Apple Inc.: Organizational Creativity, Innovation, and Strategy Report

This report examines Apple's remarkable success, attributing it to a potent combination of organizational creativity, innovative strategies, and a unique corporate culture. The analysis highlights how Apple integrates innovation into its core business model, emphasizing the role of design thinking, participatory design, and a focus on customer needs. The report delves into the influence of Steve Jobs, particularly his vision for simplicity and user-friendly design, and how this has shaped Apple's product development. It also explores the crucial role of employees, the emphasis on top-notch excellence, and the fostering of a culture of secrecy and innovation. The report details Apple's approach to staying ahead of competition through continuous product development and innovation.

Running Head: Organizational Creativity and Innovation
Organizational Creativity and Innovation
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2

Innovation and Strategy Works Together at Apple................................................................................2
Use of Innovation Approach in Need Identification and Staying ahead of Competition........................3
Role of Employees in Apple..................................................................................................................3
Impact of Steve Jobs on Apple Inc........................................................................................................4
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................5
References.............................................................................................................................................6
1

Introduction
Apple is the company which is famous and recognised for its unique offerings. Today, Apple
is the company who is regarded as the leader in the innovation. This tag has been achieved by
the company after providing ultimate products with simplicity and sophistication. The
company’s strategies are totally aligned with the innovation as a result of which the great
products are always rolled down by the Apple in the market. Steve Job was the first person
who thought of manufacturing the computers for the common people for their personal
computing.
Innovation and Strategy Works Together at Apple
Earlier computers were only made for the office purpose and it was never thought that
common individual could use it at their homes. Apple was the first company who thought to
launch computers for the common man that would support and foster their work. However,
due to the machine’s complexity people were reluctant to use it. Steve jobs and original group
of apple developers were of the view that to make people buy and use the new technology of
complex nature, it is important for them to love and interact to their devices. Therefore,
company formed the strategy of making stylish and elegant products so that people could
love their devices which would dramatically reduce the machine’s complexity level for the
users. With this strategy in mind, Apple started doing research on the needs and wants of the
people in terms of design that would force them to love and communicate to their devices.
The strategy of Apple is to make people learn and use the complex technology and devices by
making them fall in love with it. To execute this strategy, efforts are made to come out with
such product design that aligns with the needs and preferences of the potential consumers.
Finally, engineers convert those sketched product design to the real product by putting their
extreme creativity and innovation (Thomke and Feinberg, 2012).
Apple also used one platform strategy, which was an innovation approach adopted by the
company to streamline their product portfolio. It is a kind of strategy through which the
company visualizes the complete family of products at the very early stage of product
development. Apple used OSX operating system for its entire product in order to achieve
2

operational efficiency. The other objective of using the same operating system was easy
adoption of the product by the consumer because of the expertise and familiarity with the
product. Apple was successful not because of its innovative product rather it got success due
to its innovative business model (Innovarsity, N.D.).
Use of Innovation Approach in Need Identification and Staying ahead of Competition
Apple incorporated participatory design strategy for the new product development. Under this
strategy, the products are designed and developed according to the customers’ needs and
wants. The company did enough users testing for developing smoother and user-friendly
software. It invited more customer involvement to develop consumer-desired product design.
Apple gives a lot of attention to the product’s design and its use. Therefore, a lot of beautiful
products were manufactured by Apple (Harvard Business Review, 2015). In order to keep on
developing beautiful products, Apple gave a lot of attention to the manufacturing techniques
along with the supply chain of acquiring materials. Apple also gave a lot of attention to the
products’ colour and design. For example- Apple launched pristine iPod which was white in
colour. It was a big hit in the market and later Apple more iPods with different colours. All
these resulted in the increased market share of Apple.
Role of Employees in Apple
The organizational culture of Apple is the pivotal reason behind the success of the company.
It has such an organisational culture that makes human resources or employees of the
company support the company’s overall strategic objectives. At present, Apple has 132000
full-time employees (Research Methodology, 2019). Like in Apple, their cultural traits are in
complete alignment with the drive for innovation, which is important for being competitive in
the online services, consumer electronics and information technology industries. Even the
leaders like Steve jobs and now Tim Cook are working towards improving organisational
cultural for motivating their people to work towards achieving the organisational objectives.
Apple has maintained a type of organisational culture which is driven towards creative
innovation. There are certain characteristics of Apple’s corporate culture which makes perfect
for creative innovation and these characteristics are discussed as below:
3

