Valuable Lessons From Apple- A Business Guide
Apple Inc. — An Overview
Apple, initially founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, is an American MNC; a multinational company providing its best technological services all across the globe. Apple Inc. is headquartered in Cupertino, California. Apple enjoys a prestigious position among other big names of the technological world, for instance, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook. The company has its industrial basis in the spheres of computer hardware, software, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and several other facets of the digital world.
Think Different — Slogan of Innovation?
The tagline was released in one of the commercials by Apple MNC; Here’s to the crazy ones, Think different. The slogan itself portrays a story of innovation. Apple has a history of innovation that has changed the life of many in the digital era. It can be ascertained by seeing the leading role of Apple in the period of 1970s and 80s. Furthermore, it has carried out a ‘smartphone tsunami’ in the last decade. According to CEO Tim Cook, more than 1 billion products of Apple are currently in use around the world. Apple has a hand in the creation of innovative industries around the world.
Apple — 8 Rules For Innovation
If you ponder upon the innovation in the digital world, there are big chances that Apple is the first company that will come to your mind and for all the good reasons. Behind the incredible performance of Apple, there is a strong culture of innovation and shocking creativity. The late founding visionary of Apple, Steve Jobs, with his innovative ingenuity, visionary thinking and a scanty bit of tyranny has defied the rigid rules of expectation and has led Apple to churn out world-class products. The research has unveiled many important factors to learn that has driven the innovation culture of Apple over the years.
‘People First’ Approach — the Heart of Apple
Following Tim Cook’s guidelines, Apple focuses on the development of the products with the intent to make the lives of people better with their intuitive products. Despite the large enterprise with the quarterly revenue of $58 billion and an impressive market value of $1 trillion, the late Tim Crook’s approach is to not put the eyes on “numbers” but to keep focusing on the “social responsibility” in changing the world towards a better future. Tim deemed the technology as a ‘background’ thing and that the real goal is the infusion of humanity in the production of digital gadgets. The products are intended to reflect on the company’s organizational values. Thus, for making lives easier, the company keeps innovating towards the production of ‘easy to use’ products, leaving behind the complicated ‘flip-phones’ era.
Align Corporate Culture with Innovation Strategy
Since the early days of the company, Apple has been working by leaps and bounds to develop the corporate culture of innovation in the company. In order to achieve the strategic objectives of the company, Apple has been successful in bringing to use human resources. Apple with its ingenuity has been benefiting from its strong synchronization of ‘innovation strategy’ and ‘corporate culture’. Development of the company’s infrastructure and the mission statement is largely based on the degree of alignment. It sets Apple distinct and prominent among its competitors. This approach has asserted the company in the spheres of information technology, electronic industries and the provision of online services.
Hire Smart People then Empower Them
There can be no denying the obvious fact that to retain the innovation culture, it is pertinent to have the right people for the right job. It may follow a rigorous selection program for the employees that is largely dependent upon the nature of expertise, the extent of expertise, pairing skills, and prominent talent, coming with a defined set of responsibilities. It is not that other companies lack the ‘talented ones’ for the performance of jobs. The area where they lack is the failure in the ultimate utilization of the full talent of their most talented employees. According to Steve Jobs,
“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do, we hire smart people so that they can tell us what to do”
Thus, the right approach would be to hire smart people and then give them the driver seat to drive the company to better roads with their endearing motivation and talent.
Balance Structure and Flexibility
Apparently, innovation has a direct relationship with flexibility. Having said that, it is imperative to give the employees space where they can unleash their skills and can work out comparatively new approaches towards challenges to come. The bringing of new products and services to the market need a perfect balance of stability and predictability with fixed deadlines. Developing a new product is a really challenging task as according to Cook, it is like a ‘train’. This metaphor of the train suggests that such decisions can’t be reversed just like a fast-moving train can’t reserve to its previous station. Similarly, there should be some flexibility of time and space for innovation until the last minute.
“Steady-As-She-Goes” Development Approach
It is among Apple’s strategies to take time for getting things right. It reduces the risk of substantial errors in the products. Along with it, it also reduces the possibility of some embarrassing missteps. According to Cook, the various projects of Apple, for instance, iPhone, iPad or the Apple watches, these products were not the first ones in the market but they surely are the first modern ones. Hence, these projects have respectively been started long before they came out in the market. The patience and the effort put into the projects have immensely contributed in building the reputation of Apple.
“Customers are Jewels,” -Cook
Apple being a technological giant, is still dependent upon customer satisfaction for the running of the organizational machine. It is crucial to pay attention to the customers and to what they actually want in the upcoming product range. Also, it is imperative to keep the record of the services most popular among masses. According to Crook, checking the customer’s feedback is like checking his “blood pressure”. By this, he means that the customer reviews to aid in the shaping of future product development. On the lighter side, it is quite heartening to see the owners of such big tech giants being this attentive to the minor things like the feedback.
Look Past Crowd Thinking — and Tune Out the Noise
Along with all the praise and dominance, there are certain unhelpful critical voices among the masses. Thus, Apple rationally skimmed constructive criticism, leaving behind all the destructive noises and staying in focus on its technology and innovation. Just like the iPhone range of Apple was heavily criticised before it reached the milestone.
Have the Courage to Say ‘NO’ to Great Ideas
Sometimes, even the big companies like Apple also need to walk past the great ideas proposed by its designers and engineers. If they entertain all the great ideas and start utilizing all the required resources then these resources will soon fall thin and there will not be any future progress insight. It has to prioritize and evaluate the ideas keeping in view the resources in hand and the potential these ideas carry in the long run, for instance, New Apple Park Complex in Cupertino. This approach can pave the way for quick and productive innovations.
Conclusion
All the world can see is the success, revenue, enterprise and the market value of the tremendous product range of Apple. Albeit behind the success are the vision, courage and discipline. Recapitulating the successful innovative strategy of Apple, it can be ascertained that in order to keep us along the innovative journey, all that is required is the formulation and execution of some helpful strategies and techniques.