... Good afternoon. My name is Anne Rudden, and I am here to introduce Adam Lashinsky, who is joining us as part of the Microsoft Research Visiting Speaker Series. Adam is here today to discuss his book, Inside Apple, How America's Most Admired and Secretive Company Really Works. Apple has created some deeply loved products, but even sophisticated business people don't understand how Apple does what it does. Adam will tell us more about some of their unique approaches to business. Adam Lashinsky is a senior editor at large for Fortune Magazine, where he covers technology and finance. He is also a frequent speaker and Fox News contributor. Prior to joining Fortune Lashinsky was columnist for the street.com and the San Jose Mercury News. Please join me in welcoming Adam Lashinsky. [applause]. >> Adam Lashinsky: Thank you very much. It's really wonderful to be here. I want to tell you straight off the bat that I'm doing this presentation on Power Point and running off of PC. A dirty little secret that I've been waiting to reveal until I got here is that I wrote the book on a PC in Word. So thank you. Thank you very much. I have to get some things off my screen. There we go. And one other sort of opening comment is that I know that a lot of people when they begin a talk ask people to turn off their telephones or to close their laptops. I would like you to do just the opposite. I'm assuming that if you are looking at your phone or your...
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...Your Next Product Launch http://blog.kissmetrics.com/product-launch-strategies/ Apple product launches have become the stuff of legend. The iPad sold 300,000+ WiFi-only units on launch day. Within three days, the iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million units. The iPhone 3G sold over a million units on its launch weekend. Clearly, Steve Jobs knows how to launch a product for maximum sales. You might even wonder if you can capture a bit of his magic to kickstart your own promotions. And I believe you can. While Apple’s reputation and sometimes-rabid fanbase obviously plays a large part in the success of their launches, there are also a number of strategies virtually any company can employ to make their own product launch a huge success: 1. Put the Focus on the People, Not the Product Rarely do you hear Steve Jobs talking about the various features of Apple products. Standing on stage, he doesn’t push the speed of the iPhone’s processor or the screen resolution, for example. He knows most people don’t care, and the ones who do can easily find that information on Apple’s website or product literature. Instead, he goes out of his way to emphasize how the product affects you. He talks about how annoying it is to carry both a phone and an MP3 player and how, with an iPhone, you’re condensing them down to one easy-to-carry device. It’s about simplicity, productivity, style — all things he knows people are interested in. And it takes discipline. When you launch a product, everyone...
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...Best Quotes Ever Owen Linzmayer Email 03.29.06 "It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." -- BusinessWeek, May 25 1998 View Slideshow View Slideshow One of the great things about Steve Jobs is what comes out of his mouth. The CEO of Apple Computer is a master of hype, hyperbole and the catchy phrase. Even when he's trying to talk normally, brilliant verbiage comes tumbling out. Here's a selection of some of the most insanely great things the man has said, organized by topic: innovation and design, fixing Apple, his greatest sales pitches, life's lessons, taking the fight to the enemy and Pixar. On Innovation and Design: "It's rare that you see an artist in his 30s or 40s able to really contribute something amazing." -- At age 29, in Playboy, February 1985 "I've always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do." -- BusinessWeek Online, Oct. 12, 2004 "Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it." -- Fortune, Nov. 9, 1998 "It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." -- BusinessWeek, May 25 1998 "It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong...
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...Case Analysis 1: Apple computer case 1. What were some of Apples’s biggest success and failure: Apple’s has had many successes in their 30 plus years in the technology industry. The three financial successes are IMac IPod and, ITunes. The IPad was one of the hottest sells at Christmas time in 2010. These three products were most successful because they appealed to the masses. Apple continues to outperform technology in their new personal computers each year prior. Their true success lies in their ability to produce products that set them apart from their competitors. Apple sets itself apart from the rest of the technology industry, by creating unique products, ensuring that they are easy to use and intuitive, and by limiting the number of choices thrust upon customers. Apple’s laserwriter hardware along with the incorporation of a built-in PostScript interpreter totally redefined desktop printing. Jobs announced an alliance with Microsoft. In exchange for $150 million in Apple Stock, Microsoft and Apple would have a 5-year patent cross-license and, more importantly, a final settlement in the ongoing GUI argument. Microsoft agreed to pay an unreleased sum of additional funds to quiet the allegations that it had stolen Apple's intellectual property in designing its Windows OS. Microsoft also announced that Office '98, its popular office package, would be available for the Mac by year’s end. Without a doubt Apple’s, long-term success can be contributed its blend a perfect...
