Case Study: Apple's Innovation and Strategy in Business Development

This case study analyzes Apple's approach to organizational creativity and innovation. It explores how Apple integrates innovation into its strategy, examining the interplay between innovation and strategy, and identifying the 'integrator approach' that enables Apple to control its product range. The study highlights the role of Apple's people, emphasizing their productivity and commitment to protecting information. It also discusses the impact of Steve Jobs on Apple's processes and innovation, particularly his focus on customer needs and simplicity. The case study concludes by emphasizing the importance of both market pull and technology push approaches for successful product development and the company's focus on the technology push approach.

RUNNING HEAD: Organizational Creativity and Innovation
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Organizational Creativity and Innovation

Organizational Creativity and Innovation 1
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
How innovation and strategy work together at Apple............................................................................2
Identification of the innovation approach applied by the Apple............................................................3
Role of Apple’s people..........................................................................................................................3
Impact of the Steve Jobs on Apple and his view of process and innovation..........................................4
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................4
References.............................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Apple was founded in 1976 by Jobs and Steve Wozniak. It is considered as a prominent
designer and integrator of the computer software and hardware. The innovations of Apple
have radically come with consistency. The company uses three evaluations in the inception of
product innovations, a marketing required document, an engineering requirement document,
and a user-experience document. This report includes the innovation and strategy of the
Apple along with the innovation approach. The report also identifies the role of the Apple’s
people and impact of the Steve Jobs on Apple’s processes and innovation.
How innovation and strategy work together at Apple
Apple is capable of generating ideas, managing innovation and then effectively diffusing
innovation. The company effectively conducts research and development in order to generate
ideas and search for the opportunities. Apple invents the aspects like products, processes,
customer experience, business model and leadership. There is a modernization factory at
Apple which conducts all the experiments and makes use of talented people which helps it to
stay ahead in the competition. The innovations at Apple are driven by the external uncertainty
and the competition. The supporters of the innovation capability in Apple includes
management, organizational culture, innovation strategy, and innovation competencies
(Fortwengel, Schüßler & Sydow, 2017). The innovation and strategy works together at
Apple.
The motto of the Apple “Think different”, motivates all the working people in the company
to be innovative. The company makes effort to recognize, protect and encourage all the
innovators. The innovators are also remunerated in the monetary terms or as an appreciation
awards. Apple has devoted various resources to innovation because it requires capital and the
lack of capital can delay the creativeness (Sarooghi, Libaers & Burkemper, 2015). At apple,
all employees adopt the innovation, as it is everyone’s duty in the company. The company
regularly evaluates all the on-going projects and analyses the current activities which are
essential for carrying out the company’s work in an appropriate manner. The employees of
the Apple are skilled enough to handle the risk and learn from their mistakes (Daniel, 2018).
The financial resources available are helpful in the funding for innovations. The best human
resources available in the Apple keep the company a step ahead.

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Identification of the innovation approach applied by the Apple
Apple has adopted an “integrator approach” which activates designing, engineering and
selling on its own products instead of certifying its goods to the network associates. It affects
the complete product range from software to hardware and to customer electronic products
(Hon & Lui, 2016). This approach enables and empowers Apple to control and react rapidly
to the fluctuating conditions. The company do not have any reliance on the network
associates. Apple only emphases on the few products for each single market and make efforts
to make markets perfect as possible. Thus, Apple pays substantial attention to the products,
functionality, designing, and usability in order to distinguish itself from the rivals. The
company adds loyalty in terms of the high superficial value (Anderson, Potočnik & Zhou,
2014).
Apple follows the principle of “Simple is sophisticated” and follows the systematic approach
specifically in the products and manufacturing process. The designing team of the company
plays a major role in converting the innovative ideas into the designing. The specific needs of
the customers are targeted through the strategic innovation approach (Perry-Smith &
Mannucci, 2017). The approach focuses on the better innovation capabilities and enhanced
quality. The market is evaluated in the better way before the product development. The
innovation tactics used by the Apple are incremental innovation, continual learning and open
innovation. Apple focuses on adding incremental features to the existing products instead of
launching new disruptions. It emphases on updating of its operating system. Apple learns
from its failures and find out the opportunities to develop new competencies. Apple has
opened its high profile software for the operator’s feedback. Jobs have made various efforts
to listen and respond to the customer’s feedback (Ghosh, 2015).
Role of Apple’s people
Apple has been successfully drawing attention of the substantial number of employees and
the app developers in the past four to five years. The people of Apple are 40% more
productive than the average company. The majority of the Apple’s employees have been
located at United States. The company offers more than the average pay to its employees.
Other than the salary, Apple offers benefits to a retailer comprising health care, contributions
and opportunities to buy more stock of the company. For instance, it took 2 years to develop
debug and deploy iOS 10. In general, it is the accountability of the employees at Apple to
protect and maintain the privacy of the information. If employees fail to safeguard customers

