Apple’s company values: what startups can learn from its culture and principles

A global leader in the tech industry, Apple has become a symbol of cutting-edge technology, seamless design and premium user experience.

With core values around innovation, accessibility, and privacy, Apple has shaped the tech industry with its products and has influenced culture, communication, and the way people interact with technology worldwide. 

This article will explore Apple’s primary mission and its core values, and how it integrates them into its products, operations and company culture.

Apple’s mission – from the beginning to today

Apple’s journey goes all the way back to 1976, when founders Steve Jobs, Stephen Wozniak and Ronald Wayne got to work in Jobs’ family garage, building the very first Apple computer.

After its incorporation in 1977, the company went on to build more products over the years, including the launch of its first Macintosh computer in 1984 – the first built without a bundled programming language. 

This was considered a milestone in Apple’s success as it revolutionised personal computing with its graphical user interface, making computers more accessible and user-friendly to the general public. It was also described as a “masterpiece” by American news outlet CNN at the time and would lay the foundation for future iconic products, including the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

In the midst of its success, Apple’s original mission statement was “to make a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind”. This reflected its aim to create easy-to-use technology that would help everyone access information and unleash their creativity, no matter their background.

Today, the company’s mission is “bringing the best user experience to its customers through its innovative hardware, software and services”. While still customer-centric, it also emphasises its commitment to seamless integration across its ecosystem, ensuring that every product and service works together smoothly.

How Apple lives by its core values

Apple’s current core values are strongly centred around making a positive impact in the world and building innovation to improve user experience. 

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, stated: “We believe that business, at its best, serves the public good, empowers people around the world, and binds us together as never before.”

Apple’s main principles, and the way it embeds its values, include:

• Accessibility: Apple products are designed with built-in accessibility features, including live speech, vocal shortcuts, display settings, and eye tracking, which are aimed at enhancing usability for individuals with various needs.
• Education: Partnering with non-profit organisations, such as the Malala Fund, to build education opportunities for underserved communities worldwide. It also promotes the use of its technology in various education settings, including K-12, college and higher education.
• Environment: The company aims to bring its net emissions to zero by sourcing and manufacturing electricity from clean energy sources, designing products with recycled materials, and shipping products with fewer emissions.
• Inclusion & Diversity: Fostering inclusion and increasing representation within its organisational culture, offering career opportunities for communities of colour worldwide. Apple’s latest diversity figures reveal a 29.8% Asian workforce, 9.2% Black and 14.9% Hispanic/Latinx.
• Privacy: Designs its products with privacy in mind, such as its Safari browser, which uses machine learning to tackle tracking, removes unique trackers from URLs during private browsing and hides users’ IP addresses from monitoring.
• Racial Equity and Justice: Creating opportunities for Black and Hispanic/Latinx communities through supporting education programmes, investing in initiatives that help economic development and backing organisations committed to changing the justice system.
• Supply Chain Innovation: Supports communities across its supply chain, such as encouraging feedback and working closely with suppliers to uphold high standards of labour and human rights. It also consistently updates health and safety standards and carries out regular inspections of its factories.
  

Criticisms of Apple’s core values

While Apple’s principles promote strong ethical standards and serving humanity, it has faced criticism for not fully putting its values into practice. Some notable examples include:

Poor labour practices

Apple stated in a report that it “does not tolerate forced labour”, adding that its team of experts monitor its suppliers and has enforced procedures to help verify that no one is forced to work against their will.

However, a report by China Labor Watch revealed that between June and July 2023, Apple’s Foxconn Chengdu factory was enforcing illegal labour practices, including excessively hiring dispatch workers and imposing mandatory overtime. 

Further issues included workplace bullying and recruitment discrimination, in which workers were marginalised over ethnicity, religion, gender, or just for showing negative emotions. Pregnant women were rejected during the recruitment process, while disputes between dispatch workers and the factory over promised bonuses and rewards were also reported as ongoing issues. Its factory in southern India also allegedly rejected two sisters for an interview for being married.

