Design Thinking and Innovation At Apple

Summary

The Harvard Business Case 'Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple' explores Apple's journey to becoming the most valuable company, emphasizing its design thinking approach. It details how Apple starts with user needs, transcending technology limits to create products that resonate emotionally. The case also highlights Steve Jobs' return, streamlining operations, focusing on customer experience, and his role as the chief innovator. Apple's success is attributed to its principles, strategic execution, and bold experimentation, all centered around delivering exceptional products and services.

Takeaways

• 🏆 **Design Thinking**: Apple's success is attributed to its design thinking approach, focusing on user needs and emotional connections.
• 💡 **Innovation Driven**: Apple's design process starts with creativity and innovation, pushing engineers to simplify technology for user-friendly products.
• 🛠️ **Functionality Over Fashion**: Apple emphasizes functionality and technology capability in design, avoiding commoditization.
• 🔍 **Detail Orientation**: Every detail, from appearance to functionality and packaging, is scrutinized in Apple's design process.
• 🔑 **Simplicity is Sophistication**: Apple believes that simplicity in design is the ultimate form of sophistication.
• 👀 **Observation Leads to Innovation**: Apple encourages observation to drive innovation, as noted by the quote from Yogi Berra.
• 📉 **Market Share Decline and Recovery**: Apple's market share declined before Steve Jobs' return, which led to strategic changes and a focus on execution excellence.
• 🔄 **Streamlining Operations**: Post-1997, Apple streamlined its operations, reduced product lines, and adopted a platform strategy for product development.
• 🛒 **Customer-Centric Approach**: Apple integrates customer experience into product design, involving them iteratively in the development process.
• 🌟 **CEO as Chief Innovator**: Steve Jobs' leadership was integral to Apple's innovation, with a hands-on approach from strategy to packaging.
• 🚀 **Bold Experimentation**: Apple is not afraid of bold business experiments, embracing risks similar to great artists like Dylan, Picasso, and Newton.

Q & A

What is the significance of the year 2013 in the context of the Harvard Business Case on Apple?

In 2013, the Harvard Business Case on Apple, titled 'Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple', won the BCCH case award, highlighting Apple's innovative practices and design thinking approach.

Who authored the Harvard Business Case on Apple?

The case was authored by Harvard Business School professors Steven Pompey and independent researcher Barbara Feinberg.

What was Apple's market status in 2012 according to the case?

In 2012, Apple became the most valuable publicly rated company in history with a $600 share price, a $620 billion market capitalization, and $100 billion in annual sales.

What does 'The Apple Way' refer to in the context of the case?

The 'Apple Way' refers to the consistent approach Apple has taken to its operations, emphasizing design thinking, strategy, and execution as key to its success.

How did Apple's approach to design thinking differ from the norm in the 1970s?

Apple's approach to design thinking in the 1970s was to create computers that were not just tools for specialists but accessible and emotionally appealing to individual users, which was a radical shift from the norm at the time.

What was the impact of Steve Jobs' return to Apple in 1997?

Steve Jobs' return led to significant strategic changes, including stopping the licensing program, reducing new projects, streamlining the product line, launching a direct sales website, and focusing on sophisticated marketing and secrecy in product development.

How did Apple's product design philosophy evolve over time?

Apple's product design philosophy evolved to focus on user desirability, technology possibility, and market viability, with an emphasis on simplicity and continuous innovation rather than a static approach.

What role did Steve Jobs play in Apple's innovation process?

Steve Jobs was the chief innovator at Apple, driving for perfection and personally involved in every aspect from strategy to product and service design, embodying Apple's drive for beautiful, elegant products.

What was Apple's strategy for product development and customer experience?

Apple's strategy involved integrating customer experience into product design and development, working closely with manufacturers to ensure products were attuned to customer needs, and keeping product development a secret until launch.

How did Apple approach business experimentation?

Apple approached business experimentation with bold moves, such as opening retail stores with a focus on detail and developing its own hardware and software, despite conventional wisdom suggesting otherwise.

What principles were identified as the root of Apple's success?

The principles identified as the root of Apple's success include a deep commitment to great products and services, design thinking, clear development strategy and execution, having the CEO as chief innovator, and the courage to conduct bold business experiments.

Outlines

00:00

🍎 Apple's Design Thinking and Innovation

The first paragraph discusses the principles of design thinking and innovation at Apple, as highlighted in a Harvard Business School case study. It emphasizes Apple's success being rooted in a consistent approach to product development, known as 'the Apple way.' This approach starts with design, focusing on user needs and wants, and is not limited by technology. The design process is thorough, considering every detail from appearance to functionality, with the goal of creating products that are simple yet sophisticated. The case also touches on Apple's history, its market share decline in the 1980s, and the strategic changes made after Steve Jobs returned in 1997, which included streamlining product lines, enhancing direct sales, and adopting a platform strategy for product development. The importance of design in driving continuous innovation is also underscored.

