16. What External environment factors in Apple change for the business in general economy? 17. What decision making model is used in Apple when selecting new products in transitions? Case 12-2 Tim Cook Polishing Steve Jobs’s Apple: Really? Apple is the company and case of our lifetime. Its story is full of adventure, entrepreneurship, teamwork, legends, and leadership. The story has been told in books, most recently and successfully Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. The book was turned into a movie starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs, and the firm’s history, and more specifically his departure and returning to the firm, has become common knowledge as well as management folklore. 418 PARTIV: LEADING from firms such as Samsung and Motorola, yet market and expert response to the product was disappointing. Even though this is Apple’s first attempt at building large phones, it’s not breaking new ground-In fact, it feels more like the company is catching up than innovating (5) Cooks biggest leap toward innovation was bringing the Apple Watch to market a new product category for the fir. To make the Apple Watch a reality Cook decided to reorganize the way Apple operated. Previously. Apple was split into special ired groups devoted to hardware, software design, marketing and finance, working independently and sharing minimal cross functional information (6) Under Cook, these lines have been blurred through the formation of interdisciplinary Beams in an effort to boost collaboration and improve pro et design and functionality chgineers now sit with market ing and finance staff in product road map meetings (7) The result? The Apple Watch was on pace to surpass the iPhone in first vear sales(8) yet sales of the new Apple Watch plunged by sok since its opening week. (9) Much has been made of Jobs’s notorious micromanaging of his employees and his aggressive and demanding person ality, and people who have worked for Jobs over the years have had mixed reactions to his leadership style. Some call him temperamental, aggressive, tough, intimidating, and very demanding. He was known to verbally attack people who were not meeting goals and expectations. Many employees have admitted a fear of encountering Jobs while riding in the elevator, afraid that they might not have a job when the doors opened a practice that became known as “getting Steved.”Yet employees who performed to expectations were well rewarded. Many who feared him also had great respect for him, as he inspired loyalty enthusiasm and high levels of performance through continuous learning, innovation, and change. Many people believe that the reason Apple has had its continued, incredible turnaround since the late 1990s was due to the return of Steve Jobs’s role as leader of the company However, Jobs’s health deteriorated, and everyone wondered what would happen when he passed away Tim Cook was inserted as CEO while Jobs was still alive. Passing the torch from the entrepreneur that started a busi ness to a person hired into the business can be very difficult. Settling into the role of CEO in 2011 in a firm that once took on the personality of its temperamental leader Steve Jobs. Tim Cook radiated tranquility in its hallways, a reflection of his ‘calm Southern demeanor’ (1) Commonly stopping to chat or take selfies with employees, Cook’s easygoing and polite personality has trickled through the corporate ethos. (2) A quieter leader than his predecessor, Cook is also said to be more thoughtful and data driven in his decisions. Cook has also added new talent to Apple with a workforce that has nearly doubled since his appointment (3) Yet there seemed to have been a price paid for a less dynamic environment, a less vigorous firm Under Tim Cook’s watch, Apple introduced an iPad Mini. Although it was successful, it was not the breakout hit expected of Apple products. Jobs himself once said he did not like the mini devices that other companies sold to try to beat the original largersize iPad. In response, Apple stock lan- guished. By the summer of 2013, Apple’s stock was down by as much as 40% from its record high due to concerns over lack of new products (4) Is this a sign Apple have once again lost their way without Steve Jobs?… Apple have always pushed the envelope in the past, dropping the floppy drive, drop ping legacy ports in favor of the then relatively new USB, alienating nearly all previously available acces sories, and dropping the optical drive. With product lines bloating and innovation a thing of the past, how long can Apple live off the halo effect of the past? Where are they going?(10) Yet Cook seems to have proven the pundits wrong. With 6 years of CEO experience under his belt, Cook’s imprints can be seen throughout the firm. The shift in culture, an expand ing employee base, and new product lines can be attributed to Tim Cook’s new vision and healthier firm performance “The Company posted all-time record quarterly [th quarter, 2016] revenue of $78.4 billion and all-time record quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.36. These results compare to revenue of $75.9 billion and earnings per diluted share of $3.28 in the year ago quarter (11) Cook has heard the critics and thinks Apple is prined for sus tainable success. Innovation is alive and well. It there were any doubts, I think that they should be put to bed” (12) The most difficult moment in Cook’s tenure was when the new Apple Maps app for the iPhone was released and did not work correctly Cook took over for his lower level execu- live. His first move was to fire the Apple executive His second move was to issue a public apology to iPhone owners. With a lineup of mature products, Apple’s stakeholders were looking to Cook for the type of innovation that was once common during the Jobs era Apple’s release of the iPhone and 6 Plus brought the firm into the large-screen smartphone market that was previously dominated by Android phones Discussion Questions 1. Would you consider Steve Jobs a leader, a manager of both? 2. Would you consider Tim Cook a leader, a manager of both? 3. Would Ghiselli say that Steve Jobs or Tim Cook have the traits of a successful leader?
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