Apple Company

Without Jobs, Apple was falling apart. In 1996, Apple agrees to buy NeXT for more than $400 million. Apple didn’t buy just NeXT, but they also bought Steve Jobs back. Jobs became the chief executive and Apple’s a multi-billion dollar company thanks to products like the iMac and iPods. Jobs said, “Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Blumenthal says, “ In an almost unbelievable way, the dots had connected again. Jobs had been thrown out of Apple, started a company that struggled, and then sold that company to Apple, his first love, where he was now in charge. Of course, none of it would have happened had he not been fired” (197).

Case summary Apple Inc. in 2012 Apple and its History Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple in California in 1976. Their mission was to introduce an easy to use computer to market, which led to a computing revolution and quickly became the industry leader by selling more than 100,000 Apple IIs in 1980. After IBM entered PC market, IBM PCs, which used Microsoft’s DOS (OS), gained more market share and became the new standard for the PC industry. At the same time, Apple introduced the Macintosh in 1984. However, Apple’s net income fell 62% due to the Mac’s slow processor speed and lack of software limited sales. In 1985, Steve Jobs was forced out and John Sculley took charge of the Mac. Under the direction of Sculley, Apple

Apple is multinational business with a good reputation designing and developing expensive, but high quality electronic products such as the worldwide famous iPhone, iPad, iPod and MacBook. They also provide high standard computer software that is used across the world by a large variety of people from top music producers to professional designing organizations. Apple was first founded in April of 1976 to sell personal computers (Wikipedia, 2014).

Since 1976, Apple Inc. has been a company on the rise. Apple Inc. was created in Mountain View, California by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Jobs and Wozniak combined their different talents and skills to make Apple into a successful company, with Job being the visionary and marketer and Wozniak had the brains in technology. Mike Markkula also joined the team as the businessman. Jobs set the mission of empowering individuals, oner person – one computer, and doing so with elegance of design and fierce attention to detail (Gamble, Thompson, 2015). And with this mission, Apple Inc. has come a long way from when it first was founded, by being one of the top electronic companies in the world. “Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives” (Titus 3:14).

INTRODUCTION In 1996, Apple was a struggling company that had lost more than 70% of its market capitalization in the past decade. Apple’s sales had fell dramatically and their new personal computers weren’t particularly popular with consumers. The return of Steve Jobs to the company was a turning point for Apple and initiated a new era for the firm. With the launch of innovative products such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad, Apple became the biggest brand in the world. Now it remained to be seen if Tim Cook would be able to continue to develop new products and maintain Apple’s success.

The Apple computer began reading and writing 4 kilobytes which was 20,000 times slower than today. Between then and now, Apple has progressed far from where it began. The Mac offered point and click technology which was comprehensible and easy to use. It did not take an expert to set up and use, causing technology to spread quickly through the common people. Jobs says in his speech, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”, then explains how if he believes this is untrue, something needs to be changed. He believes that if he is doing something he does not enjoy, something needs to be done

In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple as an advisory and with the purposes of reshaping the product line. The changes made by Jobs resulted in increased sales and $309 million in profits. Job changed the mindset of Apples management and development team. He encourage them to have the “think different” management style that promotes the development of products that are ahead of the technology and design curve, and a creative retail strategy. It is this strategy that would eventually make Apple the best-selling company in the PC industry.

Question 1: Which of Porter’s four competitive strategies does Apple engage in? Explain. Scope | Broad | Cost Leadership | Differentiation | | Narrow | Cost Focus | Differentiation Focus | | | Cost | Differentiation | | | Source of Competitive Advantage | Figure 1.0: Porter’s four competitive strategies Porter’s four competitive strategies does Apple engage in are cost-leadership strategy, differentiation strategy, cost-focus strategy and focused- differentiation strategy. Explanation is as below.