05:00

👤 Steve Jobs: The Chief Innovator at Apple

The second paragraph delves into the influence of Steve Jobs on Apple's culture and innovation. It describes how Jobs imprinted his personality and characteristics onto the organization, driving the company towards perfection and beautiful, elegant products. His vision for Apple was to create personal tools for individuals, not just enterprise solutions. Jobs was heavily involved in all aspects of the business, from strategy to product and service design. He was not afraid to take risks and experiment with bold business strategies, such as opening Apple retail stores against conventional wisdom. The paragraph also highlights Apple's learning and evolving nature, adapting from closed to open platforms and from no compatibility to Windows compatibility. The success of Apple is attributed to a set of principles deeply committed to great products and services, with design thinking, clear development strategy, and execution at its core.

Keywords

💡Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a problem-solving approach that focuses on the user experience and involves empathy, creativity, and iterative prototyping. In the context of the video, it is central to Apple's innovation process, where the design team starts with people's needs and wants, pushing engineers to innovate beyond technological limitations. An example from the script is the creation of the Macintosh, where the team aimed to evoke an emotional connection, making computers accessible and desirable.

💡Innovation

Innovation refers to the process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay. The video emphasizes Apple's consistent innovation, driven by a deep understanding of user needs and a relentless pursuit of simplicity and functionality in their products. Steve Jobs' return to Apple exemplifies this, as he streamlined product lines and focused on creating elegant solutions.

💡Market Capitalization

Market Capitalization is the total dollar market value of a company's outstanding shares of stock. It is used to gauge a company's size. The video mentions Apple becoming the most valuable publicly traded company in history with a market capitalization of $620 billion, underscoring its financial success and industry dominance.

💡Annual Sales

Annual Sales refer to the total revenue generated from sales of goods or services over one year. The script highlights Apple's impressive annual sales of $100 billion, indicating strong consumer demand and the company's market success.

💡User Desirability

User Desirability is a concept in design thinking that focuses on creating products that users not only need but also want. The video discusses how Apple scrutinizes every detail of a product's design, from appearance to functionality, to ensure it is desirable to users, as reflected in the emotional connection people felt with the Macintosh.

💡Technology Possibility

Technology Possibility pertains to the extent of what can be achieved with current technological capabilities. Apple's approach, as described in the video, is to not let technology limit design but to push engineers to innovate and find solutions that make the desired product a reality.

💡Market Viability

Market Viability assesses whether a product or service can succeed in the market. The video implies that Apple's design thinking process considers market viability, ensuring that products not only meet user needs and desires but are also commercially feasible.

💡Strategy and Execution

Strategy and Execution involve planning and implementing actions to achieve goals. The video narrates how Apple, under Steve Jobs, made strategic decisions to streamline operations, reduce product lines, and focus on direct sales, which contributed to its success.

💡CEO as Chief Innovator

CEO as Chief Innovator suggests that the chief executive officer leads and drives innovation within the company. Steve Jobs' role at Apple is highlighted in the video as he personally drove the company's innovation, from strategy to product design, ensuring a consistent pursuit of excellence.

💡Business Experimentation

Business Experimentation is the act of trying new strategies or business models to find what works best. The video mentions Apple's bold moves, such as opening retail stores and developing integrated hardware and software, which were against conventional wisdom but contributed to its innovative culture.

💡Iterative Customer Involvement

Iterative Customer Involvement is the process of involving customers in multiple stages of product development to refine the product. The video describes how Apple integrates customer feedback in an iterative process to ensure that the final product meets user expectations and needs.

Highlights

Apple became the most valuable public rated company in 2012 with a $600 share price and $620 billion market capital.

Apple's success was due to the 'Apple way', which includes a surprising consistency in how the company worked.

Design thinking is central to Apple's approach, with a focus on creating emotional connections with users.

Apple's products start with design from people's needs and wants, not limited by technology.

Design at Apple is well thought through, beyond fashion, and not commoditized.

The design team scrutinizes every detail, from appearance to functions, features, and packaging.

Design is not just about looks and feel, but also about how it works, with simplicity being the ultimate sophistication.

Apple's strategy and execution are key, with a focus on observation and learning from users.

Apple's history began in 1976 with the launch of the first personal computer, Apple 2.

After Steve Jobs' return in 1997, Apple made strategic decisions to achieve excellence in execution.

Apple reduced its product line from 15 to 3 and adopted a platform strategy for product development.

Customer experience is integrated into Apple's product design and development.

Steve Jobs was the chief innovator at Apple, driving for perfection and beautiful, elegant products.

Apple's success is rooted in a set of principles with a deep commitment to great products and services.

Apple is known for bold business experimentation, taking risks similar to great artists.

