Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple

Outline
Introduction to Apple

History
Design Thinking Innovation, Product development strategy &

execution CEO- Chief innovator Bold business experiments

Introduction to Apple
Think Different Founded in 1976 Leading designer & integrator of computer hardware and

software Market Cap of US$ 550 billion and annual sales above US$ 100 billion Made radical innovations, more so, with consistency Defied conventional business logic and was not afraid to experiment outside its core markets Apple way 4 Concepts

History
1976: Introduction of Apple I 1980: Apple III and IPO

1983: Apple Lisa

1984: Macintosh 1985: Jobs ousted (starts NeXT) 1986-1993: Series of product flops

1994-1997: Attempts at reinvention with help from IBM & Motorola

1997: Jobs reinstated as CEO after NeXT is bought 1998: iMac, iMovie, Final Cut Pro 2001: iPod, Retail stores

2001-2007: iPod Nano, Shuffle & Touch

2003: iTunes (market leader for online music) 2007: iPhone, Apple TV, removed Computer from corporate name 2010: iPad

2012: iBooks

Design Thinking
Innovation powered by a thorough understanding, through

direct observation, of what people want and need in their lives and what they like or dislike, about the way particular products are made, packaged, marketed, sold, and supported
Thomas Edison- Able to conceive a full market place, not a

discrete device
Three phases Inspiration Begins with empathy Ideation Building prototypes Implementation Apples perspective The goal was to design a computer that both supported and fostered individual work

Design Thinking (Contd..)

Simplicity in Design and Use
Highly interactive devices designed

Smallest details are scrutinized to discover which to develop

and which ones to leave out iPod, iPod Mini, Nano, Shuffle: All draw on same philosophy but adapt to new technologies and different materials

Beyond Fashion
From the start, Apple had the ability to tap the zeitgeist- a sense

of what is popular, fashionable and trendy iMac- Not about candy colored computers but computers that are really quiet, starts in 15 secs, best sound system and others

Trade off between the below concepts were never

inherent at Apple

Innovation, Product development strategy and Execution

Influence of Steve Jobs pivotal

Developed products from scratch with proprietary

OS and unique hardware Faced issues during Jobs exit

Licensing of Mac OS
Whether to compete in the business market Successes like PowerBook along with failures like Newton

(PDA) 1992-97: Rapid proliferation of models confused customers and increased complexity at Apple

Innovation, Product development strategy and Execution

Platform Strategy
Envision a family of products at earliest stages of product

concept and planning Has a complex innovation approach: streamlined portfolio and extensive reuse within product families Benefits the company, its employees and also the customers

Excellence In Execution
After Jobs return in 1997, many changes like stopping

licensing program, changed distribution and others Tim Cook: Assigned to reduce inventory from months to days which he succeeded in performing Working intimately with manufacturers and attuned to customers

 Iterative Customer Involvement

Participatory design Customers experiences considered into design and

development of new products Helps to relate to the customers in a better way

Beautiful Products
Pristine white color- intense Later changed to colors and materials Close look at manufacturing processes also helped them to

come up with these new designs

The CEO- Chief Innovator

Confident and refined design sense Termed dictatorial by some; demanding nature Used his prominence to effectively, dramatically and

boldly move company into new spaces Knowledge work was emphasized upon more than manual work Products presented to public only just before their release CEO of the decade by Fortune magazine, 2009

Bold Business Experimentation

Decision to move into retail at a time when Dells

strategy was booming Foot traffic was concentrated upon which interested non-Apple customers also Apple stores had highest revenue per Sq foot in entire retail sector Against Conventional Wisdom
Open source movement (Linux) was completely ignored

Constant Learning and Adaptation

Simple Vs Eliminating things US$ 150 million investment from Microsoft

Conclusions
In current scenario of open platforms, collaborations, third party

developers, community design and transparency, Apple seems to be an outlier But still manages to create products that people want, win awards and garner respect After Jobs, Tim Cook has taken Apple to greater heights with an increase of share price by 60% Design thinking and Innovation helping Apple to create products that are aspired by customers and hence able to succeed