Alex Smertcov

Professor Guenzel

ENC 1102

3 April 2019

Failures in Business

The article I chose from my annotated bibliography was “The story behind Apple’s

Success” by Andrew Beattie who talks about the company Apple Inc. and how they got so

successful. My research plans to take a look at how companies work so that I can then determine

why they can sometimes fail. My essay will look at companies to see why they are failing, and

Apple is an example of a company I want to look at. This is important because business is an

important part of this country and its important to spread knowledge of how businesses fail so

that others don’t fall in their footsteps. Even though the article talks about Apples success which

is different from my topic, it’s still important to take a look at what was going right in the

company because this will then help gather a better understanding at what’s making the company

fail. If we know what works, then it will be easier to figure out what doesn’t work. Apple is one

of the most valued companies and it all started from Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. They started

the company with the first computer made by them called the Apple 1. The article continues into

the history of the company and talks about the decisions they made that led to the success we see

in them today. Since the introduction of the Macintosh which was the computer that completely

changed Apple into a very successful company, Apple had either been a reflection of or a

reaction to the management of Steve Jobs because he had been fired. In the Macintosh, Apple

tried to create a machine that made computing simple and enjoyable for the user. “Job’s, in

particular, was out to create a user experience that would convince everyone to buy a Mac. Jobs
believed a truly revolutionary product couldn't depend on customers’ needs and wants because

the customer can’t understand the quality of the product until he or she is holding it” (Beattie).

The source could present bias claims when he talks about what the cause of Apple

success is because he is a fan of the company. Apple struggled in the 1980s and many believe it

was Steve Jobs that saved the company when he was rehired. There could be some bias because

of the authors admiration for Jobs. This admiration could make him agree that Steve Jobs saved

the company. The article is mostly informative with an argument present. The target audience

includes people in business that want to look at a company like Apple and analyze both their

success and their plunders.

The next article I chose was “How does the stock market work”. I think this topic is

important to my topic because the stock market has a lot to do with businesses and their success

or failure. The success or failure of a business can be seen in the stock. If the stock of a company

goes down, then the company is having issues which can result in the failure of the business. If

the stock of a company goes up, then something good happened in the company that gave them

success. If you go back to Apple you would see that the stock has plummeted due to the lack of

sales of their Iphones. Taking a look at the specifics of the stock market discussed in the article

we learn that a market is a place to buy and sell and the stock market is the same, except that the

quantities changing hands are sometimes massive and that shares in companies and funds are

primarily what’s being exchanged. Going back to their origins, stock markets were physical

buildings where stock trading took place. Most trades are done electronically now, allowing for a

more efficient market despite its growth over the years. Stock prices can move up or down based

on a number of reasons, but at the heart of it is a the age-old notion of supply and demand. The

supply is simply the number of shares available at a given price and the demand is the number of
shared wanted at a given prices. If there are more buyers than sellers, the price will go up — and

vice versa. If you look solely at the numbers, there can also be a disconnect between the price of

stock and what its fundamental value suggests the stock is worth. Usually, this variance is due to

investor sentiment in regard to that company.

The source cannot really present bias claims because the information given in the article

are facts and he does not present any sort of claim. He is merely explaining how the stock market

works. The article is all informative because the information given helped me understand how

the stock market works. This helps me for my topic because stocks have a lot to do with the

success and failure of businesses so understanding how they work is very important.

In “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers” by Nancy

Sommers, we take a look at strategies for revising our work. One strategy she talks about is to

cross out words that can be replaced and think of better words that can replace it. She calls it the

“Scratch out and do over again”. Another strategy is to scan my paper to find repeated words or

sentences. If the same thing is said multiple times, then you should erase the other times you

mentioned it. If the same word is repeated, you can find better words that can replace it. Also,

going through and reading over and over to make sure every part of your essay sounds right is a

good strategy as well because reading it a lot makes it easier to catch both little and big mistakes.

In my draft I deleted the sentence, “This helps me for my topic because stocks have a lot

to do with the success and failure of businesses so understanding how they work is very

important.” This was deleted because it was repetitive. I said the same thing many many times

throughout the essay and it needed to be crossed out and deleted. I also decided to go more in

depth about how this relates to my topic because I mostly talked about what the articles are about
instead of focusing more on the purpose for why I chose to use both these articles in my

research, for my topic.

Also important is researching how businesses fail. This is probably the most important

subject to my research because it is my topic. In this article, “Why Businesses Fail” by Team

Tony, the reason behind why businesses fail is discussed. The article talks about how if you want

to become successful and sustain that success over years and over decades, if you want to build a

brand, then you have to find a way to add more value than anybody else in the game. Basically

you have to stand out from everyone else to start off. That’s the first step to success. Businesses

have to stay sharp on their feet constantly finding new innovations. Next, he looks at marketing.

Marketing is another critical step to a successful business and its why most businesses fail. If you

cannot find a way to market your product or service, then your business will have a hard time

getting off the ground. A product might be better than anyone else but if you have no way of

getting it to the customer, then the business will fail and the other business with the worse

product will stay on top. “Apple is one of the most valuable companies of our time, with a

market cap of $600 billion and a stock that is soaring above its competitors. But it wasn’t always

that way. In 1997, the company was near bankruptcy, and Michael Dell was advising Steve Jobs

to shut Apple down and give its shareholders their money back. But Apple persisted, and Steve

Jobs asked himself one of the most critical questions in his lifetime: ‘What business are we really

in?’”(Tony).

Apple is a subject I will touch on in my paper and they are a company of interest for

many people researching in business because of their success. What’s interesting is that their

success was met with failure too. Because Microsoft basically took over the market, it left Apple

to almost go completely bankrupt.

This source could show some bias view. Although it is very informative, you could argue that his

reasoning for why businesses fail could be opinionated because there is no set reason for why

businesses fail. There are many reasons businesses fail and he could’ve picked the reasons he

wanted to support his own beliefs. The audience are people studying business or people wanting

to start a business looking to find where to start and what not to do so their business does not fail.
 Works Cited

Beattie, Andrew. “The Story Behind Apple's Success.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 12 Mar. 2019,

www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/042815/story-behind-apples-success.asp (Links

to an external site.)Links to an external site..

“How Does the Stock Market Work? • A Guide for Beginners.” Benzinga, 27 Nov. 2018,

www.benzinga.com/investing/how-does-the-stock-market-work/ (Links to an external site.)Links

to an external site..

“Why Do Businesses Fail?” Tonyrobbins.com, 30 Aug. 2018, www.tonyrobbins.com/career-

business/why-do-businesses-fail/?avad=176654_a156977a9.