Apple Inc. was founded in 1976 and incorporated in 1977; it is headquartered in Cupertino, California. Apple’s focus is designing and developing personal computers and other software programs and portable devices. Apple’s mission statement is “Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.” 1
Apple’s vision statement captures their approach to the market and goals. The vision statement is “We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot. And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change. And I think regardless of who is in what job those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well.”2 Apple’s CEO Tim Cook describes Apple’s goal in an interview as “our goal, in a nutshell, is to obtain stellar products and services within tight timeframes, at a cost that represents the best possible value to our customers and shareholders. If that sounds like a daunting task, it’s the same one we assign ourselves.”3
Apple’s cultural