This isn’t the first time Apple’s track record has been tainted with negative reports of its labour practices. In 2013, an internal audit unveiled multiple cases of child labour in its factories – uncovering 106 children employed at 11 factories within the past year, many of which were hired with forged identity papers. The report followed a series of alleged employee suicides over the low pay and working conditions at Foxconn.

International Rights Advocates also filed a lawsuit in 2019 against Apple and other tech giants – including Alphabet (parent company of Google), Dell, Microsoft and Tesla – over alleged child labour practices in Congo, where children were reportedly killed or injured while mining for materials like cobalt and lithium. However, this case was later dismissed by a federal appeals court.

Negative environmental impact

Apple’s environmental core value came under scrutiny in 2023 by European environmental and consumer groups over claims of its latest products being “carbon neutral”.

During the unveiling of its iPhone 15 device, the company promoted it as being “environmentally friendly”, while also calling some of its Apple Watch models the “first-ever carbon-neutral products”.

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) was quick to react to this, describing the latest announcement as misleading.

“Carbon neutral claims are scientifically inaccurate and mislead consumers,” Monique Goyens, director-general of BEUC said. “The EU’s recent decision to ban carbon-neutral claims will rightly clear the market of such bogus messages, and Apple Watches should be no exception.”

Meanwhile, an article on Make Use Of listed a few reasons why Apple “isn’t as green as it pretends to be”. These include generating 17 megatons of CO2 emissions for iPhone manufacturing, the expensive cost of Apple product repairs leading to more e-waste and its new Lightning to USB-C cable for its iPhone 12 not being compatible with existing devices on the market, leading to old chargers being thrown away as a result.

Privacy concerns

Apple’s privacy core value was questioned when researchers discovered that its iPhone devices were not as secure as the company had claimed.

Researchers from Aalto University in Finland said that keeping personal data on an iPhone, iPad or MacBook was “virtually impossible”, adding that Apple’s pre-installed apps were collecting data – thereby contradicting its privacy value, including its App Tracking Transparency features to ward off collection from third parties.

For example, users are given the option to enable Apple’s digital assistant Siri, but only whether they use its voice control. The user interface was also designed to be confusing for users to navigate, according to the researchers.

“Siri collects data in the background from other apps you use, regardless of your choice, unless you understand how to go into the settings and specifically change that,” Professor Janne Lindqvist, head of the computer science department at Aalto said. “In practice, protecting privacy on an Apple device requires persistent and expert clicking on each app individually. Apple’s help falls short.”

Further controversies include the discovery of the Pegasus spyware, which was being used to target iPhones – allowing attackers to access personal data, messages, location information and even activate the phone’s microphone and camera without the user’s knowledge. This further escalated in 2021 when a major investigation, known as the Pegasus Project, revealed that spyware had been used to exploit vulnerabilities in Apple’s iOS software.

As a result, Apple filed a lawsuit against NSO Group – the company behind Pegasus – and sought to ban the company from using any Apple software, services or devices. However, it later dropped the lawsuit in 2024, citing security matters. Specifically, it raised concerns that it would be required to reveal key details about its systems for defending against security vulnerabilities, exploits and cyber threats, which in turn could be used by other spyware to target Apple services and products.

A look into Apple’s company culture

Apple’s company culture type is described as a mix of market culture and adhocracy. With a strong focus on innovation, design and dedication to its customers, it encourages employees to think differently, experiment with new ideas and deliver products that set industry standards – all while maintaining a customer-centric approach that prioritises user experience and satisfaction.

But while its culture sounds promising, there have been incidents where Apple has faced criticism for workplace issues, including discrimination, harassment and abuse.

Apple’s lack of zero-tolerance policy

A UK court ruling determined that an Apple employee was unfairly dismissed for making racist comments.

Timothy Jeffries, who worked as a “genius” at Apple’s White City store, was fired after making an inappropriate comment to a colleague of Chinese heritage.

