is known to have a
tough side: ’He could skewer you with a sentence’ a
colleague reported.
previous alliance with Microsoft occurred in 1997 when
Microsoft agreed to invest $150m in Apple, reaffirming
its commitment to develop core products such as
Microsoft Office for the Mac.
Steve Jobs’ leadership and Apple’s corporate
culture
‘Some leaders push innovations by being good at the
big picture. Others do so by mastering details. Jobs did
both, relentlessly.’15
Many believe that Jobs’ reputation as one of the greatest
technology entrepreneurs is not based so much on his
knowledge of technology (he was not an engineer or a
programmer, neither did he have an MBA or college
degree) but on his innate instinct for design, the ability
to choose the most talented team and ‘the willingness to
be a pain in for what matters for him most’, such as great
design and user-friendliness.16 Strategically speaking,
Jobs understood that to be different as a company, you
have to make tough choices; in Apple’s case, this was
clearly reflected in the product-markets it decided to
pursue, as compared for example to large competitors.
Referring to Apple’s focus, he noted, ‘I’m as proud of
what we don’t do as I am of what we do.’17 For many
years, Jobs stimulated thinking out of the box and
encouraged employees to experiment and share with
others ‘the coolest new thing’ they had thought of. It may
not be accidental that Apple’s emblem of corporate
culture is a pirate flag with an Apple rainbow coloured
eye patch, designed after a famous Jobs’ quote: ‘It’s
better to be a pirate than join the navy.’ This flag was
hanging over the Macintosh building as Apple’s team was
working on the first iMac, to act as a reminder of their
mission.18 Jobs could be inspirational, but also experienced
by employees as scary. According to Guy Kawasaki
(celebrated author and ex-Apple employee):
‘Working for Steve was a terrifying and addictive experience.
. . . Watching him crucify someone scared you into
working incredibly long hours. . . . Working for Steve was
also ecstasy. Once in a while he would tell you that you
were great and that made it all worth it.’19
Apple’s organisation design was flat and simple.
Even though Apple did not have an official organisation
chart, one interpretation of its design was that the
organisation radiated around the CEO, with 15 senior
vice presidents and 31 vice presidents overseeing the
main functions. In terms of this structure, the CEO
would only be two levels away from any key part of the
company; and financial management was centralised,
with the only executive responsible for costs and
LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION AT APPLE INC.: ENTERING THE POST-JOBS ERA
688
‘Tim is a supply-chain expert and he needs to rely on
people like Jon to be able to make the right decisions,’
said David Yoffie, a professor at Harvard Business
School,30 while others noted that by letting Ive lead
Apple’s design Cook mitigated speculation that Apple
was falling short on innovation.31 Following his promotion,
Ive worked closely with Federighi, in designing
Apple’s operating system, iOS 7, which was the biggest
overhaul of the OS ever. In the following years, Apple also
went on a hiring spree of accomplished professionals
such as Patrick Pruniaux, the chief salesman at watchmaker
Tag Heuer, Paul Deneve, the former CEO of ‘haute
couture’ house Yves Saint Laurent, and Angela Ahrendts,
Burberry’s former chief executive – all of which added a
diversity of views within Apple.
In 2014, Apple presented the large-screen iPhone 6
(and its even bigger iPhone 6 Plus), a new payment
system (Apple Pay) and Apple Watch (the first product
since Jobs passing that put Apple in a new product category).
These launches also marked an effort to increase
inter-device integration. Embedded in the iPhone 6, the
iOS 8 and Mac OS X Yosemite operating system, a
feature called ‘Continuity’ allowed users to start an email
or any other task on their Mac, pick it up on their iPhone,
and then move it to their iPad or even the Apple Watch.
