Apple Inc. and its Innovation Strategy
Apple Inc. is a multinational company in America which deals with technology. The headquarter of Apple is in Cupertino which is in California. The company develops electronic goods, software for computers and services which can be used online. The company was started in the year 1976 April by Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne and Steve Wozniak. It was later incorporated in the year 1977 January as Apple Computer Inc (Apple, 2018). The mission statement of Apple is their commitment to bring the best experience of computing for the students, creative professionals, educators and consumers globally through their innovation of their software, online services and hardware. The advertising slogan for Apple Inc. is Think Different which was created in the year 1997. The products of the company include iPhone which is a smartphone, iPad which is a tablet computer, Mac which is a personal computer, iPod which is a music player, a smart watch known as Apple Watch, Apple TV and a smart speaker which is known as HomePod. These are the hardware products of the company. The Apple products operate under the operating systems iOS and macOS. Apple as a company, concentrates both on the customer and their employees as well. They strive to make the work of the employees more productive and simple (Pisano, 2015). They help the employees to make good business decisions and to make their work easier and also enable them to stay connected no matter where they are. All of Apple’s products are designs and developed with the idea to make life simple.
Artificial Intelligence is a kind of machine intelligence which is the intelligence that is shown by the machines. In artificial intelligence the devices that are present are able to understand their environment and act according to it so that they are able to perform actions which can assure the maximum achievement of the goals. These devices are very capable of performing tasks which need intelligence (Fallon et al., 2015). The emergence of artificial intelligence was in the year 1956 as a form of academic discipline and over the years have faced several challenges which have helped it to grow and succeed in the current times. For a long time there have been various approaches that have tried with artificial intelligence but have not been able to start communication among them. Every artificial intelligence device is developed with a particular goal in mind such as human face recognition, understanding human speech and others.
Artificial Intelligence and its Impact on Innovation
There are several researches which have been done regarding artificial intelligence which claims that AI can be both safe and dangerous depending on the way it has been developed (Michalski, Carbonell & Mitchell, 2013). People argue that artificial intelligence can be designed in such a way that they can cat devastatingly which can kill or injure a lot of human beings. This is considered in the case of autonomous and lethal weapons which could cause casualty for a huge mass. If the device reaches the wrong person then there could be huge destruction in the world. Furthermore, artificial intelligence can be formed for a good reason but it could always take the wrong or the destructive route to reach its goal. This would happen when the human is not able to align their goals to the set goals of the artificial intelligence device (Nilsson, 2014). In such cases the device would take the route it deems fit to achieve the goals which have been imbedded in them.
There are various concepts that needs to be explained to understand the aspect of innovation trends. These concepts are as follows:
- Organizational Environment – Organizational environments are the forces which are combined together in an organization which would create a vast effect on the performance, resources and the operations of the organization. There are two types of organization environment which are internal and external (Moriano et al., 2014). The internal environment includes the conditions, events which occurs within the organization that create an impact on the activities and choices of the organization. The external environment comprises of conditions and events that occur outside of the organization and helps to determine the threats and opportunities of the organization.
- Innovation Trend – Innovation is a part of the 21stcentury, however, there are many organizations which still struggle to find the right innovative techniques which will help them to stand out in the market (Hausman & Johnston, 2014). Innovation trends are the different techniques that are adopted by the organization to build new things in the environment.
- Innovation Strategy – Innovation strategy is a formed plan that is developed by an organization so that they are able to achieve their goals and increase their profit in the market. However, the initial requirement of an innovation strategy is to develop innovations which could help them to grow in the market (Ezzi & Jarboui, 2016). The innovation strategy is formed with the aim to improve the products and make a breakthrough in their approach of innovation which would be the best.
- Innovation Capabilities – The innovation capability of an organization means the capacity of an organization to bring about a change in the organization and to form those innovative techniques which would help them to compete in the market and to contribute to their own growth and development (Camisón & Villar-López, 2014).
- Innovation Value Creations & Capture – The creation and capture of value for the innovation that have been formed by the company is mandatory. This could be determined by three aspects which states if the innovation have created a competitive edge for the organization, have contributed an experience of the customer and have created an experience for the employee (O’Cass & Sok, 2013). If these three aspects are fulfilled then it can be said that the organization will be able to capture value.
