Management Problem That Apple May Have - Research Paper Example

Incrementalism: the management problem that Apple may have The kind of problem that Apple may have is the shift of its leadership style that could lose its competitive edge in the market. Apple’s phenomenal success is attributed to Steve Jobs management style of structured leadership and organizational behavior that has been both criticized and lauded by its critics and without it, Apple may no longer be that innovative as company. Almost everybody is unanimous in their assessment that Steve Job’s passion for product excellence that drove Apple towards innovation.

Steve Jobs is extremely engrossed not only towards the details of Apple’s products but also on how it is marketed. He is known to push people to accomplish goals and objectives more than they thought they could achieve. He also stretched the possibilities of hardware and software design that yielded revolutionary products of which we enjoy today that often drove his people nuts(time). He was known to become rude, [slave driver at times], unreasonable, fickle, arrogant and even took credit for other’s ideas.

But despite these seeming weaknesses, Job’s leadership have undeniably drove the company from near bankruptcy to become one of the most envied companies in the world. This management style of Steve Jobs however is no longer emphasized in the present leadership of Apple. Being such, Apple is bound to have problems without a leadership that is driven to innovate because such leadership and organizational discipline that was instilled by Steve Jobs was the main factor that drove the company to excellence that produced radical innovation.

Its new CEO Tim Cook did not have the same drive towards excellence nor have the genius of Jobs to think of revolutionary products that would shake the industry. And due to this shortcoming, he is more predisposed towards what he calls as “incrementalism” which is essentially just to make things better what Steve Jobs already did. And this new leadership is dangerous to the company because it is one of the management traps that lead a company into a downfall. This is the management leadership trap that Robert Schaeffer articulated in the article “Mistakes Leaders Keep Making” of failing to push for significant improvement for fear that people are already overwhelmed (2010).

As a result, Apple is no longer growing and its former competitive edge of being radically innovative is no longer there. In an industry where change happens at a dizzying pace and products become obsolete overnight, doing the same thing even better is problematic because it could make a company obsolete. Apple became what it is today not because it can make things or products better but rather it changes on how things are made. In effect, Apple did not just compete in the market but also created a new market rendering other market obsolete and made the new market very competitive of which it dominated.

Apple’s iPhone created the smartphone market, the iPod rendered Sony’s Walkman obsolete, iPad created the computer tablet industry of which it all dominated. And Apple was able to do these things and created these products because it adopted innovation not “incrementalism” (Schaeffer, 2010). Under Steve Jobs leadership, Apple always have a “man on the moon” project of stretching targets having ambitious goals and “creating aspirations beyond the company’s existing resources or current approaches to the delivery of products” (Prahad and Mashelkar, 2010 pg 141).

He was also known to innovate, often radical that changes or disrupts industry that is no longer done today which is why Apple is bound to have problem in the future. References Prahalad, C.K. and Mashelkar, R.A. (2010). Innovation’s Holy Grail. Harvard Business Review Schaeffer, R (2010). Mistakes Leaders keep Making. Harvard Business Review