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...International Management Project - Apple - Summary In a context of “fast growing technological market", what could be the futures perspectives of Apple over the strategic issues in order to maintain its competitive advantage? Introduction I – A Sociology of Steve Jobs A) Steve jobs: the perfect illustration of a charismatic authority B) Steve Jobs: does he really is an inventor? C) From death to succession II – How does Apple react about the uprising competition on the consumer electronic market? A) Understanding the market B) External and Internal analyze through specific models C) Major changes on the market D) Apple’s strategic positioning: a specific target audience III – Recommendations and Justifications A) Drawing of frightening competitor B) Possible strategies C) What Apple is looking for and how to reach it? Conclusion Appendix Introduction In a period of financial turbulences, the consumer electronics market is facing several challenges where every company have to differentiate themselves and bring something more through innovation in to be able to maintain their competitive advantage and to grow their market share. In this case, Apple, great name, is probably the most innovative corporation established on this market by staying aware of the trends evolutions as well as of the electronics consumers’ needs to gain competitive advantages. Indeed, its orientation...
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... Describe the key strategic challenges facing Apple Computer. Apple needs to stay competitive and innovated. Apple always has new competitors with some trying to make substitutes. Such substitutes, like the Android Market causes Apple to stay competitive. Marketing is an area where Apple does not go over and beyond. Apple has repeat customers. True Apple customers return and usually have more than one Apple product. The name Apple has such a reputation that marketing is not the only way that customers find out about their new products. With technology changing at such a fast pace, ensuring that you have the newest and greatest products is always a challenge. You have to look into the future to think what could possibly be the next big thing. In October last year Apple launched their IPhone 4S. This new release included Suri, which proved to be very successful. This tool is able to respond to any question that is asked to it. It has proven to be successful because of being able to be hands free. Apple always has to think into the future. Steve Jobs has done an amazing job leading Apple to where it is today. I believe that without Jobs Apple would not be as successful as it has been. 2. Describe the dimensions along which company success can be measured. It is important with Customer and Market Share that customer satisfaction is a top priority. Without satisfied customers a company like Apple would not be successful. To keep customer satisfaction...
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...hands. A good example of this would be Apple Inc. Apple is one of the worlds most well known companies, and has a market value of more than half a trillion dollars (Krosinsky, 2012). Apple is known for it’s Computer hardware, Computer software, but mainly Apple is known for their production of iPods, iPads, iPhones, MacBook’s, and of course iTunes. This essay will cover the following: The kind of market structure Apple has, how much consumers demand their products and the economic efficiency of the company. When it comes to building a market you need to know your consumers wants, needs, fears and concerns so you can build up and around it to provide them with exactly what they want. Apple has their consumers wrapped around their finger, due to the fact that they use the strategy of market segmentation. Market segmentation is when the market has been cut up into groups/segments where consumers have similar wants and needs for a certain product. This would be a better definition, “Market segmentation is the technique used to enable a business to better target it products at the right customers. It is about identifying the specific needs and wants of customer groups and then using those insights into providing products and services which meet customer needs” (Riley, 2010). Apple does that extremely well, they found out a way to satisfy the wants and needs of their customers, and when they had that figured out, it was all about building the brand name, the image of what...
