This assignment is based on 'how important is innovation and enterprise in today's businesses?' This assignment is based off Apple Inc. and achieved grade Distinction (A*)
Apple Inc.
Apple
Apple Inc. is a prominent technology company known for its widely popular range of
phones, laptops, watches, earphones, and other technological products. In 1976,
Apple Computers was founded y Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.
The name of the mega company was changed to Apple Inc. in 2007. They are
currently the richest company in the world, and in this assignment, I will attempt to
explain why and explain how the use of innovation and enterprise has helped propel
the brand into becoming the largest company on earth.
Apple’s core values are listed in this image. (Google Images)
Apple’s Innovation
Innovation is the process of translating an idea or invention into a service or product
that creates value and customers want to buy. To be labeled an innovation, an idea
must be replicable at an economic cost and must satisfy a specific need and what
customers want in a market. In business, innovation results in ideas being applied by
a company to satisfy the expectations and needs of consumers.
Apple adopted an ‘integrated approach’, meaning it operates design, engineering,
and retailing on its own rather than licensing its products to network partners. This
contributes to its whole product range and means that no matter what year it is when
you buy an Apple product, you get an Apple product. “If you smoosh together
Microsoft, Dell, and Sony into one company, you would have something like the
diversity of the Apple technological biosphere”. (Grossmann, 2005). Apple wants
their products to work properly, which is hard to do when many different companies
make their contribution to a product. This approach gives Apple more control and
enables them to react more efficiently and quickly to changing circumstances, as
there is no dependence on partners. This, therefore, pays attention to product design
and creativity and contributes to customer loyalty in terms of the high perceived
value of their products. A disadvantage to this approach however is that with little to
, no outside help, Apple could find itself in a sticky situation and not have many
companies to turn to to help. This approach by Apple supports its value of ‘we
believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the
products we make’. The more control Apple has over its products, the harder it is for
competitors to compete with their products.
Apple also doesn’t conduct market research according to this article, nor does it
concentrate on what its competitors are doing. This creates internal focus and
enables Apple to rely solely on its intuition and perfectionism. The reason for this, as
explained by Apple’s senior VP’s is “customers don’t know what they want, you have
to tell them what to buy”. And as the legend Steve Jobs put it, if you make a great
product “then everybody will want to use it”.
Apple’s notion about its product development means that it doesn’t have a system or
pre-determined process to foster innovation. Within the Apple business, it’s all about
open-mindedness, communication, and collaboration, where people are encouraged
to express their ideas to the company. Steve Jobs once said, “it’s ad hoc meetings of
six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing
ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea”. At Apple, ideas are
given spontaneously and not forced, and this then turns into sufficient exploitation of
these ideas and turning them into products that will sell.
Also, according to this report, there are no sequential development stages at Apple.
Rather, the emphasis lies on simultaneous 3 development processes in every
department, whether it’s design or engineering. “Where the challenges are that
complex you have to develop a product in a more collaborative, integrated way”.
Said Jonathan Ive, head of Apple’s design function. This is an interesting approach
from Apple, and it enables them to work more as a team rather than a lucrative
business in a very competitive market. Apple pays remarkable attention to effective
collaboration and is proud of its internal communication, meetings, and the ability of
interdisciplinary design reviews. A disadvantage is that due to Apple having no real
core process, they could find themselves lost in smoke on what to do next. This must
be a slight exaggeration of the truth, as due to Apple’s huge size and customer base,
there must be a productive and efficient structure of design and development in
place.
Apple, with many of its products, releases an annually updated version which is
better than the last. They revolutionised the smartphone back in the Steve Jobs era,
and every phone since then has been arguably better than the last. Besides the
annual product release schedule, Apple also releases new side products, such as
the AirPods and HomePod, an Apple spinoff inspired by Amazon’s Alexa, a virtual
assistant with speakers and microphones. Apple is constantly bringing in new
products that surprise both the general public and their devoted customers. What
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