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The number of obituaries and tributes that poured in following the death of Steve Jobs in 2011 is in stark contrast to the general public cynicism toward corporate America. Jobs was lauded as a technologist, designer, thinker, and even a visionary. This paper seeks to clarify the kind of innovation that Apple exemplifies - as a controlled platform that drastically reduces entry barriers for small hardware and software firms. The paper also investigates, from Apple's perspective, the change process by which the company transformed itself by identifying what Jobs did at different times and juxtaposing those actions with theories found in the literature in order to decode his leadership style.
As Jobs neared the end of his life, a grassroots protest movement with anarchist undertones mushroomed into mass demonstrations against Wall Street and capitalism. Ironically, right-wing critics were quick to point out that the protesters were using their iPhones and MacBooks - the epitome of capitalism - to create left-wing propaganda. Regardless of political inclination, however, people still lauded Jobs as a technologist, designer, thinker, and even a visionary, rather than seeing him as a captain of industry whose entire existence revolved around the relentless pursuit of profits. Jobs treated investors with something between ambivalence and contempt. Apple's investor relations team only shared information with Wall Street analysts and shareholders in dribs and drabs. Nor did Apple hold analyst days, routine events for most companies during which upper management presented the company's plans to several hundred investors. Yet Apple stocks continued to rise during Jobs' reign after he returned to Cupertino in 1997. On August 9, 2011, Apple overtook ExxonMobil as the most valuable company in the world, worth $342 billion.
Through Apple, J obs profoundly shaped how consumers interacted with technology and more importantly, created an ecosystem that allowed other entrepreneurs to thrive. By seizing the intersection between art, technology and business, and channeling Apple to reflect that, Jobs reconceptualized how the consumer electronics industry should be organized and brought on board numerous start-ups to develop applications. In the process, he brought about an unprecedented rate of innovation - innovation that at times appeared to have exceeded his original vision.
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the kind of innovation...