In current times, it is necessary that the corporate strategy aligns with the innovation strategy because none of the strategies that are formed by the organization would not be possible without syncing it with the innovation strategy. This is because for an organization to be successful in their ventures it is necessary to form strategies which will be helpful for the organization and for the environment around it. These strategies would help them to compete in the market and to maintain their foothold against the competitors who threaten their organization. For this to happen it is mandatory to bring about innovative ideas which no other organization would have tried before. This would help the organization to boost their position among the customers in the market. Innovation should be designed in such a way that it is able to create a value in the economy. The innovation should not only be beneficial for the organization but also for the economy and the market (Johnston & Bate, 2013). Business or corporate strategies are firmed with the aim to fulfil its values and to achieve their goals, mission and vision that they have set. The main reason behind aligning the innovative strategy to the corporate strategy is that innovations require funding which should be incorporated in the corporate strategy and the financials of the organization. However, it is not always necessary that innovations would be expensive but the idea for innovation should be incorporated in the strategic decisions of the organization so that they are able to follow in the right direction. Moreover, innovations brings about various changes in the organization such as development and growth not just for the company but also for the employees who work in the company (Hoque, 2013). Both of these strategies are dependent on each other for their fulfilments and are guided by each other as well so that they are able to go in the set direction which would help them to reach their desired destination.
Aligning Innovation Strategy with Corporate Strategy
Apple was the first company who developed artificial intelligence among the customers with its voice assistant incorporated in iPhone known as Siri. However, over the years Apple have faced a downfall in their artificial intelligence sector by not being able to develop any more innovative ideas or techniques. Artificial intelligence have created a huge impact on the organization by pushing them to develop more innovative techniques to compete with the other giants who are developing more innovative artificial intelligence devices. Artificial intelligence requires a lot of mining and collection of data which is being initiated by the company along with its long standing practice of maintaining their secrecy and privacy regarding their researches (Nambisan, 2013). The company which have been able to throw away their competition with their innovation of Siri, has been facing several threats from other companies who were able to develop the same technology along with many other ones which were much developed than Siri. Many other companies have introduced several voice assistant software such as Google Assistant which consists of the same features that is present in Siri. Hence, it is determined that Apple is not able to develop new ideas which will help them to regain their old place in the market regarding artificial intelligence. Hence, it can be said that artificial intelligence have created rather a bad impact on the company with the changes in time and will continue to do so until the company is able to develop more innovative strategies regarding the same. However, there are many opportunities that are available to Apple in the field of artificial intelligence. The artificial intelligence field is continuously evolving and this gives a lot of chance and opportunity to the company to explore the field with its innovation strategies which would be new to the mass. The field is such that there is no end to it and to the different innovations that could occur in it. The company has to conduct researches that would enable it to build such strategies which would help them to build devices which have never been done before (Visnjic, Wiengarten & Neely, 2016). On the other hand, there are also certain threats that come with this vast field and that is the threat of destruction which could be caused by artificial intelligence if it is not developed in the right way. The company has to keep in mind that in trying to compete in the market it does not develop something which might be harmful or destructive to the people who use it.
Conclusion
Organizations should always remember creating sustainable innovation is always determined from a purpose which would help to extract the creative ideas of the people of the organization and also by showing them how to develop ideas which have not been explored before. Organizations should organize their innovation strategy by first creating a sense of purpose and direction among the employees and the organization. This would help to bring out the creativity of their employees and develop ideas new and unique ideas. Moreover, organizations should communicate with their people to create an atmosphere of trust and information sharing which would enable an easier path for brainstorming of innovative ideas (Dolata, 2017). Apple should develop their innovation capabilities by investing in researched which would ensure their position in the market. They have always been one of the companies to develop ground breaking ideas and technologies which have made them a dominant part of the technological market. However, they need to enhance their techniques to regain back their old position. Apple should target new and unexplored areas of artificial intelligence and develop new devices. They could also enhance the features of Siri and incorporate new ideas into it. Along with bringing in new innovations, Apple also has to make sure that they are able to create and capture value for their innovations (Morabito, 2014). For this they have to understand if the innovation will contribute to the experience of the employee and the customers and change the competitive nature of the company. If the innovation is able to do so then it can be said that the value of the innovation has been captured.
Conclusion
Hence, it can be concluded that innovation is necessary for the growth and development of the company. However, every company should bring about various ideas which would help them to fulfil their corporate strategies along with their innovative strategies so that they are able to bring about a change in their company which would help them to compete in the market. Apple needs to develop their strategies faster so that they do not lose their dominance in the market.
Reference
Apple. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/au/
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O’Cass, A., & Sok, P. (2013). Exploring innovation driven value creation in B2B service firms: The roles of the manager, employees, and customers in value creation. Journal of Business Research, 66(8), 1074-1084.
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Visnjic, I., Wiengarten, F., & Neely, A. (2016). Only the brave: Product innovation, service business model innovation, and their impact on performance. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 33(1), 36-52.
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