this case study exhibits apples

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

How Apple Is Organized for Innovation

• Joel M. Podolny
• Morten T. Hansen

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, in 1997, it had a conventional structure for a company of its size and scope. It was divided into business units, each with its own P&L responsibilities. Believing that conventional management had stifled innovation, Jobs laid off the general managers of all the business units (in a single day), put the entire company under one P&L, and combined the disparate functional departments of the business units into one functional organization. Although such a structure is common for small entrepreneurial firms, Apple—remarkably—retains it today, even though the company is nearly 40 times as large in terms of revenue and far more complex than it was in 1997. In this article the authors discuss the innovation benefits and leadership challenges of Apple’s distinctive and ever-evolving organizational model in the belief that it may be useful for other companies competing in rapidly changing environments.

It’s about experts leading experts.

Idea in Brief

The challenge.

Major companies competing in many industries struggle to stay abreast of rapidly changing technologies.

One Major Cause

They are typically organized into business units, each with its own set of functions. Thus the key decision makers—the unit leaders—lack a deep understanding of all the domains that answer to them.

The Apple Model

The company is organized around functions, and expertise aligns with decision rights. Leaders are cross-functionally collaborative and deeply knowledgeable about details.

Apple is well-known for its innovations in hardware, software, and services. Thanks to them, it grew from some 8,000 employees and $7 billion in revenue in 1997, the year Steve Jobs returned, to 137,000 employees and $260 billion in revenue in 2019. Much less well-known are the organizational design and the associated leadership model that have played a crucial role in the company’s innovation success.

• Joel M. Podolny is the dean and vice president of Apple University in Cupertino, California. The former dean of the Yale School of Management, Podolny was a professor at Harvard Business School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
• MH Morten T. Hansen is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and a faculty member at Apple University, Apple. He is the author of Great at Work and Collaboration and coauthor of Great by Choice . He was named one of the top management thinkers in the world by the Thinkers50 in 2019. MortentHansen

Partner Center

• About / Contact
• Privacy Policy
• Alphabetical List of Companies
• Business Analysis Topics

Apple’s Company Culture: An Organizational Analysis

Apple’s organizational culture is a key factor in the continuing success of its business. The consumer electronics company’s organizational or corporate culture establishes and maintains the business philosophy, core values, beliefs, and related behaviors among employees. This business analysis case shows that Apple has a work culture that motivates human resources to support strategic objectives for competitiveness. For example, the company’s cultural traits are aligned with the drive for innovation, which is a major factor that determines business competitiveness in the information technology, online services, and consumer electronics industries. With this company culture, business operations facilitate the fulfillment of Apple’s mission and vision . Through the leadership of Tim Cook, the company continues to enhance its cultural characteristics to maximize human resource support for business relevance in various markets around the world. Apple shapes its business culture and uses it as a tool for strategic management and multinational business success.

Apple’s company culture strengthens competitive advantages over other firms in various industries. The company’s products compete with the consumer electronics and online services of Google (Alphabet) , Samsung , Microsoft , Amazon , and Sony . Also, Apple TV Plus competes with the video streaming services of Disney , Facebook (Meta) , and Netflix . These competitors impose a strong external force that influences strategic management among firms in the industry, as illustrated in the Five Forces analysis of Apple Inc . As a result, cultural traits must reinforce the iPhone maker’s business competitive advantages through its workforce. It can be argued that Apple partially achieves this strategic objective through the effects of its organizational culture on workers’ behavior and job performance.

Apple’s Culture Type and Traits

Apple has an organizational culture for creative innovation . The company’s cultural features focus on maintaining a high level of innovation that involves workers’ creativity and a mindset that challenges conventions and standards, such as in consumer electronics design. Apple’s IT business depends on cultural support and coherence, which are determinants of competitiveness and industry leadership, especially in addressing aggressive and rapid technological innovation and product development. The following are the main characteristics of Apple’s culture:

• Top-notch excellence
• Moderate combativeness

Top-notch Excellence . Apple’s organizational culture comes with a human resource policy of hiring only the best of the best in the labor market. Steve Jobs was known to fire employees who did not meet his expectations. This tradition continues under Tim Cook. Such a tradition maintains and reinforces a company culture that promotes, appreciates, and expects top-notch excellence among the technology company’s employees. This cultural trait is also institutionalized in Apple’s organization. For example, the company has programs that recognize and reward excellence among workers in software design. Excellence is emphasized as a critical success factor in the business, especially in product design and development, which is a major growth strategy described in Apple’s competitive strategy and growth strategies .

Creativity . This cultural trait pertains to creating new ideas that help improve the technology business and its products. Apple’s management favors creativity among employees’ knowledge, skills, and abilities. This characteristic of the work culture enables the company to ensure sufficient creativity, especially among employees involved in consumer electronics product design and development processes. Creativity is observable in the design and features of iPhones, Macs, iPads, and other products included in Apple’s marketing mix (4Ps) . Along with creativity, originality is also culturally emphasized as a way of maximizing the company’s intellectual properties, such as patents for new mobile devices. In this regard, the organizational culture helps maintain Apple’s capacity to satisfy and exceed customers’ expectations and preferences.

Innovation . Apple’s company culture supports rapid innovation. The technology business is frequently appraised as one of the most innovative companies in the world. Based on this cultural trait, Apple trains and motivates its employees to innovate in terms of individual work performance and idea contributions for product development, design, and other processes. The work culture facilitates rapid innovation, which is at the heart of Apple’s operations management . Rapid innovation ensures that the company continues to introduce new products that are profitable and attractive to target customers in the global consumer electronics and Internet services market.

Secrecy . Apple has a secretive organizational culture. This cultural characteristic defines the MacBook maker’s human resource development and management practices. Secrecy is part of the company’s strategy to prevent theft of proprietary information or intellectual property, such as designs for the next generations of the iPhone. It is also a strategic management approach that enables Apple Inc. to maximize its leading edge against competitors. Through the company culture, employees are motivated and expected to keep business information within the technology business organization. This cultural trait is reinforced through Apple’s organizational structure (business structure) and related policies, rules, and employment contracts that prohibit the disclosure of information, such as technological breakthroughs in the company’s consumer electronics. In this context, Apple’s work culture helps protect the business from corporate espionage and the negative effects of employee poaching.

Moderate Combativeness . Apple’s company culture has moderate combativeness. This feature is linked to Steve Jobs and his combative approach to leadership. He was known to randomly challenge employees to ensure that they have what it takes to work at Apple. Today, under Tim Cook’s leadership, the company has been changing its corporate culture to a more sociable and a less combative one. Nonetheless, combativeness remains a major influence in the technology business. Apple’s business culture exhibits a moderate degree of combativeness that presents challenges that motivate employees to enhance their output.

Apple’s Organizational Culture: Advantages, Disadvantages, Recommendations

Advantages and Benefits . The combination of top-notch excellence, creativity, and innovation in Apple’s organizational culture supports the company’s industry leadership. The business is widely regarded as a leader in terms of innovation and product design, especially in consumer electronics. These cultural characteristics empower Apple and its human resources to stand out and stay ahead of competitors. This company culture enables success and competitive advantages, as well as the further strengthening of the company’s brand, which is one of the key business strengths shown in the SWOT analysis of Apple Inc . Creativity and excellence are especially important in the company’s rapid innovation processes for continuous competitiveness and business development despite aggressive competition with Samsung and other firms.

Drawbacks and Weaknesses . Apple’s corporate culture brings challenges because of the emphasis on secrecy and the moderate degree of combativeness. An atmosphere of secrecy can limit rapport among workers, while moderate combativeness has the potential to limit or reduce employees’ morale. These cultural issues can reduce business effectiveness and increase employee turnover. Apple Inc. can address this situation by modifying its organizational culture to reduce combativeness, but not necessarily remove it. This recommendation focuses on reducing the disadvantages of combativeness, without eliminating the benefits of combative approaches in the technology company’s operations. Also, Apple can integrate new cultural traits to keep the business relevant, given trends and changes in the information technology, cloud services, digital content distribution, and consumer electronics industries’ environment.

• Choi, Y., Ingram, P., & Han, S. W. (2023). Cultural breadth and embeddedness: The individual adoption of organizational culture as a determinant of creativity. Administrative Science Quarterly, 68 (2), 429-464.
• Apple Inc. – Inclusion & Diversity .
• Apple Inc. – Life at Apple .
• Apple Inc. – Work at Apple .
• Dyer, C. (2023). The Power of Company Culture: How any business can build a culture that improves productivity, performance and profits . Kogan Page Publishers.
• Zhang, W., Zeng, X., Liang, H., Xue, Y., & Cao, X. (2023). Understanding how organizational culture affects innovation performance: A management context perspective. Sustainability, 15 (8), 6644.
• Copyright by Panmore Institute - All rights reserved.
• This article may not be reproduced, distributed, or mirrored without written permission from Panmore Institute and its author/s.
• Educators, Researchers, and Students: You are permitted to quote or paraphrase parts of this article (not the entire article) for educational or research purposes, as long as the article is properly cited and referenced together with its URL/link.

