Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak: the Apple Company

Abstract

Apple Computers, Inc was founded on April 1, 1976, by college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who brought to the new company a vision of changing as people viewed computers. They wanted a computer that was user-friendly. Apple revolutionized the computer industry. Sales jumped $7.8 million in 1978 to $117 million in 1980. Wozniak left Apple in 1983. Jobs branched out into mp3 players and iTunes. Apple also released the iPhone, a cellular phone, and the Apple TV. While Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011, Apple continues his legacy.

Apple has pioneered its way through the computer industry. It believes in pushing the limits of creativity in order to produce interesting and valuable products for society. After more than 30 years, it is undeniable that Apple has had a profound impact on technology, innovation and influencing not only how we use computers but the activities for which what we use them.

Stephen Wozniak was twenty-six years old and had a dream to build his own computer. In 1976, he was working at the Hewlett Packard Company as an intern. When Hewlett Packard expressed no interest in his design, his former classmate by the name of Steven Jobs, who was twenty-one then, moved production operations to Jobs garage. Jobs and Wozniak named the company Apple. They wanted to make computers small enough for people to have them in their homes or offices. Their first model was simply a working circuit board. Jobs knew that he heeded professional management and substantial funding. He convinced Regis McKenna, a well-known public relations specialist to represent the company. He also secured an investment from Michael Markkula, a wealthy veteran of the Intel Corporation who became Apples largest shareholder, and an influential member of Apple’s board of directors. The company became an instant success.

By 1980, the company netted over one hundred million and had more than one thousand employees. In 1994, they released the lower-cost Macintosh which they thought would be “insanely great.” They introduced it in the Super Bowl commercial, and it cost twenty- five hundred dollars. It sold below Apple’s expectations. The Mac, as it came to be known, had insufficient memory and storage. In the wake of the poor sales performance, Jobs was ousted from the company on September 1985 by its chief executive officer John Sculley. Jobs went on to new and bigger things. He founded his own company Next software and he also bought Pixar from George Lucas, which would become a huge success in computer animation. Wozniak had left Apple on February 1985 to become a teacher. What saved the Mac was an introduction of an affordable laser printer. In 1987, every Macintosh came with a software database called the Hypercard. This program was for many teachers to organize multimedia elements for classroom presentations. In 1993, Apple was struggling. Its share of the market was falling. The Mac’s incompatibility with App 11 software a problem ignored slowed educational sales. Consumer sales suffered as the company discouraged game development. Scully was replaced by Michael Spindler but drastic quality control problems and notably a defective line of monitors brought an end to Spindler’s reign in early 1996.

On December 1996, Apple purchased Next Software Inc, the company formed by Jobs after his 1985 departure. Jobs was retained as an advisor to the CEO. Jobs set about revitalizing the company. He introduced the iMac in 1998, and it became the all-time selling Mac and lifted Apple’s market share from a record low of 2.6 percent to 13.5 percent. In 2001, Apple introduced iTunes, a computer program for playing music. It also began selling the iPod, which quickly became the market leader. By 2006, more than one billion songs and videos had been sold through Apple’s website. In 2007, Apple introduced the touch-screen iPhone. The first models were only available through AT&T’s wireless service. It sold one million units in the first three days. In 2010, Apple unveiled the iPad, a touch screen device intermediate to between a laptop computer and a smartphone. In 2011, Apple introduced the iCloud, a cloud computing service in which a user’s applications, photographs, documents, calendars, and music can be stored in iCloud.

Because of health issues, Jobs resigned as CEO in August 2011, and was succeeded by chief operating officer Tim Cook. Jobs died that October. In 2014, Apple made its largest acquisition by buying the headphone manufacturer and music streaming company Beats for three billion dollars. The following year it introduced the Apple watch.

Globalization involves several ongoing interrelated processes, including the internationalization of finance and trade. Due to the development of globalization, Apple increased its profits. In America’s earlier years, the car was key to the U.S. economy. Today, a new economic structure has emerged in part due to Stew Jobs who helped lead the U.S. technology market to the top. In the global market, Apple has succeeded exceptionally in terms of advanced strategies, which utilize most frequently on foreign outsourcing, importing, and exporting. As of July 2013, Apple has developed 417 retail stores in 13 countries and an online store available in 38 countries with global sales of $16 billion dollars in merchandise in 2011. As a multi-national corporation, Apple Inc has realized the significance of globalization by spreading all over the world. In the first two quarters of the 2013 fiscal year, revenue of Apple has grown at14.73% to $98.115 billion dollars. Only 35% of Apple’s recognized revenue was sourced in America. Except in retail stores, Apple’s revenue highly depended upon performance in overseas markets. Moreover, Apple is good at seizing opportunities in the global market. For example, Apple and China Mobile (the world’s largest mobile carrier with 740 million subscribers) have been working on an iPhone distribution agreement for more than six years (DeWitt, 2013). They promise to make an agreement in order to collaborate with the iPhone5C although Apple has already worked with the second and the third biggest China mobile carrier- China Unicom and China Telecom for several years. If Apple cooperates with China Mobile, the revenue of Apple will grow much faster, and Apple will benefit more in the global market.

