BBS200: Apple is Fortune magazine’s World’s Most Admired Company in 2013, just ahead of Google in second place: Understanding Business Research: An Introductory Approach Case Study, MU, Singapore

An Apple a day keeps Google at bay!

Apple is Fortune magazine’s World’s Most Admired Company in 2013, just ahead of Google in second place. This is the sixth straight year they have achieved this feat, after having finished top of Fortune’s worldwide poll of
business people.

They also came top in the computer section once again. Fortune said “The company has its fanatical customer base, and it still refuses to compete on price, making the iconic iPhone and iPad products that are still widely seen as prestige devices. Competition may be stiff, but so far it remains behind.”

And that’s the point. Apple is everywhere, from iTunes as a means to download music, through the ultra-cool and ultra-slim laptops, to the ubiquitous iPhone. Every part of our lives features Apple. It’s hard to see a jogger who doesn’t carry an iPod or iPhone or a student without an iPad or MacBook.

As Fortune says, the key is design. Apple has always been that little bit different. From the get-go, their desktops were a different color to IBM’s, and though they weren’t market leaders, they cornered niche markets. Their laptops were lighter, more colorful, and cooler than anyone else’s. Their iPod looked better than other MP3 players.

Their phone was more aesthetically and intuitively designed than any other on the market. Even when they had problems, namely iPhone 3G’s poor reception if held a particular way, the public was forgiving and the company’s sales figures didn’t fall. They might say that though they are often copied, they are never equaled. They prefer to be one step ahead of their competition and that’s what makes them so admired by their peers in the Fortune magazine survey.

The peers in question were 4,100 worldwide executives, directors, and securities analysts from predominantly American companies selected by the Hay Group, who did the polling. The respondents were asked to rate the top ten companies they admired most from a list of nine attributes provided by the Hay Group:

• Ability to attract, develop and keep talented people
• Effectiveness in conducting its business globally
• Innovativeness
• Quality of management
• Quality of its products and services
• Responsibility to the community and environment
• The soundness of a financial position
• Value as a long-term investment
• Wise use of corporate assets

But keen not to rest on its laurels, Apple continues to release regular new models of the iPad, iPhone, and MacBook laptops. What is interesting now is that while both the latest releases of the iPhone (5s) and iPad (Air) broke sales records, Apple’s share price began to descend. Any futurist would be hard-pressed to predict what Apple has in-store in the next ten years, but confidence in Apple’s continued dominance is starting to wane.

Many would put this decline in confidence down to the death of Steve Jobs, Apple’s former CEO, and the subsequent management of the company by his successor Tim Cook. Jobs’ obsession with perfection and aesthetics
can be seen all over Apple products, the company he co-founded in the late 1970s. Though receiving a presidential medal from Ronald Reagan for services to technology, he was removed from Apple in the mid-1980s and only reappeared in the late-1990s as CEO, after another boardroom battle.

In his time away from Apple he was busy founding the computer company NeXT and serving as CEO of Pixar Animation Studios. In addition to being Apple CEO, he served on the board of Disney as one of its largest shareholders.
Dressed in his trademark black long-sleeved turtle neck top with blue jeans and runners, Jobs was ever-present at the launch of new Apple products until his illness worsened and, for many, remains synonymous with Apple.

He held 230 patents as either inventor or co-inventor and his driving intellect and towering personality made Apple produce cutting-edge and market-inspiring products. Not bad for someone who was adopted and who dropped out of college before going off to India in the early 1970s, coming back with his head shaved and affirming Buddhist beliefs.

Jobs learned much of his initial computer knowledge from working in Atari, one of the early technology market trailblazers. He and his Apple co-founders saw that there was enormous potential for more accessible and comprehensible computer products.

What made him successful was not just being intellectually curious, but having the drive to create new products plus the strength of character to persist with them when others would have doubted and given up. His larger-than-life personality is the stuff of legend, and he was often regarded as one of Silicon Valley’s leading egomaniacs.

But such is always said of the great; they get frustrated and angry at the uncreative tendencies of the conservative. Jobs could look at a collection of circuits and see a device that would revolutionize how we live and work.

In 2004 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent treatment. After various media comments about his health, the truth was confirmed by his having a liver transplant in 2009; he returned to work but then took another break from Apple in early 2011. In August of that year, he stepped down as CEO of Apple, appointing Tim Cook as his successor. In October 2011, he passed away.

The story of Steve Jobs and Apple is a fascinating one. Up to 2011, this story had only been told by unauthorized biographies, some of which Jobs actively didn’t like. Walter Isaacson had been given the authorization to write a biography for which he interviewed Jobs, his family, friends, and those in the industry – friend and foe. Simply titled Steve Jobs, it was published in October 2011, just weeks after Jobs’ death.

Like all the other books about Jobs, it isn’t a dull read. Jobs never took the easy path, from the time he dropped out of college to the times he took on Apple and won back his company. Robert F. Kennedy’s remarks could easily be applied to him: “There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” Perhaps Jobs is the man who said “why not” when others say “why” and has so has given us things we never dreamt of.

Student Questions

1. If you were asked to research Steve Jobs’ life what themes emerge and how would you research to access them?

2. How would you use traditional academic sources, such as peer-reviewed journals, if writing about a famous businessperson?

3. Considering that Steve Jobs dropped out of college after taking a small number of courses, what use is formal business education and formal business writing?

4. Did Steve Jobs’ management or leadership style work? What would we reference to arrive at a conclusion?