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Case Study

The making of the iPod

14 pages

December 2009

Reference: IMD-3-2142

How many geniuses does it take to completely rethink an industry? If the industry is music, the answer is four! Five, if you throw in Steve Jobs. It’s the iPod, of course, that we’re talking about here. In just a very brief period of time, the now nearly ubiquitous iPod has rendered audio CDs virtually obsolete, put “record stores” out of business, reconceived the notion of what “recorded” music is, made the term “disc” jockey meaningless, and essentially blown-up the entire value-chain that brought music to the masses. Not bad for four (or five) guys and a few months of effort! What the iPod also represents is the power of great teams to create big change. This is the story of how that happened.

Learning Objective

Review success stories in innovation, teaming and collaboration and discuss what can be learned from such innovator experiences. Explore key issues associated with the effective management of innovation and develop a concept of how to build a reliable innovation culture within an organization.

Keywords

Innovation, Teamwork, Collaboration, Innovation Leadership, General Management, Information System, Information Technology, Strategy

Settings

World/global, United States of America
Apple, Information Technology, Information Services, Consumer Goods, Computers
1985-2009

Type

Published Sources

Available Languages

English

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