‘We would never have gotten there in the old
model. . . . These new products are reminders of why we
exist. The things we should be doing at Apple are things
that others can’t,’ Cook said.32 Another illustration of
Cook’s focus on products that combine hardware, software
and services was the introduction of Apple Pay, a
service that enables users to touch their finger to the
Touch ID finger scanner on their iPhone, tap their
handset against a credit card terminal, and make a
payment without having to turn on their phone or open
an app.33 The new iPhones put Apple back on its upward
trajectory: ‘Sales for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have
been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first
weekend sales results in Apple’s history,’ said Tim
Cook.34 Apple Pay was also embraced by major banks
(Bank of America, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase among
others) and key credit card companies as well as by a
number of retailers.35
Building on the app-store experience, the new Apple
TV, launched in 2015, turned content providers into
apps allowing users to search for a movie, a TV show
title, genre or even the names of individual actors
across all the video apps they have installed using Siri.36
‘Our vision for television is simple and perhaps a little
provocative,’ said Tim Cook. ‘We believe the future of
TV is apps.’ According to analysts, by opening up the
hardware for third-party apps, the Apple TV could transform
(through an Apple TV App Store) to a new platform
During Cook’s first 16 months as CEO, Apple introduced
the next generation of iPhones and iPads and saw
its share price rise by 43 per cent.24 In an industry characterised
by declining prices, Apple maintained a
strategy of keeping high selling prices attracting a highvalue
customer base. The iPhone was expected to maintain
its price of around $600 when by 2018 Android
phones were expected to be sold at around $200.
Similarly, Macs were sold at a premium average price of
$1300 in a PC market where the company’s main
competitors sell PCs at an average price point of $311.25
In one of his rare interviews Tim Cook underlined his
belief that Apple should remain focused on having a
small number of high-quality products that seemingly
integrate software, hardware and services.26 To Cook, the
mobile industry doesn’t race to the bottom, it splits:
‘There’s a segment of the market that really wants a
product that does a lot for them, and I want to compete
like crazy for those customers.’27
Building Apple’s future
Despite Apple’s financial success under Cook’s leadership,
the chances that Apple could revive its past glories
seemed rather slim when Cook took over. Apple’s reliance
on the iPhone (accounting for more than half of Apple’s
revenue and gross profit), at the time when phones
running on free Android software were on the rise, had
left Apple with a shrinking share of the smartphone
market.28 At the same time, Cook inherited a decentralised
company of specialised groups (hardware, software
design, marketing, and finance) all tussling for turf after
Job’s passing.29
For some time, changes within the company remained
largely invisible to the public. The decisive moment for
Cook came at the end of his first year as CEO when he
decided to fire Scott Forstall, one of Jobs’ most trusted
employees, head of software development for the iPad
and iPhone but also responsible for the poorly received
Apple Maps and Siri voice recognition service. When the
dismissal was announced, Cook immediately arranged
meetings with senior managers to explain the new structure:
Jonathan Ive, Apple’s head of design, was given
control over the look and feel of iOS while development
of the mobile operating system was consolidated with
Mac software under Craig Federighi, the senior vice president
for software engineering. Ive had joined Apple in
1992 and was appointed senior vice president of industrial
design in 1997 shortly after Jobs returned to Apple,
and he had a brilliant track record as a designer. Ive’s
promotion marked an important shift in the company’s
structure as previously only Steve Jobs held those same
responsibilities. Analysts explained Cook’s decision in
view of intensifying competition by Samsung and Google:
LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION AT APPLE INC.: ENTERING THE POST-JOBS ERA
689
8. C. Booth, ‘Steve’s job: restart Apple’, Time, 18 August 1997.
9. Technology that makes Apple products separate from other companies’
technologies and hence difficult, if not impossible, to integrate
with non-Apple products.
10. B. Solomon, ‘It’s official: Apple adds Dr. Dre with $3 billion beats deal’,
Forbes, 28 May 2014.
11. J. Cruikshank, The Apple Way, McGraw Hill, New York, 2006.
12. L. Grossman, ‘How Apple does it’, Time, 16 October 2005.
13. B. Morris, ‘What makes Apple golden’, Fortune, 17 March 2008.
14. Apple Inc. Company Profile, 25 May 2015. Reference Code:
5B0A0C20-9BB6-4284-A575-AC0F2261F45C.
