The history
of Apple has become so evolutionary within itself that there has been two
movies created on account of it. Its startup, some may say, was
unconventional. In 1976 Steve Jobs became the co-founder of Apple, as
found in an article called “Apple from 1980 to 2012” from the Fortune Magazine.
In 1980 Apple went public in the stock market at $2.75 per share. In 1983 Apple
reached $8 but unfortunately dwindled down to $2 a share when Steve Jobs left
the company in 1985 due to executive differences. Apple realized they needed
Steve Jobs, so in 1996 he returned to the company where stock prices rose again
to $4 per share.
As time went on and grew into present day, Steve Jobs’ time with Apple came to an end in 2011 when his battle with cancer turned for the worst. Steve Jobs transitioned the new CEO, Tim Cook, into the position and helped him learn, grow, and innovate. It seems that there was a combination of some intended strategies and some emergent strategies. The start of of Apple was not intended, Steve Jobs came across a creation and grew on it, unknowing that it would blow up into a billion dollar company; he just simply believed in it. Everything from then on seems to all be intended strategies made by Steve Jobs and the entire corporation of Apple as everyone within that company learned, grew, and innovated. The sudden resignation of Steve Jobs CEO position was an emergent strategy in placing Tim Cook as the new CEO but Apple did handle the situation with grace, as if it was all intended.
The general
mission of Apple Inc. is “Inclusion inspires innovation. Great Ideas push the
world forward. And they can come from anywhere. At Apple, we rely on our
employees’ diverse backgrounds and perspectives to spark innovation”, as found
on Apple’s company website tab, Diversity. Apple strives to grow in ways
that other companies have not; creating new ideas, products, and services that
help all Apple customers and future Apple customers find efficiency and
convenience at their fingertips, daily.
This mission and concept of growth is very broad, which is done so on purpose to give Apple the opportunity to innovate in any way imaginable. For this reasons, currently Apple has constructed several goals that they choose to focus on to reach this generation in their needs and wants. One of two main goals that Apple currently focuses on is that they strive to “[instill] inclusion throughout [their] company culture.” Found on their website under, “What we’re doing today” they show their efforts to diversify into any culture, race, gender, religion, or any other differences to create that level of inclusion for all Apple users and to also draw in future Apple users that identify with this goal.
The second goal that Apple is focusing their efforts on is found on their website again, titled as “How we’re changing tomorrow”. These efforts are made toward the future, more innovation, and meant to betting the technological world for all groups and types of people. As Apple explains, “The future of tech isn’t a product. It’s people.” To narrow this goal down, Apple has created a program called “ConnectED” to reach the earliest stages of education. They believe that by making an impact on the future, they must target this level of education in a way that enhances growth. ConnectED is a commitment made by Apple in 114 underserved school to enhance their education. They believe with this, they affect the future for the better as well as enhance the community for the present and future. The
co-founder and first CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs’, time with Apple was slowly
coming to an end, the new CEO of the company has slowly transitioning in, as
found in a Businessweek article called “Tim Cook’s Freshman year: The Apple CEO
Speaks”. Now the CEO of Apple could not just be anybody. Apple needed
someone that could continue the culture and aspirations that Steve Jobs’ had
created for Apple long ago. With that being said, Steve Jobs’ helped
transition in Tim Cook who had been head of operations for a long time and
extremely trusted by Steve Jobs.
Tim Cook continues with the same fundamentals as Steve Jobs’ did; believing that Apple is here to create the best products our time has seen. He believes that these fundamentals will not change. That is the “macro things that drive the company” as he explains to Businessweek. However, a lot of little things may change too. These are where Tim Cook’s leadership capabilities stand out and are much more different than Steve Jobs’. One being that Apple has chosen to be more transparent with their business. They have come to the conclusion that although they still want to be seen as different, they want to be copied too. They want to make their supply chain more transparent to the public so that their innovations can grow among the entire world. On the other side, they also want to make it visible that Apple is different from any other product and those differences are why a future Apple user and current Apple user should pick Apple over anything else.
Another
valuable characteristic of Tim Cook which leads into his capabilities is that
this is not his first time being CEO of Apple. He has had three opportunities
of acting as a CEO Interim during the three accounts in which Steve Jobs’ was
on leave. This has given Tim Cook the opportunity to become more prepared
with his CEO role as well as helped him grow his leadership capabilities.
It has helped him develop into a better CEO the fourth time around.
Tim Cook explains in this Businessweek article that, “[He feels] both a
love for it and [he feels] a responsibility”. He expresses his commitment,
which many people within Apple can confirm. Additionally, it is made evident
through his interim experience that he is reliable, consistent, and
disciplined.
As his leadership capabilities surface through this information, it is made clear that Tim Cook is a great leader and works very hard to continue to do so. He does not limit his capabilities as he tries his best to follow in Steve Jobs’ footsteps with his own style. As found in this Businessweek article, Apple has infact improved its stock prices by 43%. Growth has continued to surface within the company as it will continue to do so through the great innovation plans Apple has yet to embark on.
page counter
No comments:
Post a Comment