Case Write-Up

'Apple's Core"

Course: Venture Capital

Programme: MBA, National Chengchi University
Professor: Chester Ho
Team members: Stefano Di Lullo, Peter Egger, Stephan Kraus, Shawn Tian


When thinking about Apple Corporation, one will most probably establish a
connection to Steve Jobs, one of the greatest entrepreneurs in the last century. He
was indeed one of the founding fathers of the organization back in the 1970's.
However, it was not only Steve Jobs who set the core for Apple's success. Steve
Wozniak, an enthusiastic computer circuit board designer, has to be considered as
the second fundament of the establishment of Apple. They were introduced to each
other via a mutual friend and a long lasting friendship emerged. Their opposite
characters and interests (Steve Jobs being a hyper business man who is constantly
in search for making money and has the ability to put visions into peoples' hearts,
whereas Steve Wozniak was a more uncommunicative engineer who loved trying to
create computer circuit boards like an artist) fit together in a Yin and Yang way so
that Steve Wozniak one time stated "What one of us found difficult, the other often
accomplished pretty handily.

Not only was there a difference in their interests, but also a prominent discrepancy in
their ethics. Steve Wozniak developed a very strong view of ethics because of his
father, making him an extremely honest man. " never lie, even to this day, Steve
Wozniak was quoted on time. n comparison, it seems that Steve Jobs would stop at
nothing in order to exploit business opportunities, even on the expenses of his
closest friends. One famous example about this fact is when Steve Jobs, while
working on a computer game at Atari, approached Steve Wozniak to develop the
game with as few computer chips as possible within merely four days. Steve
Wozniak, after miraculously finishing the project in time, received 700 Dollars from
Steve Jobs, who stated it was half the money he got from Atari. However, after
having a talk with Atari's chief engineer a few years later, Steve Wozniak found out
that Steve Job's salary for the computer game was much higher than 1,400 Dollars.