15. W. Isaacson, ‘American icon’, Time, 17 October 2011.
16. L. Grossman, ‘How Apple does it’, Time, 16 October 2005.
17. P. Burrows and R. Grover, ‘Steve Jobs’ magic kingdom’, Business
Week, 6 February 2006.
18. A. Lashinsky, ‘How Apple works: Inside the world’s biggest startup’,
Fortune, 25 August 2011.
19. G. Kawasaki, The Mackintosh Way, Scott Foresman Trade, 1989.
20. A. Lashinsky, ‘How Apple works: Inside the world’s biggest startup’,
Fortune, 25 August 2011.
21. P. Kafka, ‘Apple CEO Steve Jobs at D8: the full uncut interview’, 7 June
2010, http://allthingsd.com/20100607/steve-jobs-at-d8-the-full-uncut-
interview/.
22. A. Lashinsky, ‘How Apple works: Inside the world’s biggest startup’,
Fortune, 25 August 2011.
23. P. Elkind, ‘the trouble with Steve Jobs’, Fortune, 5 March 2008.
24. ‘Cook says lives enriched matter more than money made’, Bloomberg,
6 December 2012.
25. Apple Inc. Company Profile, 25 May 2015. Reference Code:
5B0A0C20-9BB6-4284-A575-AC0F2261F45C.
26. S. Grobart, ‘Tim Cook: the complete interview’, Bloomberg,
20 September 2013.
27. S. Grobart, ‘Apple chiefs discuss strategy, market share – and the new
iPhones’, Bloomberg, 20 September 2013.
28. B. Stone and A. Satariano, ‘Tim Cook interview: the iPhone 6, the
Apple Watch, and remaking a company’s culture’, Bloomberg,
17 September 2014.
29. B. Stone and A. Satariano, ‘Tim Cook interview: the iPhone 6, the
Apple Watch, and remaking a company’s culture’, Bloomberg, 17
September 2014.
30. Satariano ‘Apple’s Ive seen risking iOS 7 delay on software overhaul’,
Bloomberg, 1 May 2013.
31. C. Thompson, ‘How Apple has changed since Steve Jobs’, CNBC, 4
October 2013.
32. B. Stone and A. Satariano, ‘Tim Cook interview: the iPhone 6, the
Apple Watch, and remaking a company’s culture’, Bloomberg,
17 September 2014.
33. B. Stone and A. Satariano, ‘Tim Cook interview: the iPhone 6, the
Apple Watch, and remaking a company’s culture’, Bloomberg,
17 September 2014.
34. T. Bradshaw, ‘Apple iPhone 6s beats high end of sales’, Financial
Times, 28 September 2015.
35. B. Stone and A. Satariano, ‘Tim Cook interview: the iPhone 6, the
Apple Watch, and remaking a company’s culture’, Bloomberg,
17 September 2014.
36. M. Ingram, ‘Apple TV continues the unbundling of traditional television’,
Fortune, 10 September 2015.
37. A. Tilley, ‘New Apple TV hardware gets major overhaul, but big price
hike will make it a difficult sell’, Forbes, 9 September 2015.
38. A. Konrad, ‘With new iPad Pro, Apple makes its move to dominate the
enterprise mobility market’, Forbes, 9 September 2015.
39. B. Stone and A. Satariano, ‘Tim Cook interview: the iPhone 6, the
Apple Watch, and remaking a company’s culture’, Bloomberg,
17 September 2014.
40. A. Webb, ‘Apple forecasts second sales drop as iPhone woes deepen’,
Bloomberg, 26 April 2016.
