Marion Boats

      With Recent speculation on the ability of Apple can continue to innovate, adapt and remain an industry leader with the tremendous changes of today’s global environment. Many answers to these questions hinge on whether the corporate culture created by its former leader can continue to thrive in an ever changing world. When people speak of Apple products the unconventional wisdom of Steve Jobs is usually what comes to mind, not the critical role company culture has played in Apple’s success.  And while it is impossible to overemphasize the influence of Jobs, Apple is not a one-man operation. The company has a deep bench of seasoned executives, who have absorbed Jobs’ vision and direction (Meet the Man, 2011).  

    This leads to the question of whether a new culture will be carved out or remolded under new leadership or if the culture put in place can continue to flourish.  The success Apple has had over the past three decades can be largely attributed to a corporate culture which inspired and bred innovation, imagination and creativity.   Core values and beliefs, designed, developed and instilled throughout the Jobs era may still be tightly embedded in the organization, nonetheless; Apple’s future success largely relies on how the organization adapts to the loss of its former icon.  There is no doubt Apple has a hero, stories and great symbolisms of its past success to rally behind, however; speculation revolves around whether its cultural foundation could be shaken, with the loss of its former icon. With this in mind there is no doubt new CEO Tim Cook has large shoes to fill in order to propel Apple’s legacy forward.

     With the exponential growth Apple has experienced over the past thirty years there have been many changes within its internal environment.  One factor that could play to Apple’s advantage is the inevitable changes organizational culture has gone through when transitioning from a small startup business to an 80,000 employee corporation....