“Apple was two months from bankruptcy” in September 1997 which led to CEO Steve Jobs to reconstruct their plan. In order to bring Apple back up into the competitive market, Jobs implement a new strategy which “shrunk Apple to a scale and scope suitable to the reality of its being a niche produce in the highly competitive personal computer business. He cut Apple back to a core that could survive” (12). What made Job successful was focusing on the sources and barriers to be successful in the market and to utilize the opportunities that came by. The strategy of eliminating unnecessary cost or reducing risk help transform Apple’s business

Jeffrey Young and William Simon provide new perspectives on the legendary creation of Apple, detail Jobs’s meteoric rise, and the devastating plunge that left him not only out of Apple, but out of the computer-making business entirely.The authors examine the takeover and Jobs’s reinvention of the company with the popular iMac and his transformation of the industry with the revolutionary iPod. iCon is must reading for anyone who wants to understand how the modern digital age has been formed, shaped, and refined by the most influential figure of the

Steve Jobs “You're time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life…” (Quote Steve Jobs) He was the the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer, of the well known tech company, Apple Inc. It started off with selling simple circuit boards, to now the latest iPhones and iMacs. These

Apple Inc, wasn 't always the massive tech giant it is today, but it has innovated the way computers should be today. Apple is known as the company that innovates and releases new ideas. Over time Apple has developed into a technology super company, had many ups and downs, and

Steve Jobs: The Apple of iGeneration’s Eyes As millions around the world swipe through their iPhones today, not much thought is given to the visionary man who played a pivotal role in the development of this innovative device. Steve Jobs, the man behind the development of iPhone and multiple other devices such as the iPods, iPads etc., was the backbone of Apple Inc. (CNBC Titans: Steve Jobs, 2011). Under his guidance and supervision, Apple Inc. has achieved new heights by re-defining the manner in which we, as consumers of electronics, interact with technology (Kane & Fowler, 2011). Apple Inc. not only introduced new and innovative devices into the market but also fulfilled Jobs vision of taking complicated technologies and simplifying them so that they can be used as consumer products (CNBC Titans: Steve Jobs, 2011). Jobs’ technology company was unique from others as it was the “one that developed tightly integrated packages of hardware and software.” (Steve Jobs: Insanely Great, 2011). Jobs creative ideas and visionary thinking enabled Silicon Valley to transform from a fruit orchard into the technology industry’s innovation center of U.S. today (Kane & Fowler, 2011).

Apple: An Introduction Apple Incorporation is one of the largest organizations dealing into Information Technology. Apple has a host of products ranging from Laptops, Desktops, Mobile Phones and Multimedia Devices. The company has been extremely innovative in the field of multimedia and it owes it success to one of the greatest innovators, Steve Jobs. The company has always believed in innovation and that is the major reason why it has been so successful in the mobile phone segment. In recent years Apple is second only to Samsung in the Global Mobile Phone industry. However the operations have been largely based in the United States and in times of recession any organization needs to focus on economies of scale and thus focus on growth

Introduction Throughout his life, Steve Jobs’ milestones have been applauded and criticized on a grand scale. A majority of the scrutiny has involved Jobs’ leadership after the founding of the Apple Company. Undoubtedly, Jobs’ risk-taking has led to the creation of revolutionary products such as the Apple II, iMac, iPod and iPad. However, Jobs’ was not as successful with his short-lived ventures with NeXT company. Although it is well suggested that Jobs’ failures helped him mature into a well-seasoned leader, his mistakes are also equally highlighted as an example of the defectiveness in his leadership style. However, history has decided to remember Jobs in a positive light. Hence, this leave the question: is Steve Jobs the iconic, revolutionary and effective leader the mass media portrays him to be? This paper will attempt to expose to the reader that although Steve Jobs did in fact have great number of weaknesses as leader of Apple, Job’s strengths overcame his weakness resulting in Jobs becoming an effective leader. The content analysis of Jobs’ various media reporting revealing the strengths and weaknesses in his background, vision, leadership traits and employee relations will be employed to express the validity of the thesis.