The Story Behind Apple’s Success

When people think of Apple, they think of its breakthrough products like the iPhone, the iPod, the iPad, and the Apple Watch. Apple is a multi-trillion-dollar company, as it surpassed the $3 trillion mark last year and was the first company to pass the $1 trillion mark back in 2018. But the brand’s success comes from more than just incredible products. It also comes from their organizational structure, which founder Steve Jobs brought back to the company in 1997.

Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne started the company in 1976 before Wayne left three months later, selling his shares of the company for just $800. Today, it’s one of the most valuable companies in the world. The Apple II, released in 1984, was the company’s second product and introduced a modern graphical user interface to the public. And the rest is history.

Apple's Organizational Structure

an ipad and iphone on wooden table beside a cacti in white pot

Even though Steve Jobs passed in 2011, he’s well-known for his vision for Apple’s products and software. Jobs left Apple in 1982 due to conflict with boardroom member, John Sculley, but returned in 1997 and hired Tim Cook, the brand’s current CEO, to help repair the company’s broken supply chain. While he was gone, Apple had the traditional business structure, with different business departments, each with its own profit and loss (P&L) responsibilities. But Jobs switched it up by putting the entire company under one P&L and combining all departments under one functional organization, aligning expertise with key decision rights. And Apple still retains the same structure today, even though it’s grown dramatically since they adopted this structure in 1998.

Rather than having conventional managers, an overarching P&L statement judges those in control over the product development and sales process. The fact that this structure has brought them so much success and continues to over the years is unique because history shows it’s best to divide the company into multiple divisions as it grows and becomes more complex. But for Apple, operating under one P&L and focusing on expertise works. And it’s why many have followed their example. By focusing on functional expertise, Apple’s been able to flourish, with innovation at the forefront. So, while unconventional, it’s been the key to Apple’s continued success, which is why the company still follows it to this day.

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