Introduction
Charles Darwin’s sentiments of adapt or die might look far-fetched, but in relation to innovative companies and their ability to adapt, the views are taken in literal terms. For this paper, the innovative company chosen for discussion is Apple Inc.
Though Apple started off as a simple traditional company that manufactured computers, it currently makes a variety of electronic devices such as television sets, music players, tablets, and smartphones. As such, due to the many manufacturing companies producing similar laptops, the company adapted and shifted its focus from laptop to electronic devices that were more marketable and could keep the company on top of the food chain. According to Helfat (2013), part of Apple’s huge success has been its ability to adapt and overcome path dependence. Path dependence is the phenomenon of a company heading down the same line of production regardless of the changing world around them. As such, Apple has never maintained a strong path dependence. Instead, it has constantly adapted to new paths basing on the market trends subsequently reinventing themselves and entering new businesses thus always gaining an edge over its competitors.
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The company was responsible for inventing personal computing as its main path of production. However, due to the changing trends and the high demand for mobile devices, the company had to adapt significantly and somewhat turn its back on its original invention. As such, Apple has seen multi-million dollars’ profit on the new invention making it a market leader in technologically-based products and inventions, yet the company is not a technological leader. Moreover, Apple has been able to swing its dynamic capabilities such as product trajectory, initial differentiation, changing the price of its products, and surveying customer needs in a bid to escape unfavorable scenarios such as low-end disruption (Thompson, 2010). The company’s ability to employ these means of adaptation led it to become the most profitable product manufacturer in the rivalry between Macintosh and Microsoft prior to the advancement of Windows 95. Still, in its wake of adaptation, Apple invented the iPod together with the click wheel and the iPhone multi-touch. However, in this line, the most inventive adaptation was iTunes in a world where the only way to listen to music was through MP3 players and where to add music to the player one had to mount the device to the computer. As such, iTunes was a useful adaptation as it solved the problem and maintained an excellent user experience through its simplicity. Elaborately, in 2003, the company saw an 8,279 million increase in revenue as well as a 286% growth in profits (Thompson, 2010).
Conclusion
A company’s ability to adapt to the dynamic business environment could be the fundamental and key reason for its success or failure. In this accord, adaptation is vital and should be employed by any innovative company looking to become a formidable force in the industry. Otherwise, true to Darwin’s words, the company will die due to path dependency.
References
Helfat, C. (2013). How Apple and IBM Learned to Change With the Times. U.S. News & World Report. Web. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2013/07/02/apple-and-ibm-show-the-power-of-dynamic-capabilities
Thompson, B. (2010). Apple and the Innovator’s Dilemma. Stratechery. Web. Retrieved from https://stratechery.com/2010/apple-innovators-dilemma/