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and the third party information then it can damage relations with customers, dealers and
others. It can also result in the legal liability. The employees are required to promote
technical standards before being engaged in them. The employees should also receive
approval of the management and legal for the development of an Apple product. The people
at Apple focus on offering innovative and high quality products and services to integrate
every business interaction. The employees have role in observing policies and procedures
concerning business expenses and submit accurate expenses compensation requests (Amabile
& Pratt, 2016).
Impact of the Steve Jobs on Apple and his view of process and innovation
The leadership of Steve Jobs has been empowering to Apple. He has stirred various new
ideas which helped in sharing visions of the company. Steve Jobs has capability of
recognizing the design and ability to understand the desire of the customers. He had
proficiency of product genius convoyed by bravery of creating something innovative. Steve
Jobs changed the technology from phones to computers to even smart watches. The basic
principle used by Steve Jobs helped to target ease of the operators and customers. The
company has always done a good job at arranging things simplistic and easy to understand
(Álvarez, 2017). The innovations made by Steve Jobs kept increasing and doing things get
better with each release. It is amazing to watch how Steve Jobs has helped technology come
so far.
The innovation is hardly about Steve Jobs working alone. The employees contributed to the
unique formula of the success. Steve Jobs guided Apple to grow and commercialize and
changed the way many of live as well as the varied sets of industries comprising computing,
printing, music, movies, and mobile telephony. The volatile approach of Jobs was both
captivating and baffling. He has highly effective modus operandi when it comes to teamwork.
He always challenged team in order to produce more efforts and reach beyond the possible.
Steve used to move around a good idea and observe what people think and explore different
aspects (Liu, Gong, Zhou & Huang, 2017).
Conclusion
After discussing the innovation management it can be concluded that it is crucial to emphasis
on both market pull and technology push approach to make sure that the products established
are innovative and meets the demands of the customers. Apple neither conducts market

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research nor focuses on its competitors. The company exclusively emphases on the
technology push approach and completely trusts on its rigorousness. The innovation approach
of the Apple “integrator” helped in designing, engineering and selling on its own instead of
certifying its products to the network associates.

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References
Álvarez, M. V. (2017). The Future of Video-Journalism: Mobiles. In Media and Metamedia
Management (pp. 463-469). Springer, Cham.
Amabile, T. M., & Pratt, M. G. (2016). The dynamic componential model of creativity and
innovation in organizations: Making progress, making meaning. Research in
Organizational Behavior, 36, 157-183.
Anderson, N., Potočnik, K., & Zhou, J. (2014). Innovation and creativity in organizations: A
state-of-the-science review, prospective commentary, and guiding
framework. Journal of management, 40(5), 1297-1333.
Daniel, C. O. (2018). E-Recruitment and its Effects on Organizational Creativity and
Innovation in Nigerian Manufacturing Firms. Nile Journal of Business and
Economics, 4(8), 3-12.
Fortwengel, J., Schüßler, E., & Sydow, J. (2017). Studying organizational creativity as
process: Fluidity or duality?. Creativity and Innovation Management, 26(1), 5-16.
Ghosh, K. (2015). Developing organizational creativity and innovation: toward a model of
self-leadership, employee creativity, creativity climate and workplace innovative
orientation. Management Research Review, 38(11), 1126-1148.
Hon, A. H., & Lui, S. S. (2016). Employee creativity and innovation in organizations:
Review, integration, and future directions for hospitality research. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(5), 862-885.
Liu, D., Gong, Y., Zhou, J., & Huang, J. C. (2017). Human resource systems, employee
creativity, and firm innovation: The moderating role of firm ownership. Academy of
Management Journal, 60(3), 1164-1188.
Perry-Smith, J. E., & Mannucci, P. V. (2017). From creativity to innovation: The social
network drivers of the four phases of the idea journey. Academy of Management
Review, 42(1), 53-79.

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Sarooghi, H., Libaers, D., & Burkemper, A. (2015). Examining the relationship between
creativity and innovation: A meta-analysis of organizational, cultural, and
environmental factors. Journal of business venturing, 30(5), 714-731.