Analyzing Apple's Design-Driven Innovation Strategy

Apple Inc.'s journey from near-bankruptcy to becoming one of the world's most valuable companies is a testament to its unique approach to innovation and design. Central to this transformation was Steve Jobs' vision, which emphasized customer-centric product development and cohesive brand storytelling. By prioritizing design thinking, Apple integrated functionality with aesthetic appeal, creating products that resonated deeply with consumers. The company also utilized iterative consumer involvement in product design and refined its execution processes to focus on high-potential projects. Additionally, leadership practices within Apple fostered an environment of creativity and innovation, encouraging both individual initiative and collaborative problem-solving. This case study illustrates how strategic alignment between leadership vision, innovative methodologies, and market understanding can drive a company's success, highlighting the importance of holistic innovation strategies in today’s competitive business landscape.

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ORGANIZATIONAL CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
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Introduction
Each and every business venture desires to stay in the front line compared to its
competitors in the same market, be it in the local or on the global level. The great tragedy in this
scenario is how such a business can keep the track , catch up or even perform better still under
the pressure from the competitors. The secret is realizing and understanding the separate needs of
consumers in order to gain the competitive advantage. This article bases the discussion on the
creativity and the innovation as a stepping stone to business startup, growth and sustainability.
Design thinking and innovation; case study of Apple
Apple is among the leading companies famous for its distinctive products and innovation
brands. Short interviews responses from the apple users makes it clear that there exists emotional
attachments between the products of Apple and its consumers , including every single apple
product launched in the previous 2 decades (Woodman, Sawyer, & Griffin, 2013). The reason
behind Apple products difference from those of competitors and the approach that makes Apple
manage and attain innovation in its products provides clear insights into the history of apple and
how the company managed to survive the critical moments between the year 1985 and 1997.
Design thinking to fuel Apple innovation
Currently Apple is among the prominent companies in the innovation field and this could
not be the case if the company did not adopt the design thinking approach in its market venture.
Design thinking is simply a resolution oriented procedure used to realize innovation putting into
consideration the product consumer as the heart of every development step undertaken. Design
thinking has also been simplified to mean a human based approach towards achieving innovation

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that heavily borrows from the inventor’s toolkit to merge the requirements of users, the
opportunities of technology and the business success requirements (Bryant, 2014).
Many models have been designed to describe design thinking. These designs include the
IDEO model, the d.school model and the IBM design model. These models generally have a
common target of realizing innovation via the three main factors illustrated in the diagram below
(Bass & Steidlmeier, 2014):
Technology
Feasibility
Human values
Usability-Desirability
Business
viability
Design
Thinking
Innovation
Apple products User desirability
The Apple product was in a position to satisfy its customer needs by its ability to solve
problems which could be encountered through the process of user centered design. This was
achieved by the deep commitment of the company through the interviews and questionnaires to
the consumers with an aim of understanding the users (Sharma & Grant, 2014).

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Apple Market Viability
Any successful product in the market will always require an integration of market
strategy aimed at identifying the targeted segment and coming up with a brand that matches the
target segment. Apple achieved this strategy by the use business model canvas which assisted in
understanding the project and creation of business strategy at each level. SWOT analysis on the
other hand played a very crucial role in identifying the company strengths, threats, weaknesses
and the available opportunities (Dickson, Castano, Magomaeva, & Den Hartog, 2012).
Apple Technology possibility approach
Technology acted as an instrument for Apple designers to innovate and come up with
products which were in a position to meet the consumers’ needs. Technology as a result was
adopted by the Apple through every step of its advance process comprising the prototyping level
where the visual demonstration of the products at each step could be made to the whole team
before proceeding (Hater & Bass, 2015).
Innovation approaches by Apple
Finding new ideas to stir up growth strategy
Apple used this approach to link innovation to a growth strategy. The company
institutionalized innovation and used it to drive growth. This included integrated processes
linking its innovation panel with marketing and corporate strategy. The innovation plan was
given the mandate to explore and provide many ideas as possible to form the key pillars of
growth (Bass & Steidlmeier, 2014).
Finding first the customer needs

