Final Reflective: Selecting a Case Study - Essay Example

Operating within this environment it can be said that Apple Inc. is a company that has exhibited remarkable qualities of survival, creativity and innovation in the face of stiff competition. From the very outset, Apple brought forth a product that was built upon an entirely new concept. Whereas IBM and compatible computers of the day used a command line interface, for the first time a user-friendly graphical user interface employing tools such as the mouse was invented by Apple after it was founded in 1976.

The Apple II was also “the first computer to come in a plastic case and include color graphics.” (apple-history.com) This established a new and easier way of computing and brought computers into the domain of personal home users. “In January 2002, Apple reinvented the consumer desktop, again, when it released its flat panel iMac.” (apple-history.com) The suite of iLife products was another successful software solution by Apple, which also introduced the concept of the digital hub. In this way, it has led the market through its creative innovative approach making others necessarily follow suit.

This could be termed an external leadership role of the company as a whole. The leadership hype is not only central but critical for innovation, creativity, and change in an organizations because it can initiate, guide and create the right culture conducive to make positive change and progress possible. The culture amongst Apple’s workforce is one of creative thinking, optimism and being forward looking. In terms of market position this has been necessary to enable it to survive firstly and then thrive in niche positions in the face of overwhelming domination by its software rival Microsoft and hardware rivals using the windows operating system.

It is a dominant player mainly in the education, music, DTP and other creative markets. Although Apple has not traditionally been able to take advantage of being the