• Find a Lawyer
• Ask a Lawyer
• Research the Law
• Law Schools
• Laws & Regs
• Newsletters
• Justia Connect
• Pro Membership
• Basic Membership
• Justia Lawyer Directory
• Platinum Placements
• Gold Placements
• Justia Elevate
• Justia Amplify
• PPC Management
• Google Business Profile
• Social Media
• Justia Onward Blog

Apple Inc. v. Qualcomm Inc., No. 20-1683 (Fed. Cir. 2021)

Qualcomm accused Apple of infringing various patents. Apple petitioned the Patent Trial and Appeal Board for inter partes review (IPR) of those patents. In 2019, the parties settled all their patent-infringement litigation worldwide and entered a six-year global patent license agreement with a two-year extension option, resulting in the dismissal of the infringement case with prejudice. The Board determined that Apple failed to prove various claims unpatentable. The Federal Circuit dismissed Apple’s appeal for lack of standing. Subsequently, Qualcomm again accused Apple of infringement and Apple again sought IPR. Then came the settlement and license agreement, resulting in the dismissal of the district court action with prejudice. The Board then issued final written decisions concluding that Apple had not proven various claims unpatentable. The Federal Circuit again dismissed an appeal for lack of Article III standing and rejected Apple’s request that, if it lacked jurisdiction, it should vacate the Board’s decisions “to eliminate any doubt about the applicability of estoppel.”

Federal Circuit dismisses, for lack of standing, an appeal from inter partes review after the parties settled an infringement suit.

Disclaimer: Justia Annotations is a forum for attorneys to summarize, comment on, and analyze case law published on our site. Justia makes no guarantees or warranties that the annotations are accurate or reflect the current state of law, and no annotation is intended to be, nor should it be construed as, legal advice. Contacting Justia or any attorney through this site, via web form, email, or otherwise, does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.

Get free summaries of new Federal Circuit US Court of Appeals opinions delivered to your inbox!

• Bankruptcy Lawyers
• Business Lawyers
• Criminal Lawyers
• Employment Lawyers
• Estate Planning Lawyers
• Family Lawyers
• Personal Injury Lawyers
• Estate Planning
• Personal Injury
• Business Formation
• Business Operations
• Intellectual Property
• International Trade
• Real Estate
• Financial Aid
• Course Outlines
• Law Journals
• US Constitution
• Regulations
• Supreme Court
• Circuit Courts
• District Courts
• Dockets & Filings
• State Constitutions
• State Codes
• State Case Law
• Legal Blogs
• Business Forms
• Product Recalls
• Justia Connect Membership
• Justia Premium Placements
• Justia Elevate (SEO, Websites)
• Justia Amplify (PPC, GBP)
• Testimonials

Apple’s Innovation Strategy

August 21, 2012

Case Description

Apple is perhaps the most innovative company in the world, but how has it achieved such success and what is its approach to design thinking and innovation? This case study highlights the ingredients of Apple’s success and its strategy to innovation.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction – Apple without Steve Jobs
• 2. Background Note
• 3. Consumer Delighting Innovation
• 4. Innovative Business Models
• 4.1. Apple’s innovative value proposition
• 4.2. Innovation Culture, not process driven
• 4.3. Focus Strategy – Apple says ‘no’
• 4.4. Apple’s Mindshare to Marketshare Retail strategy
• 4.4.1. Sony vs. Apple
• 4.4.2. Apple’s Retail Strategy
• 4.4.3. Apple’s Experiential Marketing
• 4.4.4. The Apple Lifestyle
• 4.4.5. Apple Store facts
• 4.4.6. Microsoft vs. Apple
• 4.5. Apple’s Four Quadrant product grid
• 4.6. Attention to Detail and Simplicity in Design
• Bibliography
• Exhibit 1 – Innovations like the iPod, iPhone & iPhone among others have helped propel Apple’s share price from $9 US in 2000 to almost $400 US in 2011
• Exhibit 2 – Apple’s Product Line-up
• Exhibit 3 – Comparison of Google and Apple’s innovation models
• Exhibit 4 – Apple’s Design Process
• Exhibit 5 – Timeline
• Exhibit 6 – Overcoming Barriers to Open Innovation
• Exhibit 7 – Apple’s growth with and without Steve Jobs (1980 – 2010)
• Exhibit 8 – Top 10 World’s most innovative companies
• Exhibit 9 – Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators

Sample Page – Introduction – Apple without Steve Jobs

In August 2011, Steve Jobs (Steve), Apple Inc.’s founder and CEO announced his decision to resign. Stock prices fell more than 5% with Apple’s most recognized person leaving behind a legacy of innovation, a process he had begun after rejoining the company in 1997. Steve’s passion for building great breakthrough products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad with elegant, minimalist design had made Apple an icon for innovation. Without Steve, many felt that the company would struggle while CEO Tim Cook felt that Apple would continue to innovate and not just survive, but also succeed. However, with or without Steve, the challenge that Apple faces will be the same – Innovate and build breakthrough products because customers buy Apple products not because of Steve Jobs, but because they are breakthrough innovations that have translated into sales.

Case Snippets/Updates

• Apple’s R&D spending : Contrary to belief, Apple spends very less on research and development. An estimate suggests that the company spends only 3% of its revenues on R&D. In Q1 2012 as well, Apple spent $758 million on R&D much less than its competitors Microsoft, Nokia and Google.

• +91- 9640901313 [email protected]
• Search for a Case
• Press Release

• Case Studies

Apple`s Green Bonds

About Apple’s Green Bond Issue

Apple forayed into green bonds in February 2016. This was the first time any US tech company had issued green bonds. It started with a green bond issue worth US$ 1.5 billion. Then, in June 2017, the company issued US$ 1 billion worth of green bonds. This was followed by a US$ 2.2 billion bond issue in November 2019 in the European market (Refer to Exhibit II for details of various other bond issues by Apple) The reasons for the company issuing green bonds were to invest in electric vehicles, sustainability projects of wind and solar plants, energy renewable resources, reduction of carbon emissions, and recycling of materials..

Looking Ahead

Till March 2022, Apple had issued a total of US$ 4.7 billion worth of green bonds to speed up its efforts to achieve its goal of 100% carbon neutrality by 2030..

Exhibit I: Selected Financial Information of Apple Inc. Exhibit II: Various Bonds Issued by Apple Exhibit III: Details about Apple Green Bond ISIN US037833CX61 at a Glance Exhibit IV: Price Movements of the Apple Inc. Bond

Buy this case study (Please select any one of the payment options)

Copyright © 2020 - 2025 All Rights Reserved - icmrindia.org

• Predictive Analytics Workshops
• Corporate Strategy Workshops
• Advanced Excel for MBA
• Powerpoint Workshops
• Digital Transformation
• Competing on Business Analytics
• Aligning Analytics with Strategy
• Building & Sustaining Competitive Advantages
• Corporate Strategy
• Aligning Strategy & Sales
• Digital Marketing
• Hypothesis Testing
• Time Series Analysis
• Regression Analysis
• Machine Learning
• Marketing Strategy
• Branding & Advertising
• Risk Management
• Hedging Strategies
• Network Plotting
• Bar Charts & Time Series
• Technical Analysis of Stocks MACD
• NPV Worksheet
• ABC Analysis Worksheet
• WACC Worksheet
• Porter 5 Forces
• Porter Value Chain
• Amazing Charts
• Garnett Chart
• HBR Case Solution
• 4P Analysis
• 5C Analysis
• NPV Analysis
• SWOT Analysis
• PESTEL Analysis
• Cost Optimization

A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B)

• Leadership & Managing People / MBA EMBA Resources

Next Case Study Solutions

• Monnikenheide Case Study Solution
• Revisiting Gang Violence in Boston Case Study Solution
• To What End? Re-thinking Terrorist Attack Exercises in San Jose (Sequel 2) Case Study Solution
• The World Bank in 2012: Choosing a Leader Case Study Solution
• National Kidney Foundation: CEO with a Golden Tap Case Study Solution

Previous Case Solutions

• Defence Research and Development Canada - Toronto (A): The Organizational Alignment Program Case Study Solution
• The Challenge of Adapting to Climate Change: King County Brings Local Action to a Global Threat: Sequel Case Study Solution
• JA Worldwide: Managing Change in Multi-Governed Environment Case Study Solution
• American National Red Cross (A), Spanish Version Case Study Solution
• Deborah Cullinan and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Case Study Solution

Predictive Analytics

July 19, 2024

Popular Tags

Case study solutions.

Case Study Solution | Assignment Help | Case Help

A city's desert: no apples in the big apple (b) description.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Physical Activity and Nutrition Program needed to come up with an innovative solution to the many health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease that plagued residents of poorer areas in the city, while increasing economic opportunity for neighborhood residents. The result was the launching of Green Carts, a new mobile food vending initiative to support the introduction of healthier food options to residents of "food deserts" in New York City boroughs. The challenge was navigating the diverse landscape of players and engaging all of the relevant stakeholders to come up with a solution that was both feasible and sustainable. This case exemplifies the how partnership and strategic alliances can be used to have significant social impact. The beauty of this example is that it simultaneously addresses two large social issues: 1) access to healthy food options in urban food deserts and 2) creating self-employment opportunities for members of disadvantaged communities. This case also illustrates how the public sector can act as social innovators.