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...Early Life Joanne Schiedle, was unmarried and therefore didn’t want the child. She was looking for someone to adopt him and fortunately, Clara and Paul Jobs were desperate for a new born. However, when she found out they had both puled out of high school, she refused to sign the adoption papers. The standoff lasted two weeks until Joanne relented at the couples promise to make a savings account for the boy’s college funds even though they weren’t particularly wealthy. It wasn’t until his thirty’s that Jobs met his real mother, Joanne Simpson (as she was called before she was married). Jobs knew from an early age that he was adopted, as his parents were always quite open with it. He once said ‘I never felt abandoned, even though I was different from the rest of the kids’. However, he does remember sitting in the front garden talking and playing with a girl from across the road. When he told the girl he was adopted, she said ‘So does that mean your parents really didn’t want you?’ Jobs ran inside crying and his parents reassured him by saying ‘We specifically picked you out’. Job’s dad always tried to get his son into cars, which was his personal passion, but Jobs was never interested. Instead, his dad provided him with small, broken electronic gismos, which he took apart. Jobs always considered himself lucky to be growing up in Santa Clara Valley, a place where there were many other engineers and people who shared his interests. Jobs once called Bill Hewlett the founder...
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...Apple Readers of this blog know that I’m not a huge fan of Apple, but that’s neither here nor there. No matter what you read in the press or business press about Apple and innovation, marketing, or product development, the fundamental business strategy at Apple is a financial one. Apple’s fundamental strategy is to squeeze as much profit as humanly possible from every sale it makes. Apple’s financial strategy, then, is to maximize its margins, a financial strategy it has pursued single-mindedly since Steve Jobs returned to the company. This foundational financial strategy informs every other aspect of its business model. Product development — to maximize margins, Apple has to offer products that consumers can buy nowhere else. This involves one part cutting-edge design, one-part unique, hard-to-emulate features, and several parts marketing. Always be launching – A standard truth about marketing is that early adopters are willing to pay the highest prices – and highest margins. The Apple launch strategy involves super-hyping products in order to build the largest army of early adopters possible. All those nice people who stood in line for an iPad on the day of its launch were willing to pay a pretty penny to get their hands on the device. The second part of the strategy is to continually relaunch products. The Apple financial strategy – maximize margins as much as possible – is wedded to a marketing strategy of maximizing early adoption. Why is Apple so secretive to the point...
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...branding and promotion of the two retailers. You must show evidence of individual research Apple is one of the world’s biggest known businesses that sells electrical products. Apple has a lot of promotion techniques such as advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and promotional activities. Apple provides a range of their products on display in their stores for their customers to use, they do this to inform there potential and current customers about the products that they have to offer. They also use this technique to persuade their customers to purchase their products. However the company uses two main primary methods of promotional methods towards their customers. Apple uses advertising as one of their promotional method. Apple has investigated a lot of their money to advertise their products which can be found on the internet, media and on the TV as well as in magazines. In 2008 apple produced a large range of TV advertisements in order to bring more customers to their stores. Apple uses advertisement as they're proven to be the best way to get sales and to increase their profit as well as keep customers coming into their stores. Another promotional method that Apple uses is personal selling. Apples employees range from older staff to younger staff as well as having knowledgeable sales representatives who have been trained in customer service and product information. Due to Apple releasing new products frequently and offering upgrades, it is important for the sales...
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...Paper I choose Apple as my favorite brand; it is one of the largest and well-known companies throughout the world, and they specialize in any electronics such as computers and iPads, cell phones, in previous years many of the items was aware as well as created by Apple industries. The product is well known by its design, sleekness, and easy to use products, which made these items high in demand. Apple became a household name that brought consumers of many ages to the desire of owning one of their products, with this came to their retail stores as well as the use of technical support with telephone or e-mail, which brought loyal customers along with loyal business ethics. With this Apple, though it was for many years a runner-up to Microsoft in such areas as sales or even the use of operating systems. However, over the past couple of years or so, many changes have taken place such as large-upscale advertisement campaigns that have given the company a brand new look on their brands to consumers. Also, they have made their selves known to be more environmentally responsible as well as selling more efficient user-friendly devices along in along with many new learning tools that are in comparison of Microsoft’s ability of no style and hard to use devices. There are many reasons that I prefer Apple to other brands, one of the biggest is the fact I like the quality of the items. They might be higher than other brands out on the market; another reason is that they know how to market...