However, an employment tribunal judge ruled that Jeffries’ dismissal was “poor and incomplete”, citing that Apple didn’t have a zero-tolerance policy around discrimination and harassment. He also added that there was evidence that his colleagues took it as a joke and weren’t offended by his words.

“The UK’s legal regime encourages employers to aim for zero tolerance of race discrimination, which can attract the most severe punishment for any breach,” The judge said. “Apple must clearly set out a zero-tolerance policy and the consequences of its violation in order to implement it.”

It was also argued that Jeffries wasn’t the only employee who made inappropriate comments and that the company was investigating a possible culture change for its repair rooms at the time.

The #AppleToo Movement

#AppleToo was a campaign launched by employees in 2021 to address workplace issues within the company, particularly those related to discrimination, harassment and unfair working conditions.

The movement gained momentum when current and former employees began publicly sharing stories of racism, sexism and inequities within Apple’s workplace and supply chain. The issues raised included unequal pay, poor handling of internal complaints and lack of transparency when addressing these concerns.

“For too long, Apple has evaded public scrutiny”, the workers stated. “When we press for accountability and redress to the persistent injustices we witness or experience in our workplace, we are faced with a pattern of isolation, degradation, and gaslighting.”

Around five accounts were reported from employees who claim they were subjected to discrimination and sexual harassment at work, all of which were unaddressed when shared with management. One worker also added that there were “several instances where leadership would not let certain employees of colour interview for positions that they were very deserving of”.

In terms of pay, Apple allegedly banned employees from creating a Slack channel to discuss pay equities, claiming that it didn’t meet Slack’s terms of use. It also reportedly stopped surveys that sought to gather data related to pay.

The campaign received hundreds of different stories from employees, with 75% of cases involving some form of discrimination – half of which involved reports of sexism, retaliation and dismissed concerns. Racism, ableism, harassment and assault (the majority of which were sexual) also made up more than a third of these incidents.

What employees love about Apple

Despite the controversies, Apple does have some favourable reviews from its employees – currently holding a 4.1-star rating on Glassdoor and a “B” score on Comparably. 

Some positive endorsements from employees include the use of teamwork and collaboration, a relaxed interview style and a sense of satisfaction when technical problems are solved.

Moreover, an article by The State Journal-Register described working at Apple as a “dream job” and that while it can be difficult due to high levels of secrecy and pressure to perform, there are positives to working there.

Most notably, employees feel as though their work matters and has a genuine impact on the world. One software engineer wrote: “Engineers at Apple get to make real contributions that will benefit tens or hundreds of millions of people every day. That’s awesome.”

Moreover, some have commented that Apple’s workplace feels more like a startup culture than a corporation and are given opportunities to grow and develop their skills.

“Apple is run like a bunch of small companies (work groups),” a senior software engineer wrote. “When your job gets old and boring — and they all eventually do — it is easy to move within the company to get a fresh outlook without having to change employers completely. Likewise, if you need to stretch or improve your skill set, there are plenty of opportunities for advancement.”

Conclusion

Apple’s mission to enhance user experience is deeply rooted in its core values, which emphasise accessibility, inclusion, education and environmental responsibility. However, the company has also faced significant challenges regarding its practices, particularly those around labour conditions, privacy and environmental claims.

In terms of its internal culture, the #AppleToo movement has shed light on important issues within the workplace, highlighting the importance of discussing discrimination and employee rights. While many workers appreciate the opportunities for creativity and the impact that Apple provides, its past controversies show a need for continuous improvement in living up to its stated values.

For businesses, Apple’s story offers a few key lessons: innovation and customer-centricity are essential, but staying true to core values requires constant vigilance and transparency. Success isn’t just about creating groundbreaking products, but also about keeping integrity in every aspect of operations, from the workplace culture to environmental impact. Moreover, building trust with consumers and employees alike takes continuous self-reflection, accountability and commitment to improvement.