Case Description A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B)

Strategic managment tools used in case study analysis of a city's desert: no apples in the big apple (b), step 1. problem identification in a city's desert: no apples in the big apple (b) case study, step 2. external environment analysis - pestel / pest / step analysis of a city's desert: no apples in the big apple (b) case study, step 3. industry specific / porter five forces analysis of a city's desert: no apples in the big apple (b) case study, step 4. evaluating alternatives / swot analysis of a city's desert: no apples in the big apple (b) case study, step 5. porter value chain analysis / vrio / vrin analysis a city's desert: no apples in the big apple (b) case study, step 6. recommendations a city's desert: no apples in the big apple (b) case study, step 7. basis of recommendations for a city's desert: no apples in the big apple (b) case study, quality & on time delivery.

100% money back guarantee if the quality doesn't match the promise

100% Plagiarism Free

If the work we produce contain plagiarism then we payback 1000 USD

Paypal Secure

All your payments are secure with Paypal security.

300 Words per Page

We provide 300 words per page unlike competitors' 250 or 275

Free Title Page, Citation Page, References, Exhibits, Revision, Charts

Case study solutions are career defining. Order your custom solution now.

Case Analysis of A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B)

A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) is a Harvard Business (HBR) Case Study on Leadership & Managing People , Texas Business School provides HBR case study assignment help for just $9. Texas Business School(TBS) case study solution is based on HBR Case Study Method framework, TBS expertise & global insights. A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) is designed and drafted in a manner to allow the HBR case study reader to analyze a real-world problem by putting reader into the position of the decision maker. A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) case study will help professionals, MBA, EMBA, and leaders to develop a broad and clear understanding of casecategory challenges. A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) will also provide insight into areas such as – wordlist , strategy, leadership, sales and marketing, and negotiations.

Case Study Solutions Background Work

A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) case study solution is focused on solving the strategic and operational challenges the protagonist of the case is facing. The challenges involve – evaluation of strategic options, key role of Leadership & Managing People, leadership qualities of the protagonist, and dynamics of the external environment. The challenge in front of the protagonist, of A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B), is to not only build a competitive position of the organization but also to sustain it over a period of time.

Strategic Management Tools Used in Case Study Solution

The A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) case study solution requires the MBA, EMBA, executive, professional to have a deep understanding of various strategic management tools such as SWOT Analysis, PESTEL Analysis / PEST Analysis / STEP Analysis, Porter Five Forces Analysis, Go To Market Strategy, BCG Matrix Analysis, Porter Value Chain Analysis, Ansoff Matrix Analysis, VRIO / VRIN and Marketing Mix Analysis.

Texas Business School Approach to Leadership & Managing People Solutions

In the Texas Business School, A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) case study solution – following strategic tools are used - SWOT Analysis, PESTEL Analysis / PEST Analysis / STEP Analysis, Porter Five Forces Analysis, Go To Market Strategy, BCG Matrix Analysis, Porter Value Chain Analysis, Ansoff Matrix Analysis, VRIO / VRIN and Marketing Mix Analysis. We have additionally used the concept of supply chain management and leadership framework to build a comprehensive case study solution for the case – A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B)

Step 1 – Problem Identification of A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) - Harvard Business School Case Study

The first step to solve HBR A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) case study solution is to identify the problem present in the case. The problem statement of the case is provided in the beginning of the case where the protagonist is contemplating various options in the face of numerous challenges that Deserts Food is facing right now. Even though the problem statement is essentially – “Leadership & Managing People” challenge but it has impacted by others factors such as communication in the organization, uncertainty in the external environment, leadership in Deserts Food, style of leadership and organization structure, marketing and sales, organizational behavior, strategy, internal politics, stakeholders priorities and more.

Step 2 – External Environment Analysis

Texas Business School approach of case study analysis – Conclusion, Reasons, Evidences - provides a framework to analyze every HBR case study. It requires conducting robust external environmental analysis to decipher evidences for the reasons presented in the A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B). The external environment analysis of A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) will ensure that we are keeping a tab on the macro-environment factors that are directly and indirectly impacting the business of the firm.

What is PESTEL Analysis? Briefly Explained

PESTEL stands for political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors that impact the external environment of firm in A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) case study. PESTEL analysis of " A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B)" can help us understand why the organization is performing badly, what are the factors in the external environment that are impacting the performance of the organization, and how the organization can either manage or mitigate the impact of these external factors.

How to do PESTEL / PEST / STEP Analysis? What are the components of PESTEL Analysis?

As mentioned above PESTEL Analysis has six elements – political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal. All the six elements are explained in context with A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) macro-environment and how it impacts the businesses of the firm.

How to do PESTEL Analysis for A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B)

To do comprehensive PESTEL analysis of case study – A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) , we have researched numerous components under the six factors of PESTEL analysis.

Political Factors that Impact A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B)

Political factors impact seven key decision making areas – economic environment, socio-cultural environment, rate of innovation & investment in research & development, environmental laws, legal requirements, and acceptance of new technologies.

Government policies have significant impact on the business environment of any country. The firm in “ A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) ” needs to navigate these policy decisions to create either an edge for itself or reduce the negative impact of the policy as far as possible.

Data safety laws – The countries in which Deserts Food is operating, firms are required to store customer data within the premises of the country. Deserts Food needs to restructure its IT policies to accommodate these changes. In the EU countries, firms are required to make special provision for privacy issues and other laws.

Competition Regulations – Numerous countries have strong competition laws both regarding the monopoly conditions and day to day fair business practices. A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) has numerous instances where the competition regulations aspects can be scrutinized.

Import restrictions on products – Before entering the new market, Deserts Food in case study A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B)" should look into the import restrictions that may be present in the prospective market.

Export restrictions on products – Apart from direct product export restrictions in field of technology and agriculture, a number of countries also have capital controls. Deserts Food in case study “ A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) ” should look into these export restrictions policies.

Foreign Direct Investment Policies – Government policies favors local companies over international policies, Deserts Food in case study “ A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) ” should understand in minute details regarding the Foreign Direct Investment policies of the prospective market.

Corporate Taxes – The rate of taxes is often used by governments to lure foreign direct investments or increase domestic investment in a certain sector. Corporate taxation can be divided into two categories – taxes on profits and taxes on operations. Taxes on profits number is important for companies that already have a sustainable business model, while taxes on operations is far more significant for companies that are looking to set up new plants or operations.

Tariffs – Chekout how much tariffs the firm needs to pay in the “ A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) ” case study. The level of tariffs will determine the viability of the business model that the firm is contemplating. If the tariffs are high then it will be extremely difficult to compete with the local competitors. But if the tariffs are between 5-10% then Deserts Food can compete against other competitors.

Research and Development Subsidies and Policies – Governments often provide tax breaks and other incentives for companies to innovate in various sectors of priority. Managers at A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B) case study have to assess whether their business can benefit from such government assistance and subsidies.

Consumer protection – Different countries have different consumer protection laws. Managers need to clarify not only the consumer protection laws in advance but also legal implications if the firm fails to meet any of them.

Political System and Its Implications – Different political systems have different approach to free market and entrepreneurship. Managers need to assess these factors even before entering the market.

Freedom of Press is critical for fair trade and transparency. Countries where freedom of press is not prevalent there are high chances of both political and commercial corruption.

Corruption level – Deserts Food needs to assess the level of corruptions both at the official level and at the market level, even before entering a new market. To tackle the menace of corruption – a firm should have a clear SOP that provides managers at each level what to do when they encounter instances of either systematic corruption or bureaucrats looking to take bribes from the firm.

Independence of judiciary – It is critical for fair business practices. If a country doesn’t have independent judiciary then there is no point entry into such a country for business.

Government attitude towards trade unions – Different political systems and government have different attitude towards trade unions and collective bargaining. The firm needs to assess – its comfort dealing with the unions and regulations regarding unions in a given market or industry. If both are on the same page then it makes sense to enter, otherwise it doesn’t.

Economic Factors that Impact A City's Desert: No Apples in the Big Apple? (B)

Social factors that impact a city's desert: no apples in the big apple (b), technological factors that impact a city's desert: no apples in the big apple (b), environmental factors that impact a city's desert: no apples in the big apple (b), legal factors that impact a city's desert: no apples in the big apple (b), step 3 – industry specific analysis, what is porter five forces analysis, step 4 – swot analysis / internal environment analysis, step 5 – porter value chain / vrio / vrin analysis, step 6 – evaluating alternatives & recommendations, step 7 – basis for recommendations, references :: a city's desert: no apples in the big apple (b) case study solution.