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Apple Company relentlessly uncovered the customer’s unmet needs through a “Jobs-to-
the-done” lens. Then devise solutions was to address those unmet needs and often unarticulated
needs; this approach was effective since the company was not dealing with very new technology
or products , as consumers cannot articulate what they don’t know (Bryant, 2014).
Finding the killer idea first
This worked very well since Apple approach was in an entrepreneurial way. The
company just wanted to look for the next big idea constantly without caring about the industry or
scope and the scale of the big ideas (Evans & Granton, 2014).
Throwing plenty of ideas around
This approach worked quite well since Apple company had a lot of focus and strategic
intent. Proposed ideas were investigated keenly and actions followed up attaching the ideas to
the business (Hater & Bass, 2015).
Role of Apple customers in its innovative approach
Provision of new ideas
Apple customers had a considerable contribution to the company when it came to
proposing new ideas which could stir up the innovation process in the company product through
interviews and questionnaires, customers could propose on how they could wish the products of
Apple to be. Through their proposals, the company acquired new instincts in line with the
innovative team proposals to come up with the best products (Bass & Steidlmeier, 2014).
Evaluation and refinement of ideas

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Apple customers played a very crucial role in the process of analyzing proposed ideas.
The proposed ideas were scrutinized in accordance to the customers will. Any controversies
between the customer proposals and the company ideas were looked into and corrected were
necessary in order to meet the customer demands (Robinson & Stern, 2013).
Testing of prototypes
The apple customers were the basic parties for the process of prototype testing of the
company’s products. This ensured that the company innovative products remain in line with the
customer requirements. Constraints like usability of products were dealt with through this
process to ensure that the products are consumer friendly (Hater & Bass, 2015).
Steve Job’s Different Thinking to re-establish Apple market
On the return of Steve Job to Apple in the year 1997, he began applying the design
thinking features discussed above, a reflection to Apple products vision. The main focus of Steve
Job at this point in time was based on; customer needs and preferences rather than the business
needs only, establishing empathy by assisting people love the products of Apple, the design
focus rather than the work of engineering and launching products which were simple and
consumer-friendly rather than being complex and hard to use products (Evans & Granton, 2014).
This vision of Steve Job can be seen clearly in the recent products of Apple. In spite of
Apple market competitors focus on product structures and capabilities, Apple has focused on
holistic consumer familiarity. For instance, the iMac is famous for being quite, quick wake-up,
good sound and a display which of very high quality. The vision was established in the
development strategy that includes (Bharadwaj & Menon, 2012);

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Apple Excellence in Execution process
Apple majored on refining the process of execution by terminating two divisions,
removing 70 percent of new products and majoring on the greater prospective products,
decreasing the lines of its products from 15 to 3 and closing conveniences to expand built-up
outside the company. Additionally, Apple propelled its own website to facilitate direct sales of
its products and began to take interests in materials and the way products can be contrived within
the customer-centered culture (Evans & Granton, 2014).
The Apple platform tactic
Apple rationalized their products range to a group of products that can be manufactured
quickly yet maintaining the prevailing elements of design. The company also capitalized on
products that required less effort on when it came to repair and maintenance (Sharma & Grant,
2014).
Apple Iterative consumer involvement approach
The customer familiarity was incorporated into each and every Apple product design and
development stage. This was achieved via active participation in usability testing. The design for
the interfaces similarly was mainly focused on the user experience (Bryant, 2014).
Apple Beautiful products approach
Apple main focus was on materials and the process of manufacturing. The company
applied a bold methodology of exasperating new concepts rather than stagnating within the
conventional forms of design (Evans & Granton, 2014).
Apple’s design process

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The apple tactics of innovation involved terrific new products and exemplary models of
business innovation. Mastermind ergonomics made the products of apple user friendly.
According to Job, design was not just what the products looked like and felt; it was how the
products worked. Below are the significant elements involved in the exemplary Apple design
process (Sharma & Grant, 2014).
Identical top down and bottom up tactics- dream products could be described by the
executive and the design panel could select and forward the best ideas. Through this process,
dream products could morph into deliverables (Sharma & Grant, 2014).
The Apple 10-3-1 approach-the innovation strategy of Apple demanded that design ideas
should be generated in abundance. They could then be analyzed and sorted through a choice
mechanism that eliminated the feeble ones and only let the strong ideas rise to the top. Any new
feature could have at least 10 different mockups, later they could narrow down to three and
finally end up with the strongest one (Evans & Granton, 2014).
Conclusion
Apples innovation history is a perfect lesson of how design and innovation can turn a
failing company to be successful in the market and acquire a top position despite the market
pressure. Design thinking assisted Apple to innovate placing its customers at the core of any
development process. The absence of Steve Job in the company clearly depicts the drawbacks of
lacking a clear innovative strategy and how it can overturn a company success to failure.

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