41. B. Stone and A. Satariano, ‘Tim Cook interview: the iPhone 6, the
Apple Watch, and remaking a company’s culture’, Bloomberg,
17 September 2014.
that could move Apple into new opportunities.37 Under
Tim Cook, Apple has also been eager to promote its
devices into corporate environments, through strategic
partnerships with IBM and Cisco. As consumer demand
for iPads hit a plateau in 2014 with slower replacement
cycles, demand for tablets in business enterprises was
on the rise, with the percentage of tablets in use for
business set to increase from 14 per cent in 2015 to
20 per cent by 2018.38 With the launch of the iPad Pro
in 2015, Apple aimed to appeal to hyper-mobile workers
who value ease of use and mobility but need a bigger
screen, for conducting corporate training, conferencing
or consuming a lot of content, whereas the Apple Pencil
companion increased the appeal for professional
designers. The advanced, bigger and faster iPad Pro
was presented with representatives of Microsoft and
Adobe who highlighted its usability in the professional
market. These outside partnerships were well received
by analysts who saw in Cook an ability to keep an open
mind and a clear vision. Ginni Rometty, IBM’s chief
executive, called Cook the ‘hallmark of a modern-day
CEO. . . . It’s all about clarity of vision and knowing
what to do and what not to do.’39
Future challenges
With Apple reaching new profit and sales records under
his leadership, Tim Cook is under more pressure than
ever to maintain Apple’s performance. By the end of
2015, Apple had set a pace for itself that was hard to
keep up. Already the second half of 2016 marked the
end of Apple’s streak of 51 consecutive quarters of uninterrupted
sales growth as fewer consumers upgraded to
the latest iPhones and revenues from China, Apple’s
second most important region, fell by 26 per cent
compared to 2015.40 At the same time, consumers had
not yet issued their verdict on the Apple Watch, Cook’s
biggest bet as chief executive. If consumers are confused
or hesitant, the questions about his strategic decisions,
and Apple’s ability to innovate, will return with a new
ferocity.41 Leading the most scrutinised and successful
company in the world has put Cook in a challenging position
1. How innovative is Apple? Is it a strategic innovator? Go beyond the case study and include comments about Apple today.
2. What is your evaluation of Steve Jobs as a leader? Consider the comments of Walter Isaacson (who wrote a best selling biography about Jobs) and others.
3. What are you recommendations for Apple under the Tim Cook era? Where should it innovate after Apple Watch? Is iPhone X innovative? What about IoT Home Kit and Health Kit, AI and Siri, VR/AR, driverless cars etc?
4. Should Apple rethink its closed, proprietary ecosystem? Compare Apple/iOS with Samsung etc./Android.
5. Is Apple off the rollercoaster that characterised its history?
YOU COULD SHARE YOUR INFORMATION REGARDING THESE QUESTIONS.
i am unable to paste the entire case study
you can google for answers and let me knnow
thank you
Explanation / Answer
1. How innovative is Apple? Is it a strategic innovator? Go beyond the case study and include comments about Apple today.
Answer :
There are several factors that suggest and prove the innovativeness of Apple as an organisation. We’ll discuss them one by one.
A] Organisation Culture
B] Financial Performance
C] Leadership & Vision
D] Employees
E] Customers
Thus, we can say that it has been a strategic innovator that created huge value for all types of stockholders of its business.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. What is your evaluation of Steve Jobs as a leader? Consider the comments of Walter Isaacson (who wrote a best selling biography about Jobs) and others.
Answer :
Steve had been an incredible leader who can best be described as Charismatic leader. Below we assess and comment about his leadership aspects.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. What are you recommendations for Apple under the Tim Cook era? Where should it innovate after Apple Watch? Is iPhone X innovative? What about IoT Home Kit and Health Kit, AI and Siri, VR/AR, driverless cars etc?
Answer :
Under Tim Cook's leadership the oganization has excelled in many parameters. However, it has also come under the criticism of not being equally innovative as it was under Steve Job's leadership. Below we throw light on multiple aspects of its prospective businesses.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Should Apple rethink its closed, proprietary ecosystem? Compare Apple/iOS with Samsung etc./Android.
Answer :
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Is Apple off the rollercoaster that characterised its history?
Answer :