• sales & marketing ,
• leadership ,
• corporate governance ,
• Advertising & Branding ,
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ,

Amanda Watson

Leave your thought here

© 2019 Texas Business School. All Rights Reserved

USEFUL LINKS

Follow us on.

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive news on update.

Dark Brown Leather Watch

$200.00 $180.00

Dining Chair

$300.00 $220.00

Creative Wooden Stand

$100.00 $80.00

2 x $180.00

2 x $220.00

Subtotal: $200.00

Free Shipping on All Orders Over $100!

Wooden round table

$360.00 $300.00

Hurley Dry-Fit Chino Short. Men's chino short. Outseam Length: 19 Dri-FIT Technology helps keep you dry and comfortable. Made with sweat-wicking fabric. Fitted waist with belt loops. Button waist with zip fly provides a classic look and feel .

Apple iPhone: A Market Case Study

• MacEwan University Student eJournal 5(1)
• CC BY-NC 4.0
• This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.

Abstract and Figures

Discover the world's research

• 25+ million members
• 160+ million publication pages
• 2.3+ billion citations

• Jialing Huang
• Weihong Justin Jiang

• P S Rajeswari
• Kyle L. Mickalowski

• J Dudovskiy
• Usa Idc Corporate
• Recruit researchers
• Join for free
• Login Email Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google Welcome back! Please log in. Email · Hint Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google No account? Sign up

• Harvard Business School →
• Faculty & Research →
• December 2014 (Revised April 2015)
• HBS Case Collection

Apple, Einhorn, and iPrefs

• Format: Print
• | Language: English

About The Author

Carliss Y. Baldwin

Related work.

• Faculty Research
• November 2019

Apple, Einhorn, and iPrefs (Abridged)

• Apple, Einhorn, and iPrefs  By: Carliss Y. Baldwin, Hanoch Feit, Edward A. Minasian and Brandon Van Buren
• Apple, Einhorn, and iPrefs (Abridged)  By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and W. Carl Kester

Apple Organizational Culture and Structure: A Case Study

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Need to analyze organizational culture of Apple corporation? Use this case study to get inspired! It focuses on Apple company culture, leadership, and the system of decision making.

Introduction

• Organizational Structure
• Organizational Culture
• Decision Making

Apple Inc is an American corporation that produces electronics, software, and many other online solutions. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded this company in 1976 as a small company specializing in software products. This company has experienced massive growth over the years to become one of the leading electronic companies in the global market. Its dedicated team of managers, strategists, and employees saw its brand ranked the best in the world in the year 2010 and 2011. The sales volume at this firm has been very impressive, especially because of its unique capacity to bring new innovative products to the market. The management of this firm has been keen on tapping special skills of its employees to the advantage of the entire firm. In this study, the researcher seeks to analyze the structure, culture, leadership, human nature, decision-making, and employees’ goals and objectives.

Apple Organizational Structure

According to Lüsted (2012), organizational structure defines the manner in which an organization is governed. At Apple Inc, the organizational structure is designed into three levels of top management unit. The figure below helps in defining the organizational structure at Apple Inc.

At the top management level of this firm is the board of directors who are responsible for all the strategic decision making processes. The chairperson and all other board members except three officers hold non-executive positions in this board. This means that other than their role as the board members, they do not hold any other executive position in this firm. However, they play an important role in policy formulation and approving major decisions that may have serious impacts on the firm. The other three board members who hold executive positions are the chief executive officer, chief operating officer, and the chief financial officers. These board members have specific executive roles to play besides sitting in the board as directors. The chief executive officer is the executive head of the firm that heads the firm in its quest to achieve strategic objectives.

Below these top executives are the departmental heads. They include the head of marketing department, head of the logistics unit, head of production department, head of the insurance unit, and the chief accountant. These departmental heads work very closely with the three top executives to ensure that the policies of the organization are implemented as per the desires of the shareholders of the company. Under the departmental heads are operational managers who are responsible for specific tasks within various departments in the organization. As mentioned before, Apple Inc is a multinational corporation that has successfully penetrated the global market. In order to ensure that its operations at the global market run smoothly, the top management has created regional heads under the office of the chief operating officer. These regional heads are located in various continental headquarters of this firm in Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and Africa. They work under the directives of the head of marketing department, but are answerable to the chief operating officer. These regional heads are responsible for the appointment and supervision of all the activities of representatives of Apple Inc in various countries under their jurisdiction. The junior most officers at this firm are the employees in various departments who do not hold any managerial positions at the firm.

Apple’s Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is one of the most important aspects of organization that the management of Apple Inc has been keen on defining. According to Lüsted (2012), employees form a very important aspect of a given firm. Sometimes it may be challenging to find a way of making them reason from the same perspective, especially for a firm that is operating in a global market such as Apple Inc. Organizational culture helps in defining the behavioral pattern of all the stakeholders within the firm. Every employee is able to determine what he or she should do and what should be avoided when handling various tasks within an organization. This way, the management unit is able to predict the possible cause of action that a given stakeholder will take when addressing various duties.

At Apple Inc, organizational culture is deeply rooted in the firm’s values and beliefs. One of the most important values of this customer is to maintain integrity in all its operations. This value has been instilled in all the stakeholders that it has become a cultural practice in this firm. Maintaining the integrity at this firm does not only involve avoiding bribery but also any other negative practices that are meant to give the firm undue advantage in the market over others.

In its value statement, Apple commits to deliver high quality products that meet the needs of customers in a unique manner. This value statement has defined the behavioral pattern of the employees not only at the production centers, but also in the entire production chain. According to Bach (2007), Steve Jobs created a belief among the employees of this firm that they can be perfectionists if they gave it a serious thought. This belief has had serious impacts on the behavioral pattern of the employees, especially those in the production unit. They are always keen on using their skills to develop unique products that they know will meet the demands of the diversified clients. It is out of this concerted effort of the employees that has made Apple Inc be classified as the most innovative firm in the world for three consecutive years (Lüsted, 2012). Cultural tolerance has been an important practice at this firm. Apple Inc employs people from varied cultural backgrounds. In most of the cases, these employees find themselves working within the same setting, making it necessary for them to integrate in order to achieve a common goal. The management has been keen on championing programs that are meant to enhance cultural tolerance and integration at the workplace. These values have worked closely to create a unique culture at this firm where employees work without any close supervision, and diversity is looked at as strength, not a source of rift within the firm. These forces have played a major role in enhancing the position of this firm as one of the top electronic companies in the global market.

Leadership in Apple

According to Lüsted (2012), leadership is one of the most important factors that define the success of a firm in any given organization. Apple achieved its success because of the leadership skills exhibited by its top management unit, specifically Steve Jobs. According to Gillam (2012), it is almost impossible to talk about Apple Inc without talking about the leadership qualities of Steve Jobs. It is important to analyze history of this firm briefly in order to understand the role of leadership. When this firm was established in 1976, Steve Jobs and his co-founders embarked on a serious program to expand the production capacity of Apple Inc. Although the three agreed to share the top management role, it was apparent that Steve Jobs was in control of the firm at this early stage. His management skills enabled the firm to expand rapidly. After a few years, it grew into a large company that had to be run by a board of directors. In 1985, a new chief executive was brought in to help in taking this firm to the next level. Mr. John Sculley was hired as the chief executive because of his wealth of knowledge in this industry.

However, his management strategies created confrontations between the new chief executive and Steve Jobs. At this time, Jobs was the head of production unit. The differences between these two executives became irreconcilable, and when the board of directors came in to address the issue, Jobs was demoted from his post as the head of operations of this firm. These developments forced Jobs to resign from this firm, opting to run his own firm. The era that followed the departure of Steve Jobs was very disastrous for this firm. The leadership under Mr. John Sculley failed to provide a lasting solution to some of the problems that the firm was facing in its expansion program. Mr. Sculley failed to come up with an effective strategy of integrating all the stakeholders and addressing their interests in the best manner possible. He did not stay at the head of this firm for long before he was replaced. Apple Inc realized the real success in the market after the return of Steve Jobs as the chief executive officer in 2007.

As Zylla-Woellner (2013) notes, Jobs was a visionary leader. Under his tenure at this firm, Apple had a flexible leadership structure that was keen to be the driver of change. The management encouraged the employees to be innovative in all their areas of work in order to improve their efficiency and productivity. Tim Cook, who replaced Steve Jobs at the helm of this firm, inherited this leadership structure.

Apple’s System of Motivation

Understanding human nature and motivation is one of the best ways through which a firm can achieve success in the market. According to Lüsted (2012), Apple Inc is one of the best employers in the United States because of its employee management strategies. In order to achieve success through employees, a firm needs a system that would allow it to maintain their levels of motivation in order to boost their performance. Having a team of motivated employees eliminate the need for constant supervision because workers will be self-driven towards achieving an overall success for their employer. Apple uses two main strategies to motivate its employees. The first strategy is the material benefits that employees earn based on their performance on a yearly basis. According to Zylla-Woellner (2013), Apple is running programs where every year, employees with exceptional performance are selected from various departments are then given financial rewards for their effort. The program has been a motivating factor to the employees because they know that their effort will always be noticed.