Apple's retail strategy defied conventional wisdom, creating stores with a focus on details.

Apple insists on developing and integrating its own hardware and software, keeping product launches secret.

Apple is constantly learning, adapting, and evolving, from color themes to developer community strategies.

Transcripts

design thinking and innovation at Apple

a harvard business case that one 2013

BCCH case award the authors of the

business case are Harvard Business

School professors Steven Pompey and

independent researcher Barbara Feinberg

the summary and the presentation are

created by Li Wei technology

commercialization manager from agency

for science technology and research

Singapore the full business case is

available from Harvard Business Review

in 2012 Apple became the most valuable

public rated company in history with

$600 share price 620 billion dollar

market capital and 100 billion dollar

annual sales Apple success was not just

the result of strategic moves or innate

sense of market timing it is a

surprising consistency in the way the

company worked simply put the Apple way

first design thinking

those of us on the original Macintosh

team were really excited about what we

were doing the result was that people

saw a Mac and fell in love with him

there was an emotional connection that I

think came from the heart and soul of

the design team Bill Atkinson member of

Apple Macintosh development team in the

mid-1970s

computers were typically housed in

discrete locations and only used by

specialists the notion of computer as a

tool for individual work was

unimaginable in the 1970s to help people

love their equipment and the experience

of using it the level of complexity

needed to be reduced dramatically

Apple's product starts with design from

people's need and want the design of the

product is not limited by technology the

engineers are pushed to use the same

kind of creativity and innovation to

make it happen design is very well

thought through it is beyond fashion the

capacity and technology to build it is

not commoditized and no compromise for

the functionalities this is Design

Thinking combination of user

desirability technology possibility and

market viability smallest of details are

scrutinized not just the appearance of

the product but also its functions

features and packaging the design team

kept on going deep until they found the

key underlying principle of a problem

then built on design is not just what it

looks like and feels like design is how

it works that simplicity is the ultimate

sophistication

second strategy and execution you can

see a lot just by observing Yogi Berra

major league baseball player and manager

apples history began in 1976 it launched

the first personal computer Apple 2 in

1978 in 1981 IBM entered the market with

its PC that can be cloned since 1985

Apple's market share kept declining the

board of Apple axed Steve Jobs in the

following eleven years products and

projects at Apple proliferated and

consequence of various strategies and

many of them failed the technology

department process became more

traditional and resembled approaches

found at other companies process makes

you more efficient but innovation comes

from people calling each other at 10:30

at night with a new idea

it comes from saying no to a thousand

things to make sure we don't get on the

wrong track or try to do too much by

Steve Jobs

everything changed after Steve Jobs

returned to Apple in 1997 decisions were

made to achieve the excellence in

execution stopped licensing program

eliminated 70% of new projects product

line was reduced from 15 to only 3

website was launched for direct sales

sophisticated marketing kept product

development complete secret shutdown

facilities and move them abroad

inventory was reduced from months to a

few days Apple also adopted the platform

strategy for its products they designed

the initial product as a platform with

an architecture that accommodated the

development and the production of the

derivative products customer's

experience was integrated into Apple's

product design and development a lot of

it empirically drives with iterative

customer involvement Apple worked

intimately with manufacturers and

assured that their products be

completely attuned to customers Apple's

product always evolves the importance of

design is a motivation to continued

innovation rather than a static approach

that assumes a single conclusion

third CEO as chief innovator the really

great person will keep on going and find

the key underlying principle of the

problem and come up with a beautiful

elegant solution that works Steve Levy

author of the perfect thing company

founders essentially imprint their

organizations with their own personality

characteristics and Apple Jobs is no

exception Steve Jobs and Apple seem like

interchangeable terms Steve Jobs drive

for perfection was apples drive for

beautiful elegant products and its

superior operations Steve Jobs vision

held that Apple's products were to be

personal tools for individuals instead

of enterprise solution Steve Jobs also

had total hands-on involvement and

decision making from strategy to product

and service design to packaging forth

bold business experimentation the

greatest artists like Dylan Picasso and

Newton risks failure and if we want to

be great we've got to risk it - Steve

Jobs when everyone was moving online

Apple decided to move into retail and

created every Apple store with the same

painstaking focus on details against

conventional wisdom of open platform

collaboration community design

transparency Apple insisted to develop

and integrate its own hardware software

and keep product launches secret

Apple is also constantly learning

adapting and evolving from the design of

array of colors to black and white color

theme from the closed developer

community to the open developer platform

from no compatibility for other OS to

Windows compatible in summary the root

of Apple's success was a set of

principles with a deep commitment to

great products and services at its core

design thinking clear development

strategy and execution its CEO as chief

innovator and the rational courage to

conduct bold business experiments for

more presentations about innovation

management and technology

commercialization please visit WWE