Apple Inc.: Change, Creativity, and Innovation Analysis

Introduction

Software and computer services represent one of the fastest-growing, highly competitive, creativity-focused industries, driving the need for constant innovation in dynamically changing environments. Such a creative industry realizes much potential for growth, but growth also brings constant change stimulated by the surrounding environment. Organizations categorized as creative are assumed to exhibit characteristics that lead to effective responses to environmental demands in order to compete and retain competitive advantage. Furthermore, environmental demands encompass both internal and external stimuli that drive change, intrinsically and extrinsically. Managing these stimuli renders an organization both highly creative and innovative.

Apple Inc. is one such organization. Steve Jobs launched Apple from his garage on the assumption that people wanted a user-friendly computer. His ability to take existing product knowledge and render a better design created a multi-billion-dollar global corporation. Apple's success in this highly competitive market is attributed to the creative vision and innovation of its leadership. Strong management and strategic creative innovation keep Apple ahead of the competition in a changing environment. To gain a better perspective on its creative innovation through change, one must analyze its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends within both the internal and external environments.

Strengths

Adaptability to change is Apple's strong suit. Change is inevitable and represents a constant in society. The question is not whether change will occur, but when it will occur. The face of change comes in many sizes and forms, involving aspects of substance, scope, politics, and timeframe. Change is understood as a movement from some present state to some future state. An organization's response to change may be either reactive or proactive in nature, driven by factors across various evolving arenas: political, regulatory, legal, social, economic, globalization, expansion, business cycles, technology, and infrastructure.

In 1976, Apple released its first product, the Apple I home computer. With a 1MHz MOS 6502 CPU and a standard 4KB of memory, it was considered an excellent home computer for its day. Apple has continued to release new computers such as the MacBook Pro, but has also made a new name for itself with iPods, iPhones, and iPads. The iPad 2, with storage capacity ranging from 16 to 64GB, video conferencing capability, and much more, illustrates how far Apple has advanced over 35 years. The ability to adapt with technology and expand its product base has kept Apple at the forefront of the technology race (Finance, 2011). This trajectory is a clear example of adapting successfully to a changing environment.

Creativity and innovation are the pinnacle of Apple's character. Creativity is perceived as the quality of originality in something developed by the human mind, while innovation is viewed as a process of translating an idea into something tangible. Creativity depicts ideas of novelty and derived value, and it plays an important role in economic competitiveness in advanced economies. Several myths exist about creativity — such as the need to be especially smart or wealthy, or the belief that the process is effortless and reserved for the arts — but in fact, innovators progress through a creative thinking and problem-solving process that leads to novel ideas. Creative people are generally ambitious individuals with a strong passion to achieve. This need for achievement is combined with a desire for autonomy in testing their own ideas and promoting new perspectives that lead to the development of useful knowledge. Knowledge should not be viewed merely as a resource to be acquired and retained, but as something to be used to connect with other ideas by creating new forms, shapes, and processes through experimentation and research.

Creative individuals are sensitive, independent, and unconcerned with social norms and social acceptance. They are more willing to take a stand, challenge the status quo, and accept calculated risks. Their belief in the worth and validity of their creative efforts helps them to endure periods of frustration during the creative process. They are energized by the richness of disorder and complexity.

Apple has demonstrated several levels of innovation — including incremental, modular, and radical — across the areas of product, service, processes, management, and marketing. Apple highly regards its customers as knowledgeable and continuously strives to learn from their choices and evolving requirements. Numerous resources, such as ownership of its hardware and operating systems, a low debt ratio, strong revenue from iTunes, strong brand loyalty, and a robust research and development department, all facilitate change adaptation, creativity, and innovation. Andriopoulos and Dawson (2009) contend that a creatively innovative organization is "any business entity whose main source of income comes from the production of novel and appropriate ideas to tackle clients' problems or opportunities identified." Although the company generates more than $30 billion in sales, it offers fewer than 30 major products to the public. Apple can choose which product lines to develop and can upgrade the operating system alongside the product line (Moore, 2008, p. 6).

Weaknesses

It is difficult to imagine weakness in a company the size of Apple, but much of Apple's success relies on improving existing products. Apple revolutionized the personal computer, the portable music player, and the cell phone by creating the Mac, the iPod, and the iPhone. Apple chose to ban Adobe's Flash from its mobile devices, citing that "Flash was created during the PC era — for PCs and mice" (Kane & Worthen, 2010, para. 3). Adobe viewed the ban as Apple maintaining "its own lock over software development for its mobile devices" (para. 4). Media producers and advertisers who already rely on Flash were upset by the decision, and consumers might view it as limiting their ability to use their mobile devices fully.

Apple's sales are contingent on the broader economy; a weak economic environment could affect the company's bottom line. Global competition is a significant threat for large-scale organizations today. It is imperative for organizations to mobilize ideas, talent, and creativity, which forces every organization to provide a steady stream of new and improved products, processes, and services to maximize stakeholder value. Today, consumers demand value and will shift loyalties if they believe competing technology better meets their needs. Another notable weakness is the death of CEO Steve Jobs. Jobs was the creative force and vision behind Apple, and it is difficult to predict how his passing will affect consumer confidence in the company's future direction.

Conclusion

With change, fear and resistance often emerge. The key is to move beyond that fear and resistance. Leaders should not simply fight resistance to change but should seek to incorporate change with the necessary support embedded into organizational culture. When an organization and its individuals truly understand the scope and substance of a change and can identify their role within it, people work together to implement it effectively. Such buy-in creates a shift in mental paradigm. External change — driven by laws, competition, economic conditions, and so forth — as well as internal change involving processes, procedures, and leadership, is difficult for most people because it is rooted in personal perception. Perceptions are realities. Change unsettles most people because it may require stepping outside their comfort zone. Employees resist change because of a sense of personal disruption — something will be required of them, and the fear of the unknown erodes their sense of security. An effective manager will empathize with this fear and provide outlets and tools, including contingency plans, to address it. Managers with strong leadership skills should establish and maintain clear lines of communication with their employees. If resistance is not handled appropriately, it can undermine even the best plans. Moving beyond fear and resistance requires effective leadership capable of transforming resistors into advocates of change.

To gain a better perspective on Apple's creative innovation through change, one must analyze its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends within both the internal and external environments. Such relevancy to the contemporary business world is evident throughout Apple's illustrious history. The drive to deliver the latest and greatest products and services to its customers is the motivating force that fosters creativity and innovation. Apple's innovative determination was propelled by the leadership of Steve Jobs. Its culture has embraced and spawned innovative ideas, fueling the motivation of its highly regarded employees. Jobs believed in rewarding risk-taking and encouraged employees to engage deeply in the critical thinking activities that generated innovative ideas and solutions. In this highly competitive market, Apple must maintain — and ideally increase — its competitive advantage through the employees who breathe life into making the seemingly impossible quite possible. Apple's future now rests in the capable hands of the organizational legacy Jobs leaves behind, charged with achieving even loftier goals than those first conceived in his garage.