Apple Case Study

1. INTRODUCTION

Apple Inc. is one of the leading companies in the technology industry. In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded the company. In 1976, they launch their first product, the Apple I, which was a basic personal computer. The product had good customer acceptance. Then, based in the Apple I, the company developed a new product, the Apple II. The new product had some extra technical features including a stylish design, that made it better that the first one and it was consider an innovative product. This innovative computer had more acceptance by the customers, but mainly in the educational field. In 1990, Apple continued developing new technologies and products that made the company the most profitable PC manufacturer in the world (HILL and JONES, 2008).

Despite of being a successful company, we have also found some internal and external problems that have affected the company. In 1986, the founder and entrepreneurial visionary, Steve Jobs, left the company. After that, other CEOs came and tried to continue with the work of Jobs. However, it was difficult for them to find a CEO that would manage well the company. However, Apple continued having a favorable acceptance and was strongly positioned in the industry maintaining the stylish design on all of its products. In the external assessment, in some cases Apple was influenced by the competition, because the industry was growing and other computer companies were emerging. That is why Apple had to take some measures in order to deal with the competition (HILL and JONES, 2008).

In 1998, Steve Jobs returned to the company and fixed some of the things that were causing trouble. He helped to change the image of the company and brought new ideas and concepts and that...

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...ision states:

“Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings (Retail industry, 2013)

b. Values

As the mission and vision, the values of Apple are not clearly described; however, in their official webpage establish corporative values concerning workers that refer to the company’s values. Apple values are:

• We want to leave the world better than we found it

• We have a big responsibility to leave a smaller footprint

• Harmful toxins don’t belong in our products or our processes

• We use our planet’s resources responsibly and recycle them responsibly, too (Apple, 2014a)

Additionally, Apple manage supplier responsibility values concerning equality, education, fairly treat and health. (Apple, 2014b)