Apple and Microsoft's Corporate Culture
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Choose an industry in which two or more companies has historically competed to maintain a significant share of the marketplace. These could include: Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, Apple and Microsoft, GM and Ford Motor Company, or any other well-known pair of competitors.
1. Determine how each corporate culture differs from the other.
2. Analyze three (3) ways that each unique culture has benefited by the other's competition.
3. Speculate how each would continue to thrive if its current corporate culture would need to change in the near future. Be sure to state what change(s) you are speculating on and what led you to identify that possibility.
4. Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources.
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Solution Summary
The solution shows the differences in corporate cultures between Apple and Microsoft. It also showed which of the two cultures proved resilient.
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Differences of Apple and Microsoft corporate culture
Scully (2011) gave a bird's eye view of Apple and Microsoft corporate culture. He said "In Steve's world, 'No compromises'.' In Bill's world, 'Hey, compromise is alright. We'll get it right the third time. We just want to have a land grab'."
According to Scully, the two have entirely different approaches, both very, very successful. But in the era of consumer electronics, the Steve Jobs approach is a hands-down winner.
Williams (2011) said that if there is one key difference between Microsoft and Apple, it is secrecy. Apple rarely shows its hand before a product is ready to ship. Microsoft usually offers sneak previews of products months, sometimes years, in advance.
Sethi (2012) revealed the two corporate values that Apple implements - value and cost culture:
Value Culture: When it comes to customers, Apple applies the notion of value, i.e., a pricing strategy that is driven by its focus on the value - real and perceived - to its customers. The customer is willing to pay a price that is equal to the product's perceived value to the customer. Hence, as long as the customers are satisfied, Apple is under no obligation to reduce its prices.
Cost Culture: When it comes to workers' wages and working conditions, Apple uses its dominant market position (buying power) to acquire these services at the lowest possible price, thus keeping the largest share of the profit for itself and yielding the lowest possible share to the workers. It is not important that the added costs of better wages and working conditions represent an infinitesimally small proportion of the overall costs. It's all relative; if these additional costs are higher than those of Apple's competitors, they could adversely impact the company's stock price in the short run.
On Microsoft's bureaucratic culture, Eichenwald (2012) wrote that 'more employees seeking management slots led to more managers, ...
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