Analysis Of The Article ' Geeks On The World 's Biggest Startup ' By Brendan Koerner Essay

Organizational culture could almost be considered the roots of a company. The way a company’s employees think, the way the customers feel, and the company’s decisions are made are all based around the culture that the company has laid for itself. An employee’s values, thoughts, and actions should reflect those stated in the company’s mission. Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, while both attempting to create a culture that is comfortable and pleasing to their

Apple is a global company represented in many parts of the world, but born in the United States by computer wizards by the names of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who founded the company back in 1976 (Capon, 2008). The organization deals with the design and sale of computer hardware, software and offers tech support to its customers. Examples of the hardware the company manufactures and sells include mobile phones, personal computers, iPads, tablets and iTunes with associated brands, like the MacBook and iPhones that represent Apple’s driving force towards its success. It is recognized as a brand leader in consumer electronics by the world in terms of quality and customer satisfaction and despite the wide product range, Apple manages each product in a distinct way that is a single business unit (Mittan, 2010).

Background: “If you don’t get culture right, nothing else matters!” Although John Taft’s (CEO of RBC Wealth Management) statement is a bold one, the topic is worth exploring since numerous Fortune 100 CEOs and senior level leaders have echoed a similar sentiment emphasizing the importance of corporate culture. When surveying a group of people to list companies which they feel have “good” corporate cultures, companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Zappos, and Southwest consistently come to mind. However, we are intrigued about the companies that consistently rank lower in terms of corporate culture – especially by its own employees. One such company is McMaster-Carr.

In the 1970s, technologies such as video cassette recorders and personal computers were revolutionizing the industry. Co-founders, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, were drawn to this technology revolution and in 1976 started Apple Computers (Abdelsamad et al., 2008). The combination of their charisma and intellect enabled them to design the Apple I computer. Today, Apple is one of the leading technology companies in the world. However, internal factors such as Apple’s unclear marketing plan, employee work life negligence, and financial-legal issues have negatively affected their performance and sullied their corporate reputation. Apple worked to correct the issues that were detracting from their performance and has had great success in

Introduction The intention of presenting this report is to give a full strategic appraisal and evaluation of Apple Inc. In 1976, the company was founded in a garage in Santa Clara, California. The American multinational corporation mainly involves in designing and marketing consumer electronics, computer software and as well as personal computers. Differentiation is the current strategy position of Apple Inc. There are five main firms in the PC industry and among them; the world’s leading brand is Dell. Apple’s major target is to sustain their present strategic position and to take over the market position as a leader. The key stakeholders include Steve Jobs, employees, lenders and the government.

At first, technology is the most crucial element that shaping the brand of Apple and it operations. There are three components in this element are innovation, convenience and internal development. Firstly, let talk about innovation, one of the components that fabricated the success of Apple. Years ago, Nokia and Motorola were companies that dominated the mobile phone and software market. Therefore, in order to survive, prospect and remain competitive, Apple applied the philosophy of innovation by creating new products with unique design and function (Nonaka & Kenny, .n.d.). The circumstance forced Steve Jobs to become not only creative, but also demanding, strict and persuasive executive to motivate employee in the process of creating new mobile phone device and software, which led to the creation of the IOS system, iphone and Mac software. In every operation, he is extremely strict and even autocratic in setting goal and strategy and reward based on employee’s performance with the standard of excellent result and has no qualm in berating

Nowadays, Apple has positioned itself to be an innovator in the personal computer industry and Apple has developed by offering modern products compared to its competitors. According to Apple’s mission statement last year, “Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.” (Business Management,