Apple corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and initiatives are led by Lisa Jackson, Vice President of Environmental Initiatives, reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook. It must be noted that Steve Jobs wasn’t known for philanthropy. Some wondered if he made anonymous donations to charity, some criticized him for his lack of public giving, while others defended him. However, with Tim Cook assuming Apple leadership in 2011, the focus on CSR aspect of the business was increased to a considerable extent. Tim Cook is a member of Paulson Institute’s CEO Council for Sustainable Urbanization, working with other CEOs of top Chinese and Western companies to advance sustainability in China. Global Volunteer Program’ was launched in 2011 to encourage employees to volunteer in local communities. Since its launch more than USD 78 billion was donated to charities and non-profits around the world. The program has been revised on March 2015 to grant employees the right to choose the projects in their local communities they would like to contribute. The company has planted more than 9000 drought-tolerant trees in Apple Park in Cupertino. On 2017 Apple donated USD 1 million to Southern California Wildfire Recovery Efforts. The multinational technology company raised more than USD 3 million for Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts on August 2017.

It was widely reported that a famous quote from Steve Jobs in the 1980’s was the Apple company mission statement: “Man is the creator of change in this world. As such, he should be above systems and structures, and not subordinate to them.” The “official” mission statement on the Apple corporate website, however, is not really a mission statement at all, but rather a list of products and past accomplishments. Apple’s current Mission Statement is: “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.”

Apple ends its press releases with a statement that resembles what a traditional mission statement is expected to be… “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 Internet offerings.”

Apple is one of the Fortune 500 companies to work for. Apple has found that the best way to build a special workplace is to hire for attitude and train for skill. Passion is a word that you hear again and again among Apple recruiting managers. Apple looks for someone who has an opinion and will stick by it. Job candidates at Apple headquarters or the Apple store aren’t given a test, but they are put through several rounds of interviews with up to ten or more people. The purpose is not to find someone who has all the answers; the purpose is to find someone who may not know the answer but is determined to figure it out. Apple’s workforce reflects a diversity of experiences. Walk into an Apple store and you’ll find employees who are former teachers, engineer’s musicians, artists, and people from a wide cross-section of careers and experiences. Apple look for people with diverse experiences who can apply those experiences to the retail environment.

Apple employees are 32 percent female, 9 percent black and 12 percent Hispanic. Out of a global workforce of 125,000, 37 percent of new hires in the last 12 months were women. Out of a U.S. workforce of 80,000, 27 percent of hires came from underrepresented minority groups in the last year. The company offers employees more than 550 electric vehicle charging ports for free, an increase of 67 percent compared to the previous year to encourage the usage of electric vehicles. Apple allows mothers to take four weeks of paid leave before giving birth and fourteen weeks after. Non-birth parents get six weeks of paid time off. The tech company also covers the cost of egg freezing. Employees are treated to free beer and appetizers at the company’s beer bashes. Apple has the best on-site food services. Apple gives a $300 gym credit annually. All new hires get 12 days of paid off and increases over time. Apple offers education reimbursement and great discounts. Apple offer a dependent day care spending program which allows employees to set aside up to $5,000 in pre-tax dollars for daycare. Apple has what’s called backup care which allows ten days for elders and children when an emergency comes about.

Apple shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. The Cupertino company saw its stock reach an all-time high at $400 per share, and Apple reported a staggering $28.57 billion in revenue (to the tune of $7.31 billion in profit). Q3 of 2011 has proved to be Apple’s most successful financial quarter to date, and the iPhone and iPad have played a huge role in that success. iPhone sales saw a 142% increase, while iPad sales saw an even more impressive 183% increase. The iPod saw a 20% decline in sales, and that number echoes a previous analyst report that the iPod is not surviving as part of Apple’s product line. Mac sales were up 14% from last year, with June breaking the previous sales record. Overall, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said it best: Apple is “thrilled” with its success. Some neat stuff is coming to the iTunes Store soon. The iTunes Movie Rental service is estimated to be only one-tenth the size of Netflix, and only until recently did Apple begin to allow customers cloud access to music through iCloud. Now that you can download purchased content (namely apps and music) multiple times from any device, Apple is also rumored to be finalizing similar licensing deals with Hollywood studios for movies and TV shows.

With the introduction of iCloud and iTunes Match this Fall, there’s also the possibility that Apple will expand its focus from just music to streaming video content across multiple devices. In terms of products, Apple will continue to stay busy with refreshes and new announcements. Most notably, the next iPhone is expected to drop in the coming months. Rumors have it pretty much pegged as a CDMA/GSM device with an 8-megapixel camera and dual-core A5 processor. There have been hints of another iPad model getting introduced this Fall with a Retina Display, but that rumor still seems far-fetched. Updated MacBook Airs and Mac Minis are expected to launch as soon as tomorrow with OS X Lion, and the iMac may see an incremental refresh as well before the year ends. A huge focus for Apple next quarter will be iCloud and iOS 5. iTunes Match will also launch in the coming months, and Apple’s cloud offerings will continue to develop as the services are made available to the public. Apple’s two main focuses for the future are the mobile and cloud space. And we expect an even more impressive earnings call next quarter.

References

1. Hefti, J., & Levie, J. (2015). Entrepreneurial leadership-vision casting and the role of signaling. In ICMLG2015-The 3rd International Conference on Management, Leadership and Governance: ICMLG2015 (p. 95). Academic Conferences and Publishing Limited.
2. Gurman, M. (2015) “Apple launching volunteer program for employees to help local communities” Available at https://9to5mac.com/2015/03/16/apple-launching-volunteer-program-for-employees-to-help-local-communities/
3. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc (2018). Apple Inc. (p1-9).
4. Admin, B. (2013). HR Strategy at Apple Makes Their Employees Creative and Innovative. Retrieved November 02, 2016. http://management-training-guru.com/2013/12/hr-strategy-at-apple-make-their-employees-creative-and-innovative/
5. Brashares, Ann. Steve Jobs Thinks Different. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century Books, 2001.

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