Corporate Culture Is the Collective

Corporate culture is the collective behavior of people of an organization as well as meaning that these people relate to the actions (Erickson, 2008). Corporate culture includes organizations visions, values, working language, norms, beliefs, habits, systems, and symbols among others. Corporate culture is also the patterns of these behaviors together with assumptions which are taught to new members of an organization as a way of perceiving, emotion and thinking (Erickson, 2008). Corporate culture affects the way members of an organization interact with each other, with customers, and with the stakeholders of the organization (Judith, 2008).

Corporate culture as a set constitutes of shared mental assumptions which guide actions and interpretation in an organization through proper definition of appropriate behaviors for different situations (Erickson, 2008). In most situations, each organization has a unique culture, which is different from other organizations. Nevertheless, sometimes there is the existence of diverse and conflicting cultures because of different characteristics the management team of the organization.

Whether spoken, written as a mission statement or just merely understood, corporate culture of an organization governs and describes the ways the owner of the organization as well as the employees think, act and feel (Erickson, 2008). Corporate culture may be based on the beliefs that are spelled out in the mission statement. It could also be based on the corporate symbol. However, irrespective of what corporate culture is based on, it plays an important role of determining the success of an organization (Erickson, 2008).

Apple and Microsoft

Both Apple Company and Microsoft Corporation belong to the computer industry. They are both multinational corporation situated in the United States of America. Microsoft Corporation manufactures, develops, supports and licenses a wide variety of computing related products and services (Lloyd, 2011). On the other hand, Apple Company designs, develops electronics, personal computers and computer software (Goltz, 2009). Being in the computer industry, make the two companies enter into a stiff competition with each other. Both Microsoft and Apple are significantly responsible for computers today all over the world.

When it comes to Apple, the corporate culture of the company has greatly been influenced by the former and late CEO, Steve Jobs (CVA, 2012). He was notorious when it came to pushing his employees to work harder. This slowly entered into the corporate culture of the company, and it is still embraced today, even after the death of Steve Jobs (CVA, 2012). Apple Company thrives on secrecy as well as obsessive attention to details. Its confidential information of the organization, as well as methods of software developments is maintained within the boundaries of the company (CVA, 2012). The fans of the company are always filled with blind speculation about a product until the product is launched. The company rarely shows its products until they are ready to ship (CVA, 2012). This approach has made the company be able to produce a unique product, hence getting competitive advantage over its main rival, Microsoft.

Microsoft, unlike Apple, is not secretive. Microsoft usually offers previews of their products several months before its official release (Lloyd, 2011). They do this as it is its corporate culture. This enables customers to evaluate the product before deciding to buy. On the other hand, the company is able to get feedback regarding to the product from the customers (Lloyd, 2011). This helps the company to improve on the product before its official release. Microsoft has a set of brilliant and hardworking employees. Most of these employees are computer software developers (Lloyd, 2011). While Apple corporate culture focuses mainly in designing new and unique products, Microsoft corporate culture focuses on making money through sales of their products.

There are several ways that the unique corporate cultures of these two companies have benefited from other's competition. First these companies have partnered together to develop certain software. Second Microsoft has started producing software which are compatible with the Apples product (Lloyd, 2011). A good example is Microsoft Office for Mac. This has made apple increase its sales as many customers all over the world are competent with Microsoft software. This has also benefited Apple as this has lured many customers to buy its products.