BU7202 Case Study: Apple's Organizational Behavior, Culture & Growth

This case study delves into Apple's organizational behavior, focusing on innovation, risk-taking, attention to detail, outcome orientation, people orientation, and team orientation. It highlights Apple's aggressive market approach and its strategies for maintaining stability. The analysis covers how Apple fosters a culture of innovation and meticulously designs products to meet customer needs. Furthermore, the case study explores Apple's strategic market timing and its emphasis on accountability and teamwork. The study references various sources to support its findings, providing a comprehensive overview of Apple's organizational practices. Desklib provides similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

Running head: CASE STUDY 1
Case study
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

Running head: CASE STUDY 2
Executive summary:
The study will discuss about the approach of Apple towards their internal management strategies,
customer evaluation, and technology advancement. The company is widely considered as an
innovative company whose innovative strategies includes new products and new business
models. They are always trying something new and innovative for themselves. Apple products
come in sleek and customized designs that set the competition platform to a whole new level.
The innovation and design excellence attributed to the products of Apple is a result of
competence and focus on detail by Apple employees. . The successes of Apple in the innovation
market is attributed to its strategies in marketing and pricing of its products and services. The
opening of new markets has been one strategy that has had a great impact on Apple and its
achievement. The study will discuss about all the cultural and structural evaluation of this brand
with detailed definition.

Running head: CASE STUDY 3
Table of Contents
Organizational Behavior..................................................................................................................3
Attention to detail.........................................................................................................................4
Outcome orientation.....................................................................................................................5
People orientation........................................................................................................................6
Team orientation..........................................................................................................................6
Apple’s aggressive approach.......................................................................................................7
Apple’s stability...........................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

Running head: CASE STUDY 4
Organizational Behavior
Innovation and risk-taking at Apple
Apple is listed as one of the organizations that tops in the world of innovation as a
business culture. Christian (2015) notes that culture of an organization directs and has the power
to reward particular traits and behaviors in line with organizational values. The company is
widely considered as an innovative company whose innovative strategies includes new products
and new business models. They are always trying something new and innovative for themselves.
The company si always producing new and innovative forms of software, programs and
technologies for the users in the market. They not only focus on the business model but also
tends to produce innovative and beautiful products. Among the most common products from
Apple that have proved innovation at Apple and which have stunned the technology market
include, the iPhone, iPad tablets, music artifacts such as iPod, and the famous App Store
(Thomke & Feinberg, 2012).
Innovation and risk-taking at Apple is a culture that was started by the founders and has
been continued by the Apple management team. The company is risking their work on a regular
basis to identify better scope for their product development and identify new technologies. They
are creating new scope for the company to please the customers. However at times the risks do
become risky in real. Apple was accused by the researchers for taking immense risk with the
security user data. They were also accused for not maintaining proper test and verification
system, thsu iyt cannot be verified as they chose not to share the data. Steve Jobs had immense
contribution to Apple's success. The continuous innovation culture at Apple is drawn from the
co-founders (Heisler, 2016, May 04). Thus they were not readily accepted by the researchers as
their way of approach was completely wrong.

Running head: CASE STUDY 5
Attention to detail
Apple products come in sleek and customized designs that set the competition platform to
a whole new level. The innovation and design excellence attributed to the products of Apple is a
result of competence and focus on detail by Apple employees. During product design, employees
are very keen on creating products that capture and align with customer desires. This is seen in
different products designed to satisfy customers' preferences and capture attention while using.
For example, Apple designs icons on their various mobile phones in shapes that are appealing
and captivating to the eyes. Such strategies are highly acceptable in the society that are keener
about brandings and popularity. The show off tendency of every individual actually brands the
company and increases it reputation in the market. The implementation of Apple icons in their
phone actually states that they are Apple product which is a brand of the brands. (Heisler, 2016).
The Apple’s pencil as an add-on accessory for the iPad Pro is designed in such a way that
it ensures smooth operation on the iPad interface, extremely responsive, and having the right
weight. The pencil offers a better user handling ability great for writing, illustrating, drawing and
even designing. The pencil is considered the best stylus in the market. Attention to detail is
highly exhibited in the weight distribution in the Apple pencil. The pencil is designed in a way
that in whichever resting position it is placed, the word “pencil” is always facing up.
Outcome orientation
Apple is characterized by an array of customized and sleekly designed products that meet
the daily needs of work (Moreland, 2012). The design of the products is simple as had been the
desire of Steve Job’s design sensibility. The design of Apple products is customized to the
desires of the customers as noted by Cordell Ratzlaff, the brain behind the Mac OS X operating

Running head: CASE STUDY 6
system; “We did the design first. We focused on what we thought people would need and want
and how they would interact with their computer….”
Apple products are also considered highly interactive. They are made on a platform that
enables a medium of interaction between the product and the user. As noted by Thomke &
Feinberg referencing Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of industrial design, who was
the driving force behind the iPod’s development, the focus is always on unnoticeable small
details that take the adaptability and the interaction with the products a notch higher (Heisler,
2016, May 04).
Apple products come in all manner of unique fashion. For instance, Thomke and
Feinberg identify that Apple products such as the iPad, iPod, iPhones, and the Mac computers all
come in sleek appearance that plunges into the fashion of the current times. The concentration in
the design of the products is attention to details and uniqueness that competitors have failed to
match (Christian, 2015).
Also as noted by Thomke & Feinberg, Apple uses clever and strategic moves in market
timing. Market timing refers to the practice of buying and trading securities based on the market
trends, economic trends, corporate information and other associated market factors. Apple
employs this strategy in which it analyses and understands the customers’ needs in terms of
usability of a certain product and their desire to have better products out of the existing one. In so
doing, it has a better understanding of the market demands and develops products with features
that satisfy such customer demands (Lashinsky, 2011, May 9).

