Strategic leadership and innovation at Apple Inc.

Apple is a company that everyone in the world knows about today, and most people own at least one Apple product, but Apple did not start out as a huge company. It started out with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak working on computers in the garage of Steve Jobs. Jobs and Wozniak

Apple, Inc. started out as a concept driver when they reached new market showing fast growth in the beginning. Then, they came up with new knowledge and competencies as concept learners. They were also pioneers in the industry showing fast innovation. They reached a mature life cycle with economies of scale when they had to widen their product lines. Apple, Inc. went through all the stages of technological change. However, in the fast growth stage they were not prepared for what lay ahead, so they had to come up with different strategies to have the competitive advantage. Every stage requires development of their employees and more financing resources (Mello, 2011).

Apple’s success in becoming one of the most successful corporate giants is led to globalization. Through Globalization, Apple was able to master the global value chain by contracting to external parties, where many hands, mostly foreign, help build each individual Apple Product. Apple, the lead firm in this value chain, choose to do this for a number of reason.One in particular being, having specific abilities to market knowledge, intellectual

“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

When the leadership of Apple changed from the visionary leader and founder Steve Jobs to Tim Cook many people viewed the transition with skepticism because of the big shoes that Tim was expected to fit in. The competition was high especially in the smart phones and watches market where the rate of innovation from the other competing companies is also high. The creativity of firms like Sam Sung had threatened to wipe out the legacy of Apple as the leading producer of smart devices.

As time went on, Steve Jobs formulated the idea of more products. He is credited with the invention of the Macbook Air, the iPod, and the iPhone. These inventions sped of the evolution of modern

“Leadership is the capacity to develop a vision that motivates others to move with a passion towards a common goal. Therefore, leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent” (Democracy, 2014). Apple CEO Tim Cook will predictably be compared to his antecedent Steve Jobs, but in one way, he 's greatly more like Bill Gates -- he has encouraged philanthropy at Apple (Stone, 2014). Under his leadership, Apple has become a much more socially aware company, working to enhance conditions in foreign factories and planning to reduce pollution caused by data centers and the devices themselves. In contrast to Tim’s leadership, a successful legend spread out at Microsoft Company where leader Bill Gates has many leadership qualities. One of the most important attributes is his capability to analyze, interpret, and be competent. His methodical intelligence is mentioned in his biography that corroborate of his abilities by scoring 1790 on an 1800 Harvard entrance exam (Stone, 2014). The excellent skills and mentality that Bill Gates has develop places him with to be one of the most powerful transformational leaders who motivate the crowds of whom he shares his vision.

I had the pleasure of researching Apple, Inc. I don’t own any apple products but I do admire the story behind the product. We are going to go behind the scenes of the major company Apple, Inc. We will look into the services, products, financial profile, history, and marketing. In order to understand who Apple is today we have to understand where it came from. The headquarters for the company is in Cupertino, California. The current CEO of the company is Timothy Cook. Apple currently has 92,600 employees worldwide.Apple Inc. was founded by Steven Wozniak and Steve Jobs in 1976. They had a vision that no one else could possibly understand. It’s hard to see someone else’s vision. Let’s take a look at where the name Apple came from. Jobs and Wozniak was in the car when they thought of the name apple. Jobs was on a fruitarian diet. They wanted a name to represent something that everyone always wants. I don’t know about you, but I’m not always a fan of apples. Jobs recently visited an apple farm and thought the name sounded fun. Wozniak was a fan of the Beatles, and he questioned due to the Beatles record label Apple Records. Jobs was more of the visionary type of person. He seen something great into what Wozniak was trying to create. Sometimes that’s all you need is a little push in the right direction. As I continued to research Apple it amazes me how someone

As the first of the World’s Most Innovative Companies (Business week, 2010) and the 17th of the Best Global Brands (Interbrand, 2010), Apple has succeeded in strategic leadership and innovation, which has drawn attention from the world recently. This essay focuses on some key issues of Apple’s innovation. It begins with analyzing the key features of Apple Inc by Porter’s five forces and Kay’s distinctive capabilities. Then, the evaluations of the CEO Steve Jobs as the strategic leader and explanations of Apple’s

Apple’s core business was computers and even though they had new products like iPod, iPad, and iPhone which would out sale their computers per Gamble & Thompson (2010). But Apple’s strategic plan was to venture and improve all over their markets especially the computers. Because the computers started the business and was the reason why they had been in business functioning on its own

Apple Inc. (Apple) was incorporated on April 1, 1976, by two college dropouts Steve Jobs, and Steve Wosniak, and Ronald Wayne. During the time when Wozniak had built boxes that allowed them to make free long-distance phone calls and were able to sell over 100 units. Wayne much older than Jobs and Wosniak had money, business knowledge, and concept. Although, rarely mentioned in affiliation with Apple, Wayne was as involved as both Jobs and Wozniak. In fact, Jobs liked Wayne’s knack for disentangling quarrels. Jobs offered Wayne 10% of the company stock to serve as the determining vote in the event that Jobs and Wosniak ever had a conflict. Wayne accepted but changed his mind 12 days later and sold for a couple hundred dollars a holding that would be worth more than $62 billion today. Wayne was accredited with designing the company 's first logo, wrote the Apple 1 computer user 's manual and drafted the company 's original partnership agreement. Wayne leaves the partnership in June 1976. As stated in the Washington Post; ‘he continued to assist them with the logo and the cabinet design and various other things, because I wanted to help in any way I could before he and Apple parted ways.’ [Washington Post, 2016] Wayne is also responsible for the creation of the iPhone, iPad or iMac.

1. What are the chief elements of Apple’s overall competitive strategy? How well do the pieces fit together? Is the strategy evolving?

Describe change strategies employed by Apple throughout its history. Consider its relation with Microsoft and Adobe. What model of change leadership do you feel Steve Jobs embodies, and why?

This paper aims to highlight and discuss the major challenges and opportunities which Apple Inc. faces while bringing innovation in the four primary areas of its business operations; including product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, and organizational innovation. The major focus of the paper is towards discussing the combination of all these processes which this organization follows and the major challenges which it faces in the course of its innovation or change strategies. The paper concludes by summarizing the importance of innovation for Apple Inc. in the light of the whole discussion.

It is beyond all doubt that Apple Inc is one of the most successful and well-known companied all over the world nowadays. What’s more, the company is considered to be the leader of the industry The Apple products are of high quality and in high demand on all the markets. Apple services and stores are the gold standards for all the followers and niche players of the industry. Moreover, the majority of Apple customers are extremely loyal to the brands. Once they started using its high-technical products they keep doing it. At the same time the market share of the company is increasing constantly. Probably all the competitors are questioning what is the key to Apple Company’s success. It is important to note that the whole strategy determines the success of the business and the strategic analysis of the company can help to identify the main criteria. Thus, the object of the research paper is to develop a strategic analysis of Apple Inc, including its internal and external environment.