Title: From stale to spicy to superb: a spanking new Apple

Authors: John Wang; Jeffrey Hsu; Bin Zhou; Ruiliang Yan

Addresses: Department of Information and Operations Management, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ 07043, USA. ' Information Systems and Decision Sciences, Silberman College of Business, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 285 Madison Avenue, Madison, NJ 07940, USA. ' Department of Management, College of Business and Public Administration, Kean University, Union, NJ 07083, USA. ' School of Business and Economics, Indiana University Northwest, Gary, IN 46408, USA

Abstract: Once the world took its first proverbial bite into Apple Inc. in the late 1970s, people liked what they tasted and wanted more. Today, they still cannot get enough of Apple, a company that has little to do with fruit, although with every technology product or service it releases conveys the fresh, healthy, appetising image that inspired the company from its origin. Apple, which started out in personal computers and over the years has branched out to revolutionise newer industries such as mobile phones and music devices, is a shining example of a company with exceptional leadership, marketing, and research and development, and which has been remarkably successful at managing its relationships with suppliers, partners, customers, the media and even hackers over the years. This paper will introduce the stunning case of the single most important turnaround in Silicon Valley and go in detail how it achieved tremendous success by overtaking Microsoft. The company was not always so successful in the past, but it learned valuable lessons from the years when it experienced a downturn and other challenges. As the world's most valuable technology company, a new king of technology today, Apple and its products are more appetising than ever.

Keywords: research and development; R&D; business excellence; Apple Inc.; growth; competitive advantage; customers; suppliers; leadership; marketing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBEX.2012.049539

International Journal of Business Excellence, 2012 Vol.5 No.6, pp.639 - 656

Published online: 31 Jul 2014 *

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