Strategic Leadership & Innovation at Apple

Contents

Executive Summary

3

Part One – Critically Evaluate the Key Features of Apple’s Industry

5

Part Two – Discuss how Leadership in Apple Influenced Strategic Innovation

8

Part Three – Critically assess Steve Jobs as a strategic leader at Apple

12

Conclusions

15

Appendices

17

References

20

2

Executive Summary

“Increasingly, though, we live in an irregular world, where irregular people take advantage of irregular events and use irregular means to produce irregular products that yield irregular profits.” – The Future of
Management: Gary Hamel; Bill Breen, 2007.

During his time as CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs displayed the attributes outlined in many leadership theories. In some ways he was charismatic, powerful, supportive, flexible and indeed, transformational. However, in others, he was directive, dictatorial and also used reward and punishment techniques to inspire his followers and to propel the organisation to become one of the leading companies in the world today. [Forbes, 2011]

The case study – Strategic Leadership and Innovation at Apple Inc – by Professor Loizos Heracleous and Angeliki Papachroni, which we have been asked to focus on for the purposes of this assignment, demonstrates quite clearly the fluctuating fortunes of the company when Jobs was in a leading role within the organisation and when he parted ways with the company for a period of 12 years (1985-1997). The difference in the direction of the business, not to mention its value and profitability, is quite remarkable. We have discussed this further in section 3 (See page 12).

We have also looked closely at other players in the industry and identified key features that each stakeholder must contend with if they are to continue to succeed. One of the more interesting points in this regard is how adaptable each of the organisations discussed within the case study has become and how individual leaders have embraced change

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