Apple Culture Change Apple has been through many transformations and cultural shifts throughout its interesting history. The company was founded in a garage in the 1970s and later became the most valued company in the world. Needless to say, there have been many challenges that the company has had to overcome along the way. This analysis will focus on some of the more recent cultural changes that the company has went through in the last five years. Some of these changes involve the fact that Apple has had to endure the loss of its founder and chief visionary Steve Jobs. Other changes in culture relate to its production methods and some of its overseas business partners who have generated significant amounts of negative publicity for acting less than ethically in many cases regarding the treatment of employees. Despite all the challenges that Apple has had to endure along its journey, it has consistently maintained some of the most loyal customers that the electronics industry in general has ever created.

Apple's Culture

"To make a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind."

-Steve Jobs (The Economist, 2009)

For much of its history Apple didn't actually publish a mission statement and there seems to be some debate as to whether an official mission statement ever existed at all. Despite there being no agreed upon mission, this quote by Steve Jobs from the early 1990s has been cited as an embodiment...

The closest official statement from the last five years was found in an annual report that describes the business organization as (Apple Inc., 2013):
"The Company is committed to bringing the best user experience to its customers through its innovative hardware, software and services. The Company's business strategy leverages its unique ability to design and develop its own operating systems, hardware, application software, and services to provide its customers new products and solutions with superior ease-of-use, seamless integration, and innovative design."

Despite the lack of an official statement, Apple has been associated with being one of the world's foremost innovators ever since the company's inception and with its breakthrough platform known as the "digital hub" strategy that introduced transformative products such as the iPod. However, these innovations are largely accredited to Steve Jobs who has recently passed away (2011) which ushered in a new era in which Tim Cook took leadership of the company. The company had to balance Cook's introduction with the trajectory the culture has taken throughout its history. The balancing act is evident in this vision statement made by Cook about Apple's new vision under his leadership (Rowland, 2015):

"We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that's not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products…