Bcen

Assignment 2: Competitive Strategies

Dr. Charles Wood

Contemporary Business

December  1, 2012

Apple and Microsoft are huge multinational corporations that have had tremendous success over the past couple of decades. Their innovative endeavors in introducing consumers to new technology have allowed both companies to achieve trailblazing accomplishments in manufacturing, growth, earnings, and profitability. Because both companies are in the same genre of business, they are known competitors in the industry. Their culture differs, but the uniqueness of each culture has been beneficial to one another’s competition.

In determining how each corporation’s culture differs from the other, you would have to look at the approach and technique of each company and compare the two. Apple’s approach and technique has two main underlined key words that spills into the attitude of their company’s culture. Those key words are innovation and creativity. Apple’s corporate culture of valuing creativity and innovation is heavily influenced by one of its cofounders, the late Steve Jobs. The company was started by Jobs, Steve Wozaniak, and Ronald Wayne in 1976; however, it is Jobs’ known and described “quirky” personality that can be associated with the motivation of the corporation’s culture and highly publicized success in global technology. Jobs is known to be a corporate rebel, frowning upon the rules for they are seen as roadblocks to the creative and innovative road to success.

Apple Incorporated designs, manufactures, and markets a range of personal computers, mobile communication, and media devices, and portable digital music players, and sells a range of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content, and applications (Apple, 2011). All of which were developed through a creative and innovative culture resulting in the major success of this mega corporation. Apple strives for innovation and fosters creativity to produce and...