The firm also uses other non-monetary strategies to maintain the employees’ motivation. Before his retirement as the chief executive officer of Apple Inc, Jobs introduced a system where employees are promoted based on their performance. Other than academic qualifications, an individual’s performance in the market played a major role in his or her career development at the firm. The firm has also been using an integrated communication system to enhance free flow of information from the employees to the management and back. This has created an environment where issues affecting individual employees are addressed as soon as they occur. It has played a major role in boosting the morale of the employees.

Decision Making at Apple Inc.

Decision making process remains one of the most vital management processes in any organization. Like many other organizations, Apple Inc has been using new technologies such as Decision Support System (DSS) to guide the management when making important decisions (Lashinsky, 2012). However, Tim Cook introduced a new system of making decisions that is based on the views of all the stakeholders, especially the employees of the organization. In this system, every sub-department is expected to make decisions that will enhance their operational activities. The decision each sub-department comes up with must be based on the views of individual employees within that unit. The head of sub-department will then draw a report explaining some of the best alternatives to solving a given problem. The report from all the sub-department will be submitted to the head of that department will sit with his panel in order to evaluate the options that each sub-department has given. The head of the department will then compile a report, explaining why a given approach of solving problem was chosen among the alternatives provided. This report will then be presented to the top management unit that will then be expected to make decisions based on the facts presented before them.

Strategy formulation at this firm is always based on the systematic approach that has been defined above when making decisions. The management has always emphasized on the importance of using the information from the junior employees when formulating its strategies. These junior employees are always on the ground, and therefore, they understand the reality in the field. This makes it necessary to involve them in the strategy formulation process in order to come up with practical approaches of addressing different tasks at this firm.

Employees & Apple Corporate Culture

It is vital for the management to understand the employees’ goals and objectives in order to find a way of aligning them with the objectives of the organization. The management of Apple Inc has not performed well in this area of management. Although the firm has effective systems that are meant to enhance employee motivation in the firm, there is yet to be a strategy used by this firm to define the employees’ goals and objectives. This means that Apple is yet to find the best strategy of aligning these personal goals to the overall goals of the firm

Apple Inc is one of the most successful firms in the current global society. The success of this firm can be attributed to its effective management structure and a team of dedicated employees. Steve Jobs played a major role in enabling the firm to attain its current glorious position in the electronic market.

Bach, B. (2007). Implications of enabling technologies for Apple Inc: Cybermarketing & enabling technologies . München: GRIN Verlag GmbH.

Gillam, S. (2012). Steve Jobs: Apple icon . Minneapolic, MN: ABDO Pub. Co.

Lashinsky, A. (2012). Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired–and Secretive–Company Really Works . New York: Grand Central Publishing.

Lüsted, M. A. (2012). Apple: The company and its visionary founder, Steve Jobs . Minneapolis, MN: ABDO Pub.

O’Grady, J. D. (2009). Apple Inc . Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press.

Zylla-Woellner, J. (2013). Business Analysis of Apple Inc . New Jersey: John Wiley.

• Amazon’s Channel Design and Partnership
• Coca-Cola's, Nestle's, Toyota's Organizational Structure
• Steve Jobs: Persistence and Innovations
• Corporate Social Responsibility in Apple Inc.
• Nature and Effectiveness of Steve Jobs Leadership
• New Gourmet Coffee Shop's Staffing Organization
• Wang Tea Company's Human Resources Plan
• Sinclair Broadcasting Group's Structure & Culture
• Disney’s Organizational Culture and Networking
• Corporate Business Structure' Benefits
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, June 22). Apple Organizational Culture and Structure: A Case Study. https://ivypanda.com/essays/apple-corporations-organizational-culture/

"Apple Organizational Culture and Structure: A Case Study." IvyPanda , 22 June 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/apple-corporations-organizational-culture/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Apple Organizational Culture and Structure: A Case Study'. 22 June.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Apple Organizational Culture and Structure: A Case Study." June 22, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/apple-corporations-organizational-culture/.

1. IvyPanda . "Apple Organizational Culture and Structure: A Case Study." June 22, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/apple-corporations-organizational-culture/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Apple Organizational Culture and Structure: A Case Study." June 22, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/apple-corporations-organizational-culture/.

MBA Knowledge Base

Business • Management • Technology

Home » Management Case Studies » Case Study of Apple: Competitive Advantage Through Innovation

Case Study of Apple: Competitive Advantage Through Innovation

Apple Inc. is an American consumer electronic company which designs, develops manufactures and supports the well-known hardware products such as Macintosh computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Most of Apple’s products seem to be a trigger of revolution in electronic market and this reason contribute Apple as a market leader . The main strategy to run its business is not only creating new innovation product but also incremental improvement . The strength of Apple is “think different” . With innovative ideas and aesthetic designs, Apple has changed how people listen to music and communicate . One of the success products of Apple is iPhone which is a revolutionary device. It combined the feature of music device (iPod) and mobile phone technology with the key feature on this product that is “multi-touch” and “multi-tasking” on the graphic user interface. The phone supports a camera, a multimedia player, a blue tooth, web browsing and internet connectivity. However, the price of iPhone is higher than other mobiles in the market and the aim is targeting a niche market. From this reason, iPhone faced with various challenge to get market share and compete with existing player in the mobile market. With innovation and unique features that is the selling point, iPhone sustains this competitive advantage by continue development and create the new innovation with its best.

Apple is one of the success innovation companies by the evidence with the first rank of ‘the 50 Most Innovative Companies’ in 2009. From the success innovation product with $9.87 billion profit for 2009, it seems to be motivator for other companies to aware of innovation factor. Moreover, Apple emphasizes its successful innovation device with “iPad” which is touch-screen device to use the Internet for research applications, listen to music, movies and games. A lot of buzz occurred and attract attention from consumer immediately when product launch in the first quarter 2010. This is another evident that shows the success innovative product of Apple. The question of how Apple success in innovation product be concerned from others.

Key Drivers for Innovation for Apple

The first key Apple’s innovation driver is consumers’ needs. It is not only to put new technology into its products, but also the great new design that focuses on needs of user. Introduce high technology within the products that easy to use is what Apple always successfully done. The Macintosh computer, one of the core products of Apple, comes with “mouse’ that is easy to navigate around the whole screen for user. The iPod introduces itself as a music player with the way to transfer and organize music is simple enough for anyone to use which is how the perfect product should be. Its click wheel simple the way user can make a quick scan through thousands of songs. As well as for the iPhone, even though it is not the first smartphone which integrated by music player, camera, web browser and email. It removes the tiny buttoned keyboards with the button-less touch screen and put almost everything in fingertips. Significantly, it ensures that the customer needs not to be smart to use a smartphone. The concepts of innovative user interface with easy to use is what Apple put as one of the most important features for its user. It is a key driver for innovation within electronic consumer. Moreover, Apple has own retail stores that is easier to access customer and get direct feedback. That is the Apple strategy to understand actual consumers’ needs and apply them for the new innovation product.

The next innovation driver that makes iPhone getting more attractive from user than others is the competitive environment. From the intense competitive environment in mobile market, it drives Apple to develop the better product continuously. Moreover, the high expectation of customer motivates Apple to create the next best thing in order to keep the customers’ loyalty that get from previous products and attract to the new customers. When iPhone launch to the market, it received the great response from customers with the average number of selling 20,000 units per days in the first 200 days. Furthermore, Apple got 19.5% of market share in the first quarter, RIM got the most.

Finally, economic is the key innovation driver. The performance of people in corporations is higher and productivities of products are quite similar. Economy factor pushes companies to have more innovation. For example, fast growth economy likes United State, there is the country where a half of companies in ‘the 50 most innovation companies ranking’, have the headquarters in. Companies try to hire employee who has more creativity and imagination that seem to be the core competency to generate high growth revenue. Business week said “Apple CEO Steve Jobs has turned Apple into the paragon of the creative corporation, and with the evolution of the economy toward creativity underway, companies throughout the world are de-constructing Apple’s success in design and innovation”. Moreover, capability of consumers’ purchasing in economy nowadays is higher. Consumers be able to accept on expensive innovative product that it is easier for company to invest money on R&D and apply higher technology for the innovation product with less concerned on cost.

Strategic Enablers within Apple

The first enabler is the leader, Steve Jobs who is CEO of Apple and co-founded in 1976. He said “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower”. From this idea, he thought that the innovation is the key to get competitive advantage . Jobs said that the best work always come from the best people working. He realized that the only way to do great work is to love what you do. This human resources strategy forms the basis for innovation idea. Finding and fostering people who is the talent in innovation is one of the four principles that drives innovation. The CEO is the key involvement in determining direction and goal of company. In 1997, Jobs became CEO of Apple and bring technologies from NeXT that was purchased by Apple into Apple products especially NeXTSTEP technology that was evolved in Mac OS X. He was the first to see the potential of Graphical User Interface and apply graphic into computer interface. Since then, appealing designs and powerful branding have worked . After that, Apple has been operated by Jobs as CEO.