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...Let us just, arguendo, accept his point about Apple no longer being innovative. Let us also gloss over the obvious typo about Apple handing out the $100 billion cash pile as well, it’s no where near that amount being returned to investors. So, what is it that we actually want a non-innovative but highly profitable company to be doing with the rivers of cash that it is generating? Why, we want it to be handing that money back to shareholders. Who can then reinvest it or spend it as they please. And we are entirely happy with the money flowing out of that no longer innovative company because we know, as economists or those interested in economics, that almost all innovation in the economy comes from new firms entering the market. For that is the truth of it: Apple’s run of innovation under Jobs is the oddity in the economy. Almost always innovation, new products, new ways of doing things, new methods of organisation, that variety of things that leads to economic growth and the creation of jobs, comes from the creation of new firms and the extinction by their replacement of the old firms. So, if a company is making good profits but has no new great ideas we’d actually prefer them to be paying out dividends. Buying back stock: getting that money into the hands of investors who might then invest in new start ups. We can go further too: if those executives at Apple knew which were the new start ups were that were worth investing in, knew which new technologies or market areas...
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...Excellent Customer Service at Your Restaurant As a restaurant owner, great customer service is essential to your success. How do you deliver excellent customer service at your restaurant? First, let’s define it: customer service is the assistance and advice you provide to your diners. Customer service is equal parts communication and genuine attention to your diners. (tweet this) When guests visit your restaurant, you want them to feel welcome. When you treat them with care and respect while providing an excellent meal, they’ll come back to your restaurant again and again. Satisfied customers are integral to your business model. According to a Harvard Business School study on Starbucks, customer satisfaction has a massive impact on your revenue. Regarding Starbucks, they found that the satisfied customer visits 4.3 times per month, spends $4.06 and is a customer for 4.4 years. They went on to find that thehighly satisfied customer visits 7.2 times per month, spends $4.42 and is a customer for 8.3 years. That’s great, but what happens when you have a dissatisfied customer? In a Customer Experience Report, researchers found that the #1 reason customers abandon a brand is due to poor quality and rude customer service. These items were cited 18% more often than slow or untimely service. Combined, these two studies describe the importance of excellent customer service. They suggest that great customer service can make or break your restaurant. So, in this blog post, we’re going...
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...heels of yet another successful Apple launch debut, it’s increasingly clear that Apple is on top of their game in a way like no other. Which other company could turn an ordinary press conference into a live global event? The secret lies beyond their product line and design standards; it lies beyond even Steve Jobs’ emphatic adherence to Apple’s core philosophy, which is that the user doesn’t always know what they want. Looking at the company’s latest product lines and revenue models, I’d be a fool to call them anything less than what they are, which is: * A design firm * A media platform * A publishing company * A software powerhouse * A computer builder * A movement Break down each of these bullets individually and you’ll find a company at the top of their respective industry, but combine them into a single entity and you’ve got the recipe for building one of the most influential businesses of all time. So how did they do it? Rather than tell you how I think they did it, I thought instead I’d turn to their fans on Twitter, who helped me uncover 7 of the greatest marketing lessons that Apple brings to the table. 1. Ignore Your Critics As an entrepreneur, you’ll hear a lot of people tell you that you need to reach out and figure out what people want, which means listening to your critics, often times more patiently than you’d like. Apple decides to flip the script and instead focus on building what they want to build, no matter the perceived...
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...Business Analysis: Apple Inc. Carla Boyland MGMT/521 May 3, 2012 Renee Columbus Abstract Throughout the research done about Apple Inc. and its financial stability, this paper has pointed out their strengths, opportunities, points they should improve on, and threats they may be facing. After a little investigation the conclusion has been that, Apple Inc. would be a good company to invest into. Other points in this analysis included Apple’s best practices, operational process and procedures, and their financial situation. For the last part, we will be discussing, amongst other things, how recent economic trends have influenced Apple, strategic initiatives taken by Apple Inc. to stay successful in an ever-changing economic environment, and the tactics Apple has implemented to achieve their strategic goals. Business Analysis: Apple Inc. Economic Trends It is no secret that economic trends affect small and home-based business, but what about an international company, such as Apple Inc. It is important for business managers to know which direction the economy is going in order for them to make the most effective plans for the company. Everyone wants the answer as to how Apple Inc. has been so successful in such a bad economy. In their last financial quarter Apple, once again, exceeded financial goals. Apple was able to do this by reaching new customers and selling outside of their market share; which resulted in them being able to sell tens of millions of devices and have...
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