Apple, Inc. Case

Apple, Inc

BUS 660

Apple, Inc

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower,” Steve Jobs. If you are unsure of who Steve Jobs is, he is the former CEO of Apple Inc., and is consider to be one of the most charismatic and influential leaders to lead a company in the world. The success and failure of Steve Jobs and Apple Inc is what has made him one of the world most memorable leaders in the last 100 years. Apple has not always been a successful company. It has had many successes over the years and many failures as well, and at one point almost went out of business if it were not for some financial help from its competitor Microsoft. In March of 2013 Apple had an estimated value of $415 billion and it generated worldwide revenue in 2012 of 156 billion. Former CEO Steve Jobs is the mastermind behind Apple’s success over the years and was very strategically involved in the development of some of the most innovative electronic products ever developed. Apple has a unique and interesting history, has developed some amazing products used by millions, and has had tremendous economic success. Apples success in the past has been largely based on the innovation of its leader Steve Jobs, and Apples continued success will be largely dependent on the leadership challenges new CEO of apple Tim Cook will face in the coming years.

History of Apple

Apple Inc,, originally known as Apple Computer, Inc. is headquartered in Cupertino California. The company was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak on April 1, 1976 and became incorporated in 1977. Both men worked for electronics companies in Silicon Valley, Jobs for Atari and Wozniak for Hewlett-Packard (Apple.com, 2013). Jobs and Wozniak created the Apple 1 PC but it was not taken seriously and was not successful. They did not see success until they debuted the Apple 2 at a trade show and it was the first personal computer to come in a plastic case and have several color graphics (Apple.com, 2013). By 1980 Apple release the Apple 3 PC and at that time had several thousand employees and was selling computers worldwide. Apple is known for its famous iproducts such as iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes, iCloud, and the Mac PC.

Leadership Challenges in the Past

In 1983 Jobs recruited then president of Pepsi John Sculley to take over as CEO to make Apple a more “grown up” company to better compete with IBM (Apple.com, 2013). In 1985 Sculley and Jobs would not see eye to eye on many things and later that year Jobs would be forced to resign from Apple, but he would be back. From 1985 to 1995 Apple had success bringing to market the MAC PC and the MAC GUI and competed with Microsoft Window operating system that clone the MAC OS operating system and sometimes