Apple Inc. in 2009

Apple Inc. in 2009

Without hesitation, Apple Inc. could probably be named one of the most successful companies of the 21st century. And who dug the company out of its hole? Yes, Steve Jobs! Therefore, I would definitely agree that Steve Jobs has done a phenomenal job at Apple Inc. Looking at Jobs performance with regards to his management strategy, it becomes clear why he has done such a great job. From the time Apple was founded in 1976 until late 1996, the company was relatively sluggish and no major changes have been introduced. However, this suddenly changed when Steve Jobs rejoined the Apple team in December 1996, due to Apple’s acquisition of NeXT, another company Jobs founded in the 1980s. Steve Jobs knew where he wanted to go with Apple, and he also made sure that everyone around him knew and understood his vision of creating easy-to-use products. This was the first step of the new Apple Inc. and also the first step of developing a new strategy. During the summer of 1997, Jobs was named the new interim CEO and started to state new objectives for Apple. He wanted to sell Apple products directly to customer via web and phone and wanted to open its own retail stores. To achieve these new objective Jobs integrated some groundbreaking changes, which included a new board of directors, advertisements that are more aggressive and an agreement with Microsoft to saddle their disputes and to work closely together from then on. Jobs believed in his vision and kept innovating products and incorporating changes along the way. The iPod, iPhone or iTunes are just three of his great innovations that helped Apple to become this successful live-style brand. On the other hand, Jobs was not afraid of acknowledging failure. Over the years, he got ride of several segments or divisions that were not profitable. This is another important factor of Jobs success and is also a crucial part of the strategic management process