Jobs started his responsibility in CEO position by reorganizing company. He focused on small group of products such as desktop and portable Macintoshes and eliminated 15 from 19 company’s products (such as printer, scanner and portable digital assistants). Then, he laid off a thousand of worker, closed plant and receiving cash $150 million by exchange stock. He focused on creating popular computer that retailed with the price less than $2,000 and then iMac was created. iMac is unique style desktop computer. This became the first success of Jobs after moving back to the company. Jobs noted “during first 139 days, an iMac was sold every 15 seconds of every minute of every hour of every day and every week”. From this result, it effect to company to get a profit once again with number of selling 800,000 units in the first five months.

The organisation culture was changed within Apple, it geared towards more creativity. Apple’s success cannot be measured by revenue or award but that is company’s culture of innovation which exists as an incubator for a long term impact. Jobs said that his job is pull thing together from different part of company and get the great resource for the key project. Although Jobs configure the company direction, employee team in Apple is also important equally. They play in a role of delivering innovation successful and human resource department must ensure that workers are active and understand the company direction. Spurring employees to think different and motivating their idea by atmosphere can encourage more creativity. Technology Business Research (TBR) supported that culture innovation allows Apple to outstanding perform then lead to increase market share and stay profitable.

The second enabler is intangible resource base including process and structure in organization. That is one of the root causes why Apple’s products are differentiated from others competitors . The tangible resources of Apple are quite similar with general IT companies but apply it to new innovation such as raw material of product, office layout and company location. Apple does not build the first computer or the first phone but Apple try to create the best at all of those. It is seen to be copying but if spending more time to research and apply it with new innovation in design or combining technology, it can come out with strong products. It can be able to convince consumers that this is the best thing out there like what Apple did. The tangible resource of Apple is intellectual of development team who is the smartest people and the best talent. The main success of it is unlocking innovation and dreaming ability of R&D team. iSuppli disclosed that from analysis, the bill of material (BOM) cost of 3GS iPhone is estimated $178.96 for 16 GB. The price of this model in the market is more than twice ( £450 in UK.). The selling price need to be included the cost of intellectual and innovation from development team that is the reason why consumer are acceptable in this price. Another evidence, that reflect the Apple’s capability translating great idea to product, is return of equity (ROE) by 20.9%. However, capability of workforce in Apple is not specific only creating innovation computer but also break into entertainment product as iPod in 2001 and then communication product as iPhone in 2007.

Apple enables intangible and tangible resource to the products and services through an innovation process in order to develop capability.

Strategic Blockages within Apple

Obstacles to sustain innovation of Apple have been avoided except LISA project. Apple developed Local Integrated Software Architecture or “LISA” to be a personal computer in 1983. It was a more advanced and far more expensive system ($9,995 in 1983). It was created too complex that its inclusion of protected memory, sophisticated hard disk, cooperative multitasking and so on. From this reason, LISA turned to be a commercial failure. LISA is a mistake of Apple that LISA was complex product with unnecessary extras and without understanding actual consumers’ needs. However, Apple develops other products by avoiding this pitfall and avoids developing products which out of the line with core value. Its core products are iPod, iPhone, Mac laptop and Mac desktop and get its best-ever performance in last quarter with net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion. From enormous success of these core products, it may be the maturity phase in product life cycle (the highest selling period) especially iPhone because it launched the first model since 2007 and it was developed in many versions. From this reason, it seems to be obstacle if Apple will develop a new innovation model that better than iPhone and create by keeping the key concept of ‘easy to use’ and ‘customer needs’. If the new product is not success, it may impact on its financial because iPhone created big revenue with selling 8.7M units in the last year quarter. The next obstacle is core competency of resource. The intellectual of development teams do not focus and develop on high performance product. Therefore, target consumer is limited in niche market that satisfies in this kind of product. Another obstacle is product limitation. For instance, Mac laptop/desktop is less flexibility than other products in the market (with the same kind). Consumer cannot change hardware which is more suitable with their work. Moreover, consumers may have some problem with software that need compatible with Macintosh operation system.

Related posts:

• Case Study of Dyson: Competitive Advantage through Innovation
• Case Study: Competitive Advantage of Boeing
• Case Study: Dell’s Competitive Advantage
• Case Study of Apple: Strategic Enablers and Barriers to Innovation
• Case Study: Google’s Quest for Competitive Advantage
• Case Study: iPod, Apple’s Best Innovation
• Case Study: Google’s Competitive Advantage
• Case Study: Amazon’s Competitive Advantage
• Case Study: Competitive Advantage of Hewlett Packard (HP)
• Case Study of Burger King: Achieving Competitive Advantage through Quality Management

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Press Herald

Account Subscription: ACTIVE

Questions about your account? Our customer service team can be reached at [email protected] during business hours at (207) 791-6000 .

Ossipee Valley Fair, Moxie Festival and more happening this weekend

The Maine International Film Festival starts Friday in Waterville.

You are able to gift 5 more articles this month.

Anyone can access the link you share with no account required. Learn more .

With a Press Herald subscription, you can gift 5 articles each month.

It looks like you do not have any active subscriptions. To get one, go to the subscriptions page .

Loading....

Now that we’re all comfortably settled into the rhythm of summer, let’s do a classic summer thing and go to a fair!

Jeremy Schoff of York leads his oxen, Pete and Red, during the ox pull on Thursday at the Ossippe Valley Fair in 2021. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

The Ossipee Valley Fair starts today and runs through Sunday. We especially love the Farmer Olympics because the hay bale toss and blind wheelbarrow obstacle course competition is fierce. Ray Routhier has details about Ossipee Valley and several others fairs happening this summer in Bangor, Waterville and Acton, among other locales.

Go a little farther afield and find a Maine summer fair for you

Aretha Aoki & Ryan MacDonald (right, in bear suit) performing IzumonookunI (stet capital letter at the end). Aretha Aoki & Ryan MacDonald will be bringing this dance program to the Bates Dance Festival July 12 and 14, 2024 at the Schaeffer Theatre on the Bates College campus in Lewiston, Maine. Photo by Colin Kelly

Another summer tradition is the Bates Dates Festival in Lewiston . Performances are underway, and arts writer Megan Gray has the scoop on “IzumonookunI” by Aretha Aoki and Ryan MacDonald. See it tonight and Saturday.

Topsham couple’s Bates Dance Festival performance is inspired by kabuki, punk rock and their 7-year-old

Big Yellow Taxi. Photo by Julian Parker Burns

I’m headed to One Longfellow Square on Friday night to see the Massachusetts-based Joni Mitchell tribute band Big Yellow Taxi. They’ll be playing Mitchell’s 1974 album “Court and Spark,” along with other tunes.

Tribute to Joni Mitchell celebrates 50 years of ‘Court and Spark’

“3 Vendors of Ipanema” is directed by Lewiston native Jonathan S. Lee. Courtesy of JSL Films

We weren’t kidding when we said there’s a lot going on right now. The 27th annual Maine International Film Festival starts on Friday and runs through July 21 in Waterville. Our film writer, Dennis Perkins, offers up his picks for 12 screenings worth your while.

12 hidden gems of this year’s Maine International Film Festival

Spectators watching a previous year’s Moxie Festival Parade in Lisbon Falls. Carl D. Walsh/Staff Photographer

Our weekly events roundup includes the East Bayside block party in Portland and the Moxie Festival in Lisbon Falls. Should you make it to the festival on Saturday, don’t miss “American Idol” alum Julia Gagnon singing at 1:30 p.m.

Kennebunks garden tour, Moxie Festival, East Bayside block party

One with Everything from Gunnar’s Icelandic Hot Dogs. Photo by Ray Routhier

Need a break from standard-issue hot dogs? We love them too, but sometimes a new twist is just what your taste buds need. Ray Routhier stopped by Gunnar’s Icelandic Hot Dogs cart . If you like what you read, you can find it parked from 4-9 p.m. Thursday at Apres in Portland, then on the roof of Bayside Bowl on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Sick of red snappers? Try an Icelandic hot dog instead

Modify your screen name

Join the Conversation

Please sign into your Press Herald account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe . Questions? Please see our FAQs .

Your commenting screen name has been updated.

Send questions/comments to the editors.

« Previous

Covered bridges in Maine: 8 historic sites plus some modern options

Next »

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is free on Wednesdays for kids 17 and under

Member Log In

Please enter your username and password below. Already a subscriber but don't have one? Click here .

Not a subscriber? Click here to see your options

• Web3 Community beta
• Crypto Prices

More From Forbes

How bitcoin payment solutions with btcpay server and musqet boost sales.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

View of a Bitcoin sign announcing the acceptance of the bitcoin for payments Photo by Kellys ... [+] Portillo

Bitcoin’s rapid adoption as a means of payment has led to the development of various tools and platforms tailored to specific use cases. This article reviews solutions like BTCPay Server and Musqet, each addressing different needs within the bitcoin payment ecosystem.