1. Top Notch Excellence- Apple is famous for hiring the people who are the best in
available labour market. Also, people are fired immediately if they fail to meet the set
target of expectations. All these promote and appreciate only the top notch excellence
in the organisation.
2. Creativity-Apple favours only the employees with sufficient amount of creativity,
knowledge, abilities and skills which are clearly visible in the products of Apple like
iPhone, iPod, Macs etc.
3. Innovation- All employees at Apple are motivated and trained in a way to innovate
and contribute individually to the process of product development.
4. Secrecy- The employees of the Apple are expected and encouraged to keep the
business related information confidential. This cultural trait is also included in the
policies, rules and contract of employment. This helps the company in being ahead
with the competitors and minimizes theft related threats.
Such a culture encourages Apple’s employees to give their best in them. Since, individual
participation is always encouraged in the company, it make the employees comfortable to
share their ideas even if it is not related to their own working area. In case, the idea is found
innovative then it is included in the process of product designing and development. Such
recognition helps the employees of the company feel like home (Panmore Institute, 2019).
Impact of Steve Jobs on Apple Inc.
Steve Jobs had a very broad vision and he was a kind of person who could go up to any
extent for the achievement of that vision. It is because of him that Apple is recognised as the
leader in innovation.
Steve Jobs had an inbuilt sense of design. He also has a very different vision about the
company’s meaning, its products and the way of achieving that particular vision. He gave the
philosophy of “Simplicity in design and use” which helped the company in developing
beautiful and user friendly products after studying customer needs and preferences.
When rest of the companies were busy in providing solutions for the enterprises, it was Steve
Jobs who thought to make and bring computers to the common people for their personal
computing. He was the person who personally got involved at every stage of product
4

development and also gave presentation about the product to the customers (Britannica,
2019).
Steve Jobs was the person who believed that design thinking is very necessary for carrying
out any business process and bringing innovation. Design Thinking involves both critical
thinking as well as creative thinking which together help in organising information and ideas,
taking correct decision, improving the situation and increasing the knowledge (Forbes, 2014).
Therefore, he introduced the concept of design thinking in Apple whose focus was on the
following areas:
1. Consumers needs and preferences were given more importance over the business’s
needs
2. Empathy was build up by making the customers love the products of Apple
3. The design of the product was given more importance over its engineering
4. Developing user friendly products rather than complex and difficult to use products
The above listed visions of Steve Jobs are clearly identifiable in all of the Apple’s products
Conclusion
So, the success of Apple is not the result of any one person or any one plan. Rather, it is the
contribution of efficient organisational structure, its strategies which are interconnected with
the innovation, design thinking of Steve Jobs, vision of Steve Jobs and the competent
employees of Apple who are the best of best in the labour market.
5

References
Britannica.(2019). Steve Jobs.[Online].Available at:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Steve-Jobs [Accessed:14 July, 2019 ].
Forbes.(2014). Why Design Thinking Should Be At The Core Of Your Business Strategy
Development.[Online].Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lawtonursrey/2014/06/04/14-design-thinking-esque-
tips-some-approaches-to-problem-solving-work-better-than-others/#27fa6cdc1627
[Accessed:14 July, 2019 ].
Harvard Business Review.(2019). You Need an Innovation Strategy.[Online].Available at:
https://hbr.org/2015/06/you-need-an-innovation-strategy [Accessed:14 July, 2019 ].
Innovarsity.(N.D.). Apple’s Systemic Approach To Innovation.[Online].Available at:
http://innovarsity.com/coach/bp_innovation_strategies_apple.html [Accessed:14 July,
2019 ].
Panmore Institute.(2019). Apple Inc.’s Organizational Culture & Its Characteristics (An
Analysis).[Online].Available at: http://panmore.com/apple-inc-organizational-culture-
features-implications [Accessed:14 July, 2019 ].
Research Methodology.(2019). Apple Organizational Culture – Secrecy and Maximum
Benefit from Human Resources.[Online].Available at: https://research-
methodology.net/apple-organizational-culture/ [Accessed:14 July, 2019 ].
Thomke, S. and Feinberg, B.(2012). Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple. Harvard
Business School. 1st May, pp.1-14.
6