Running head: CASE STUDY 7
People orientation
Apple is considered one brutal and unforgiving organization where accountability is
highly valued. The employees at Apple are at task to account for their every move, achievements
and failures. Accountability is highly valued and strictly enforced. Decisions are swiftly made
and communications aligned and articulated from the top management (Lashinsky, 2011). For
instance, on the eve of iPhone launch in 2008, MobileMe was also incorporated which was to
provide an email system for synchronization in a phone. This did not go well as clients claimed
of lost emails tarnishing MobileMe as a dud. This made top management headed by Steve Jobs
to disband the MobileMe team.
Team orientation
Stressing on teamwork rather than individual work is the working spirit and culture at
Apple. Apple capitalizes on the team collaboration and individual strengths in their daily
operations taking into consideration that the team effort is greater than the sum of individual
efforts. Apple uses team building, diverse workshops, retreats among other tactics to encourage
team participation and collaboration. A classic example is the collaboration of technology that
that is keeping the business process in track and on time. The use of cloud computing is helping
the teams to further collaborate and provide better opportunity for the company to give their best
output. (Eigen, 2016).
Apple’s aggressive approach
Apple is considered very aggressive when it comes to strategic orientation of its products
and services. The marketing strategies of Apple and its products are considered far-reaching and
that which competitors can barely match. The successes of Apple in the innovation market is

Running head: CASE STUDY 8
attributed to its strategies in marketing and pricing of its products and services (Meyer, 2017).
The opening of new markets has been one strategy that has had a great impact on Apple and its
achievement. For instance, opening a new market in India for the iPhone has resulted in an
increase in sales volume giving the company a 400 percent sales increase and in profits
(Lashinsky, 2011, May 9).
Apple’s stability
According to Tetzeli (2016), Apple’s stability is based on maintaining the status quo
rather than always changing practices and tactics. Apple has a foundation of always making what
the customers love to their preference by always improving and making that item better fit for
the customers. This move has made Apple products very unique in usability, for example, the
very first iPhone and the current have features that are usable even by customers who used the
first version of iPhone. It is the mentality of viewing an old idea in a new way that informs this
move thus creating beauty out a product that would otherwise be considered complacent. Apple's
stability is also anchored on the ability of the organization to take risks of doing innovative
things. As it is known that Apple is famous for producing latest and innovative technology every
time it launches a new product in the market. Apple has blown the technological market over and
over with the introduction of products into the market that even its own customers had not
imagined the possibility of such products being in the market (Center for Work Life. 2013).

Running head: CASE STUDY 9
References
Thomke, S. & Feinberg, B. (2012). Design Thinking, and Innovation at Apple. Think Different.
Retrieved May 24, 2018, from https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=36789
Christian, R. (2015). Innovation and Organizational Culture. Retrieved May 24, 2018 from
http://timkastelle.org/blog/2015/02/innovation-and-organizational-culture/
Center for Work Life. (2013). Intelligence Outcomes for Success “The leadership Qualities of
Steve Jobs.” Retrieved May 24, 2018, from http://www.centerforworklife.com/the-
leadership-qualities-of-steve-jobs/
Lashinsky, A. (2011, May 9). How Apple Works: Inside the World's Biggest Startup. Retrieved
May 24, 2018, from http://fortune.com/2011/05/09/inside-apple/
Moreland, J. (2012, July 30). Steve Jobs, Apple, And The Importance Of Company Culture.
Retrieved May 24, 2018, from https://www.fastcompany.com/1792485/steve-jobs-apple-
and-importance-company-culture
Heisler, Y. (2016, May 04). 5 examples of Apple's insane attention to detail. Retrieved May 24,
2018, from http://bgr.com/2016/05/04/apple-attention-to-detail-designs-hardware-
software/
Tetzeli, R. (2016, August 30). Tim Cook On Apple's Future: Everything Can Change Except
Values. Retrieved May 24, 2018, from https://www.fastcompany.com/3042435/steves-
legacy-tim-looks-ahead
Eigen, D. (2016, October 26). Team Orientation in a Businesses Culture. Retrieved May 24,
2018, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/team-orientation-businesses-culture-
48497.html

Running head: CASE STUDY 10
Meyer, P. (2017, January 29). Apple's Generic Strategy & Intensive Growth Strategies.
Retrieved May 24, 2018, from http://panmore.com/apple-inc-generic-strategy-intensive-
growth-strategies
BCG, (2014). Innovations in 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2018 from:
https://www.bcg.com/publications/2014/innovation-in-2014.aspx