Bøllingtoft - Apple Paranoia Cases on Management, Leadership and Organisations

Anne Bllingtoft

Apple paranoia

Anne Bllingtoft

Apple paranoia

From the book:

Knud Sinding and Anne Bllingtoft

Cases on Management, Leadership and Organisations, 1st edition 2012, chapter 10

1st e-book chapter 2013

Samfundslitteratur 2012

Cover design: Klahr|Graphic Design

Typeset: SL grafik, Frederiksberg

E-book production: Rosendahls BookPartnerMedia

ISBN: 978-87-593-9535-6

Samfundslitteratur

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CHAPTER 10

APPLE PARANOIA

Some companies success seems to be tightly connected to their founders personality and genius (if such is involved at all), but how appropriate is it really for a companys success to be built upon a charismatic founder? What happens the day the founder isnt there anymore?

Apple was one of many very successful companies founded in the 1970s. Due to the influence of its founders, the company is in many ways perceived as a contrast to competitors such as IBM and Microsoft. From the very beginning, Apple went against the traditional notions of what company culture should be. The structure was more flat than hierarchical, and the dress code was informal rather than formal. Steve Jobs, for example, often walked around barefoot in the office, even after Apple became a Fortune 500 company.

Apple was founded April 1st, 1976 in Cupertino, California by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The latter, however, had only a brief role at Apple, and a year later he had already sold his share of the company back to the two other founders. Today, Apple is an American multinational company, which designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software and personal computers. Some of the companys best-known products include the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. As of August 2010, the company runs approximately 300 stores in 10 countries and an online shop where hardware and software products are sold. As of September 2010, Apple had over 46,000 permanent full-time employees and 2,800 temporary full-time employees worldwide and a turnover of 65.23 billion dollars. As of May 2011, Apple was one of the largest companies in the world in terms of its value, and the most valuable technology company in the world after having overtaken Microsoft.

For many years, Apple has had a reputation for cultivating individuality and brilliance, which has certainly attracted talented individuals to the company over the years. Internally, the Apple Fellows Program was created, which recognizes and rewards the very best employees who have made extraordinary contributions to the technology or leadership at the company. So far, the Apple Fellowship has only been awarded to a few individuals such as Bill Atkinson, Steve Capps, Guy Kawasaki and Steve Wozniak.

According to the company itself, it is very unique to work at Apple. No matter what role you have, you are helping create some of the most valued technology in the world. In addition, you are there to help users discover all of the fantastic things they can do with it. You can call it work, or you can call it a mission. Apple describes it as a party.

Apple offers talented employees exciting career opportunities in the organisation as well as a host of benefits that also benefit family. Which benefits one get depends on position in the company, location, as well as how many years one has worked at Apple. Among other things the following are offered:

Health and life insurance

Short and long term disability coverage

Long-term care insurance

Stock purchase plan for employees

Training seminars in economics

Paid holiday and extra days off

Product discounts

Personal counseling and family counseling

Wellness programmes

Local fitness centre

Some employees associate working for Apple with great pride and prestige. The company has had a meteoric rise and today has what many analysts describe as a cool image.

In addition, one of its founders and CEO of many years, Steve Jobs, is almost a myth in himself. If one can talk of a CEO being the company, then the case of Apples CEO, Steve Jobs, was one of the most extreme.

Apple without Steve Jobs?

In the beginning of 2011, Apple announced that Steve Jobs would be leaving the company indefinitely. It wasnt the first time Steve Jobs was on sick leave, and the market buzzed with rumors about the CEOs health. In a letter to all Apple employees, Steve Jobs wrote:

At my request, the board has granted me sick leave so that I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and will be involved in the major strategic decisions of the company.

Apples shares plummeted by 4.5 percent on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange immediately after the announcement.

Even though Steve Jobs had been ill for many years and had been on long-term sick leave several times, the announcement of his death in October 2011 came as a shock to the technology world. The front page of the companys website was replaced with a picture of Steve Jobs and a short announcement:

Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

Many analysts have over the years suggested that Jobs exit would leave behind a huge void. Based on this context, many believe that the Apple organisation must reinvent itself, but what is it precisely that Apple must say goodbye to?

The nerds visionary king

Over the years, various analysts have looked at Jobs unique leadership style, which consisted of what some consider pure genius, but also other, less becoming, qualities. Only few journalists ever really met Jobs, but they based their observations on articles and books about Steve Jobs instead along with conversations with former employees at Apples headquarters in Cupertino.

Sensation and infatuation

It has often been said about Steve Jobs that he was probably more of a designer and aesthete than an IT-nerd, which has been a major strength for Apple in the market. It has also been emphasised that Steve Jobs had a phenomenal ability to sense the spirit of time and time-to-market. He had a great sense of future opportunities, and he determined, with an expert hand, what Apple should focus on. In addition, he was also a man who swept ideas that he found unmarketable off the table. The groups first great success in the new millennium, the iPod, was far from being the first music player, but it was Apples gadget, in combination with the iTunes music management software and online music store, that started the digital music market. Jobs also sensed when the cell phone market was ripe for an expensive Apple product, but the masterpiece was the iPad. Here, Steve Jobs was able to kick an entirely new market into gear and now competitors are scrambling to make iPad clones. Ironically, the iPad was also a way of showing the world how such a device should be made as well as being an ironic comment on the spectacular failure of a similar project undertaken in a time (the early 1990s) where Steve Jobs had been forced out of Apple, and by the CEO who had forced Jobs out.

For Steve Jobs, it wasnt enough to have a vision; it also had to be communicated and implemented. Steve Jobs facilitated his visions with so much charisma and impact that the employees dedication and energy rose to unprecedented heights. The phenomenon got its own name in the IT world: RDF, Reality Distortion Field. If you were in this zone, you were invariably captivated by Jobs ability to create his own reality.