The organization culture as a leadership concept has been identified as one of the many components that leaders can use to grow a dynamic organization. Leadership in organizations starts the culture formation process by imposing their assumptions and expectations on their followers. Once culture is established and accepted, they become a strong leadership tool to communicate the leader 's beliefs and values to organizational members, and especially new comers. When leaders promote ethical culture, they become successful in maintaining organizational growth, the good services demanded by the society, the ability to address problems before they become disasters and consequently are competitive against rivals. The leader 's success will depend to a large extent, on his knowledge and understanding of the organizational culture. The leader who understands his organizational culture and takes it seriously is capable of predicting the outcome of his decisions in preventing any anticipated consequences. What then is organizational culture? The concept of organizational culture has been defined from many perspectives in the literature. There is no one single definition for organizational culture. The topic of organizational culture has been studied from many perspectives and disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, organizational behavior, and organizational leadership to name a few. Deal defines organizational culture as values,

Johnson et al. (2010) explained that Apple Inc. was established by Ron Wayne, Steve Wozniak, and Steve Jobs founded the company in 1976 , which is headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that develops, manufactures and markets personal computers, consumer electronics and software, and related services. (“Apple Inc. SWOT analysis - Strategic Management Insight “n.d., para.1). "Company Overview.", (n.d.) reported that the mission of “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 the Internet offerings” (para.1). According to “Company Overview.", (n.d.) article that Apple of mission statement to deliver world-class computer products for all consumers. Apple’s core goal is to provide a meaningful computer experience to its targeted customers. (para.2.) Johnson et al. (2010) recently studied that the company's business strategy uses its unique ability to design and develop its own operating systems, hardware, application software and services to provide its customers

A company’s culture is inevitably tied to the personality, background, and values of its founders. The way these people want to do business determines the organisation’s rules, the structural set up, and the people they hire” (Uopeople.edu, 2016). Looking at the influence James F. Lincoln had on the Lincoln Electric Company, it is clear the things he implemented decades ago, continue to be part of the Lincoln Electric Company’s culture.

Apple Inc. was founded in 1976 by Steven Wozniak and Steven Jobs. They introduced the first initial version or what was to become the first highly successful mass-produced personal computer, the Apple I. Apple operates in various lines of the computer and music industry today and its operations include not only the designing but also the manufacturing of its computers and software. Apple continues to pursue the personal computer market but not as intently as in the years before. It has opted to change directions a little by venturing into the music world through the marketing of iPod, a digital music player, and iTunes. The opening of 65 new retail outlets, including one in Japan, has precipitated its move into this new

The Culture of a Company, or the Organizational Culture like it is mentioned in Principles of Management, has gotten a new dimension for me in terms of importance to assure the success of a company. This Organizational Culture is based on a series of values that are defined and established by the founder of a company for instance, which has a deep relation with his ethics and moral values. Therefore, the first factor to outline would be what the culture of a company shows, that can describe already how their managers behave and think. Managers with good intentions will place their workers ahead of profits, image or technology. The Lincoln Electric Company is a good example of that. In this welding manufacturing company, there were

Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and several others founded Apple Incorporated in 1976 because they had a passion for developing computers (Yoffie & Rossano, 2012). The computers were meant to be user-friendly so that any person could use the computers with ease. Apple’s focus is on continuing to find new ranges of products concerning laptops phones, and many other products. During the making of their computers, the company found that bundling the hardware and software the company produced the Mac Operating System.

Organizational culture, also referred to as corporate culture, is a key competitive advantage of business because it can be the driving force behind innovation and alignment of goals. Innovation is the foundation upon which most businesses are built. It allows businesses to offer a new or improved product or provide a service in a way that sets them apart from competitors. Because consumer tastes are always changing, businesses have to align innovation with their business strategy to stay competitive. Any company can simply proclaim that their strategy will focus on innovation but if its employees are discouraged from being creative, if output quantity drives their paycheck, or if the company’s hierarchical

The fact that organizations operate in a competitive environment raises questions about the drivers of performance. One of the responses to such concerns is that the cultures of organizations have a significant contribution to performance. Organizational leaders are instrumental in shaping the culture of an organization. In fact, there is an observation that leaders develop cultures, which act as the foundation for the cultivation of organization culture. In other words, there is a sturdy relationship between leadership and organizational culture. Leadership can influence the culture of an organization, just in the same way the culture of an organization can determine the kind of leadership style chosen by a firm. The