BTCPay Server: Transforming E-Commerce

BTCPay Server is an open-source, self-hosted payment processor that offers a solution for e-commerce platforms. Designed to provide a secure, private, and censorship-resistant environment, BTCPay Server allows merchants to accept bitcoin payments without intermediaries, ensuring full control over their funds.

Key Features:

No Transaction Fees: Unlike traditional payment processors, BTCPay Server charges no transaction fees, which can reduce costs for merchants.

Integration Flexibility : It seamlessly integrates with popular e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce, Magento, and Shopify, making it an ideal choice for online stores.

Enhanced Privacy: By self-hosting, merchants can protect customer data and avoid potential third-party censorship or surveillance.

Comprehensive Tools: The platform includes tools for invoicing, accounting, and managing a variety of payment methods, ensuring a smooth transaction process for merchants and customers.

Exactly When Apple Will Launch iPhone 16 And iPhone 16 Pro

Apple warns millions of iphone users—stop using google chrome, amazon prime day 2024 is over, but there are still some great deals.

BTCPay Server enables e-commerce businesses by providing a free, flexible, and secure way to accept bitcoin payments, addressing the unique needs of online merchants. Rockstar Dev , describing the project's ethos, says, "We're not chasing profits; we're creating community value that sustains our project and attracts significant support."

Case Studies

At the Baltic Honeybadger conference , BTCPay Server demonstrated its capability to handle high-volume transactions by managing payment processing for 20 merchants and handling contactless NFC payments through over 500 bolt cards. This implementation, overseen by Anna , BTCPay & Hodl Hodl contributor, and Marce , Head of Chaos for Plan B Network and FOSS Volunteer, demonstrated the platform's efficiency and reliability. Yvette, PM for billing & provisioning projects for 30 years and currently PM for LNbits, improved this setup by introducing PlebTag , which supports offline payments via NFC cards, a feature for areas with unstable or no private WiFi.

At a recent bitcoin conference in Madeira , BTCPay Server facilitated a different payment setup using point-of-sale systems. Marce remarked on the system's capacity: “We've developed the biggest lightning payment system at a conference." Anna added, "When the fiat systems kept failing - bitcoin kept going."

Andrew Kukks and Nicolas Dorier play important roles in the ongoing development and expansion, driving its continuous improvement and innovation. Andrew contributes to core development and community initiatives, while Nicolas, as founder, focuses on enhancing the platform's technical architecture and promoting its widespread adoption. However, the volume of bitcoin payments is currently low. Many vendors see few bitcoin transactions outside of conferences and specific events.

The trials at Baltic Honeybadger facilitated the payment success at Madeira . The team continually explores new ways to test and scale ideas, using technology to develop a slick infrastructure for bitcoin payments that enhances user experience and system efficiency.

Musqet: Streamlining Merchant Payments

Musqet’s initial focus has been on simplifying bitcoin payments for physical stores and small merchants. The company is now expanding its offering with an advanced online payment gateway and plans to target larger physical businesses as it scales. The in-store offering is tailored to environments where quick, seamless transactions are essential, such as retail stores, restaurants, and service providers.

Unified Fiat And Bitcoin Bitcoin Payments: Musqet offers a single interface for accepting fiat and bitcoin payments. Providing both options in one interface removes the friction of having multiple payment systems.

Bitcoin Sovereignty Or Auto-Conversion: Musqet offers merchants the flexibility to manage their own bitcoin keys, ensure full control without intermediaries, or convert bitcoin to fiat instantly via an exchange partner, avoiding concerns over key management and exchange rate volatility.

User-Friendly Interface: Musqet offers an intuitive interface that allows merchants to accept bitcoin payments with minimal training.

Speed and Efficiency: Designed for fast transaction processing, Musqet ensures that payments are completed swiftly, minimizing customers’ wait times.

Familiar Business Model: The business relationship between Musqet and merchants is almost identical to that of other payment terminal providers. There is no learning curve or additional unexpected costs, so merchants can confidently, quickly and easily migrate from their existing payment provider to Musqet.

Customizable Solutions: Merchants can customize their payment setup to fit their specific needs, whether they require point-of-sale systems or mobile payment options.

Musqet meets the demand for a straightforward and reliable payment system in physical retail environments by refining the payment process for small merchants and aiding rapid, efficient bitcoin and fiat transactions. Especially valuable in retail stores, restaurants, and other service-oriented businesses, Musqet simplifies bitcoin payment integration, allowing merchants with minimal technical expertise to leverage this technology without its usual complexities.

Musqet is a constantly adapting platform that meets the needs of modern commerce. The practical application of this technology was observed during a recent pilot with a consortium of small businesses, demonstrating seamless integration into existing operations and enabling businesses to handle bitcoin transactions as easily as traditional payments. Feedback from these real-world uses drives further progress, keeping Musqet at the forefront of payment technology.

As Musqet advances, it remains focused on simplifying the user experience and broadening its reach, ensuring small merchants can adopt bitcoin and improve customer service with fast, secure, and straightforward payment solutions.

Ben de Waal, CTO of Musqet, told me in an interview that he’s been “using bitcoin as a payments technology for over a decade now, and I’ve seen the practical problems that merchants face in adopting bitcoin. It’s these things that Musqet is focusing on to build the best payment experience for both merchants and their customers.”

Shaping The Future Of Bitcoin Transactions

Bitcoin payment solutions like BTCPay Server and Musqet play an important role. BTCPay Server transforms e-commerce by offering a free, secure, and privacy-focused payment gateway. Musqet simplifies in-person transactions for small merchants, ensuring swift and efficient bitcoin payments. Together, these platforms demonstrate the potential of bitcoin, driving its adoption across diverse business environments and solidifying its place in the future of digital payments.

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

Join The Conversation

One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. 

Forbes Community Guidelines

Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.

In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's  Terms of Service.   We've summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.

Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:

• False or intentionally out-of-context or misleading information
• Insults, profanity, incoherent, obscene or inflammatory language or threats of any kind
• Attacks on the identity of other commenters or the article's author
• Content that otherwise violates our site's  terms.

User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:

• Continuous attempts to re-post comments that have been previously moderated/rejected
• Racist, sexist, homophobic or other discriminatory comments
• Attempts or tactics that put the site security at risk
• Actions that otherwise violate our site's  terms.

So, how can you be a power user?

• Stay on topic and share your insights
• Feel free to be clear and thoughtful to get your point across
• ‘Like’ or ‘Dislike’ to show your point of view.
• Protect your community.
• Use the report tool to alert us when someone breaks the rules.

Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's  Terms of Service.

Information

• Author Services

Initiatives

You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Original Submission Date Received: .

• Active Journals
• Find a Journal
• Proceedings Series
• For Authors
• For Reviewers
• For Editors
• For Librarians
• For Publishers
• For Societies
• For Conference Organizers
• Open Access Policy
• Institutional Open Access Program
• Special Issues Guidelines
• Editorial Process
• Research and Publication Ethics
• Article Processing Charges
• Testimonials
• Preprints.org
• SciProfiles
• Encyclopedia

Article Menu

• Subscribe SciFeed
• Recommended Articles
• Author Biographies
• Google Scholar
• on Google Scholar
• Table of Contents

Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.

Please let us know what you think of our products and services.

Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.

JSmol Viewer

Hardware acceleration and approximation of cnn computations: case study on an integer version of lenet.

1. Introduction

2. related works and case study definition, 2.1. target network and data set, 2.2. hardware setup: target embedded system, 2.3. selected approximation alternatives, 3. accelerated lenet implementation, 3.1. analysis of lenet source code, 3.2. accelerated version of the software: modifications and results, 4. selection of approximations and impacts, 4.1. impact of the approximations on the network accuracy: results for individual additions, 4.2. impact of the approximations on the network accuracy: results for global approximations, 5. discussion, author contributions, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

• Sipola, T.; Alatalo, J.; Kokkonen, T.; Rantonen, M. Artificial intelligence in the IoT era: A review of edge AI hardware and software. In Proceedings of the 31st Conference of Open Innovations Association (FRUCT), Helsinki, Finland, 10 April 2022; pp. 320–331. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Pant, P.; Rajawat, A.S.; Goyal, S.B.; Potgantwar, A.; Bedi, P.; Raboaca, M.S.; Constantin, N.B.; Verma, C. AI based technologies for international space station and space data. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on System Modeling & Advancement in Research Trends (SMART), Moradabad, India, 16–17 December 2022; pp. 19–25. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Shen, L.; Lijuan, S.; Chaojie, Y.; Xinrong, L.; Tianxing, W.; Zhong, M. Survey of embedded neural network accelerator for intelligent aerospace applications. In Proceedings of the IEEE 6th International Conference on Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence (PRAI), Haikou, China, 18–20 August 2023; pp. 1074–1079. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Mohaidat, T.; Khalil, K. A survey on neural network hardware accelerators. IEEE Trans. Artif. Intell. 2024 , 1 , 1–21. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bavikadi, S.; Dhavlle, A.; Ganguly, A.; Haridass, A.; Hendy, H.; Merkel, C.; Dinakarrao, S.M.P. A survey on machine learning accelerators and evolutionary hardware platforms. IEEE Des. Test 2022 , 39 , 91–116. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Xu, Q.; Mytkowicz, T.; Kim, N.S. Approximate computing: A survey. IEEE Des. Test 2016 , 33 , 8–22. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Mittal, S. A survey of techniques for approximate computing. ACM Comput. Surv. 2016 , 48 , 62. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Piuri, V. Analysis of fault tolerance in artificial neural networks. J. Parallel Distrib. Comput. 2001 , 61 , 18–48. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Mahdiani, H.R.; Fakhraie, S.M.; Lucas, C. Relaxed fault-tolerant hardware implementation of neural networks in the presence of multiple transient errors. IEEE Trans. Neural Netw. Learn. Syst. 2012 , 23 , 1215–1228. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Torres-Huitzil, C.; Girau, B. Fault and error tolerance in neural networks: A review. IEEE Access 2017 , 5 , 17322–17341. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Rodrigues, G.; Lima Kastensmidt, F.; Bosio, A. Survey on approximate computing and its intrinsic fault tolerance. Electronics 2020 , 9 , 557. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• LeCun, Y.; Bottou, L.; Bengio, Y.; Haffner, P. Gradient-based learning applied to document recognition. Proc. IEEE 1998 , 86 , 2278–2324. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Available online: http://d2l.ai/chapter_convolutional-neural-networks/lenet.html (accessed on 15 April 2024).
• Lenet. Available online: https://github.com/fpetrot/lenet (accessed on 15 April 2024).
• Jacob, B.; Kligys, S.; Chen, B.; Zhu, M.; Tang, M.; Howard, A.; Adam, H.; Kalenichenko, D. Quantization and training of neural networks for efficient integer-arithmetic-only inference. arXiv 2017 . [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Solé Bonet, M. Hardware-Software co-Design for Low-Cost AI Processing in Space Processors. Master’s Thesis, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Barcelona, Spain, 2021. Available online: https://upcommons.upc.edu/handle/2117/361411 (accessed on 14 June 2024).
• Solé Bonet, M.; Kosmidis, L. SPARROW: A low-cost hardware/software co-designed SIMD microarchitecture for AI operations in space processors. In Proceedings of the Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE), Antwerp, Belgium, 14–23 March 2022; pp. 1139–1142. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kosmidis, L.; Solé, M.; Rodriguez, I.; Wolf, J.; Trompouki, M.M. The METASAT Hardware Platform: A High-Performance Multicore, AI SIMD and GPU RISC-V Platform for On-board Processing. In Proceedings of the European Data Handling & Data Processing Conference (EDHPC), Juan Les Pins, France, 2–6 October 2023; pp. 1–6. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• SPARROW. Available online: https://gitlab.bsc.es/msolebon/sparrow (accessed on 15 April 2024).
• Liang, S.; Chen, K.; Wu, B.; Liu, W. A survey of approximation based hardware acceleration techniques for deep neural networks (Invited). In Proceedings of the 16th IEEE International Conference on Solid-State & Integrated Circuit Technology (ICSICT), Nangjing, China, 25–28 October 2022; pp. 1–4. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Shang, J.-J.; Phipps, N.; Wey, I.-C.; Teo, T.H. A-DSCNN: Depthwise separable convolutional neural network inference chip design using an approximate multiplier. Chips 2023 , 2 , 159–172. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Jiang, H.; Han, J.; Lombardi, F. A comparative review and evaluation of approximate adders. In Proceedings of the 25th Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 20–22 May 2015; pp. 343–348. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Shafique, M.; Hafiz, R.; Rehman, S.; El-Harouni, W.; Henkel, J. Invited: Cross-layer approximate computing: From logic to architectures. In Proceedings of the 53nd ACM/EDAC/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC), Austin, TX, USA, 5–9 June 2016. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Mahdiani, H.R.; Ahmadi, A.; Fakhraie, S.M.; Lucas, C. Bio-Inspired Imprecise Computational Blocks for Efficient VLSI Implementation of Soft-Computing Applications. IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. I Regul. Pap. 2010 , 57 , 850–862. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]

Click here to enlarge figure

Share and Cite

Leveugle, R.; Cogney, A.; Gah El Hilal, A.B.; Lailler, T.; Pieau, M. Hardware Acceleration and Approximation of CNN Computations: Case Study on an Integer Version of LeNet. Electronics 2024 , 13 , 2709. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13142709

Leveugle R, Cogney A, Gah El Hilal AB, Lailler T, Pieau M. Hardware Acceleration and Approximation of CNN Computations: Case Study on an Integer Version of LeNet. Electronics . 2024; 13(14):2709. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13142709

Leveugle, Régis, Arthur Cogney, Ahmed Baba Gah El Hilal, Tristan Lailler, and Maxime Pieau. 2024. "Hardware Acceleration and Approximation of CNN Computations: Case Study on an Integer Version of LeNet" Electronics 13, no. 14: 2709. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13142709

Article Metrics

Article access statistics, further information, mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.

Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals

Mammograms have pros and cons for people in their 40s. Women can handle the nuance

The most recent recommendation of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is that all women 40 to 74 get mammograms every other year. A previous recommendation said screening should start at 50. One doctor suggests that people "test smarter, not test more."

Heather Charles / Tribune News Service via Getty Images

New research makes the case for educating women in their 40s, who’ve been caught in the crossfire of a decades-long debate about whether to be screened for breast cancer with mammograms, about the harms as well as the benefits of the exam.

After a nationally representative sample of U.S. women between the ages of 39 and 49 learned about the pros and cons of mammography, more than twice as many elected to wait until they turn 50 to get screened, a study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine found.

Most women have absorbed the widely broadcast message that screening mammography saves lives by the time they enter middle age. But many remain unaware of the costs of routine screening in their 40s – in false-positive results, unnecessary biopsies, anxiety and debilitating treatment for tumors that left alone would do no harm.

"In an ideal world, all women would get this information and then get to have their further questions answered by their doctor and come up with a screening plan that is right for them given their preferences, their values and their risk level," said social psychologist Laura Scherer, the study's lead author and an associate professor of research in the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Of 495 women surveyed, only 8% initially said they wanted to wait until they turned 50 to get a mammogram. After researchers informed the women of the benefits and the harms, 18% said they would wait until 50.

'We're not being honest'

Learning about the downsides of mammograms did not discourage women from wanting to get the test at some point, the study showed.

The benefits and the harms of mammography came as a surprise to nearly half the study participants. More than one-quarter said what they learned from the study about overdiagnosis differed from what their doctors told them.

"We're not being honest with people," said breast cancer surgeon Dr. Laura Esserman , director of the University of California, San Francisco Breast Care Center, who was not involved with the research.

“I think most people are completely unaware of the risks associated with screening because we’ve had 30, 40 years of a public health messaging campaign: Go out and get your mammogram, and everything will be fine,” she said in an NPR interview.

Esserman sees women who are diagnosed with slow-growing tumors that she believes in all likelihood would never harm them. In addition, mammography can give women a false sense of security, she said, like it did for Olivia Munn .

The 44-year-old actress had a clean mammogram and a negative test for cancer genes shortly before her doctor calculated her score for lifetime breast cancer risk, setting off an alarm that led to her being treated for fast-moving, aggressive breast cancer in both breasts.

Toward a personalized plan for screening

Esserman advocates for a personalized approach to breast cancer screening like the one that led to Munn's diagnosis. In 2016, she launched the WISDOM study , which aims to tailor screening to a woman's risk and in her words, "to test smarter, not test more."

The National Cancer Institute estimates that more than 300,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and 42,250 will die in the U.S. this year. Incidence rates have been creeping up about 1% a year, while death rates have been falling a little more than 1% a year.

For the past 28 years, the influential U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has been flip-flopping in its recommendations about when women should begin mammography screening.

From 1996 until 2002, the independent panel of volunteer medical experts who help guide physicians, insurers and policymakers said women should begin screening at 50. In 2002, the task force said women in their 40s should be screened every year or two. In 2009, it said that 40-something women should decide whether to get mammograms based on their health history and individual preferences.

The new study was conducted in 2022, while the task force guidelines called for women in their 40s to make individual decisions.

New guidelines

In 2024, the panel returned to saying that all women between the ages of 40 and 74 should be screened with mammograms every other year. Rising breast cancer rates in younger women, and models showing the number of lives screening might save, especially among Black women, drove the push for earlier screening.

An editorial accompanying the new study stressed the need for education about mammography and the value of shared decision-making between clinicians and patients.

“For an informed decision to be made,” said the editorial written by Dr. Victoria Mintsopoulos and Dr. Michelle B. Nadler, both of the University of Toronto in Ontario, “the harms of overdiagnosis – defined as diagnosis of asymptomatic cancer that would not harm the patient in the future – must be communicated.”

Copyright 2024 NPR

OPB’s First Look newsletter

Streaming Now

BBC The Newsroom