Small teams of employees generally create the products produced at Apple without any intervention (not including management’s directions). When it was first founded in 1976 with only three people working at Apple and it still continues to prove true today with an estimation of 76,000 people employed . In the earlier years of the Apple’s development, these teams would be handpicked by the senior management, consisting of employees with skills in computer engineering and marketing. These small and talented teams had products sold out in stores and became so popular that Apple had followers on social media. Compared to other big technology companies at the time, Apple didn 't consider as the top of the industry just yet. Steve Jobs’ influence …show more content…
He made decisions such as discontinuing several projects (he lowered the number of R&D projects from 50 to 10) and he focused mainly on fixing the damage inflicted on Apple’s image.
Due to health reasons, Jobs gave up his position as CEO of Apple to his successor, Tim Cook, in August 2011.
Application of Theory
Organizational Structure
Apple’s organizational structure is relevant to the research question as it demonstrates Steve Jobs ' role at Apple, and the importance of various departments (which gives a good measure of the corporate culture) .
Apple has not released an official organizational chart, but in May 2011 Fortune Magazine published an article containing one . In their chart, Steve Jobs is at the center of all operations, although today that spot is taken by Tim Cook. Nevertheless, the chart illustrates Apple’s organization while Jobs was CEO, which is the time period relevant to the research question.
(Reference to Appendix
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These teams are not permanent - engineers may be suddenly moved to a new team, to work on a completely different product or service, if their managers think they are needed there . Sachin Argawal (a former Apple employee) writes that:
“[Apple] hires very few, but very intelligent people who can work on different projects and move around as needed.”
Mintzberg’s framework of organizational structures can be applied to Apple’s company structure. This framework divides a business into six basic parts :
1. The strategic apex, or the key decision-makers
2. The middle line, or the middle managers
3. The operating core, or the operational processes
4. The techno structure, or the technical support and systems
5. Support staff, or the supplementary staff
Apple Inc. headquartered in Cupertino, California was founded in 1976 by three men named Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. Apple Inc. has a strong presence worldwide; the company currently has 478 Apple retail stores in 17 different countries. The company focuses primarily on designing, developing, and selling electronics, computer software, and online services. Some of the hardware products are; iPhone, Mac laptop, the Apple watch, and the iPad tablet. Apple Inc. has become one of the most important American companies due to its innovative skills. According to a Forbes article, “The Boston Consulting Group ranks Apple as the world’s most innovative company. Apple has topped BCG’s list of 50 companies every year since 2005.”(Adams,
Meyer, P. (2017). Apple Inc. Organizational Culture: Features & Implications - Panmore Institute. Panmore Institute. Retrieved 8 July 2017, from http://panmore.com/apple-inc-organizational-culture-features-implications
The structure of an organization is the sum of total ways in which it divides its labour into distinct tasks and then achieves coordination among them. (Mintzberg, 1979). An organization can be structured in many ways depending on their objectives. An organizational structure consists of activities such as task allocation, coordination and supervision which are directed towards the achievement of organizational aims. (www.wikipedia.org) When an organization grows beyond the smallest operation, management divides work vertically, as those at the top delegate more of their work to those below them.
Apple has taken one many roles as a company: a design firm, a media platform, a publishing company, a software powerhouse, a computer builder and an entire movement. If we scrutinize each role Apple has taken on, you will find a company at the top of their industry and a recipe for building one of the most influential businesses of all time.
Apple is an American producer of personal computer, personal computer peripherals, cellular telephones and PC programming. It was the first effective personal computer organization and advanced the graphical client interface. Its central command center is situated in Cupertino, California. Apple was established by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in 1976, to create and offer PCs. Apple is presently the world 's second biggest data innovation organization by income after Samsung Electronics, and the world 's third biggest cellular telephone producer.(Apple, 2012)
Apple Inc is a multinational organization in America and has its headquarters in California. The organization specializes in the design as well as development of consumer electronics including: computer software 's, and also personal computers. The organization has for long been offering a broad range of communication mobile communication as well as its own company software’s. The organization has quite an upright name in the business world. For a long period it has been producing quality product and their designers really bring out uniqueness in their products (Linzmayer, 2004). Apple Inc has established itself as being the world’s leader in innovation. Thus according to statistics; it is classified as being the fourth most valuable technology
In fact, about this business one can easily write a few weighty books. Without exaggeration, we can say that Apple is one of the brightest technology companies that appeared in the 70s of the last century. Due to innovative technology and aesthetic design, Apple Inc. has established a unique reputation comparable to the cult in the consumer electronics industry. In 2014 the company was ranked first in the world by market capitalization. The concept of the brand is built around the slogan 'Think different’ (Linzmayer, 2004).
Apple sustains the process from the time at which investments in productive capabilities are made until the innovative products come onto the market.
Apple is significant to me since my Blackberry crashed twice (I lost everything). Apple’s Icloud stores all your information in one step in the cloud. Apple uses a fundamental HR strategy - Hire for innovation- the employees they hire are great talent, that fits the company’s atmosphere of we are the best.
PUGH, D. S., HICKSON, D. J., HININGS, C. R. AND TURNER, C., "Dimensions of Organization Structure," Admin. Sci. Quart. (1968), pp. 65-105.
Under Steve Jobs ' leadership Apple was an innovative company and under Tim Cook 's leadership Apple is now being seen as more of charitable, socially and ethically responsible company.
In order for one to evaluate and identify with the diverse business structures, he/she must be aware of the meaning and standards that makes that structure. Various businesses functions in different ways as the world is full of technology and new structures, company cultures and new ways in which companies are run. In order to fully grasp the concepts of Organizational structure and culture in the movies, I will use the Movie Up in the Air and The Devil Wear Prada movies to analyze a business scenario from them.
Apple Inc is functional departmentalisation. There are 15 departments responsible for specific tasks. These departments are finance, legal, software engineering, marketing, retail and online stores, hardware engineering, industrial design and human interface, internet so...
These products, built upon incredible foresight and attention to detail, carried tremendous customer loyalty and high margins. Apple management must bridge the perceived innovation gap with some sort of product breakthrough. Otherwise, it is reasonable for the company to accept lower Street expectations built upon the premise that while the company remains an exceptional production, distribution and branded business, the days of unparalleled enterprising innovation and leadership may be ebbing. The best things to do, by Cook, would be to have a VP that replace the innovation brought by Jobs and be in charge only on innovation.
Steve Jobs one of the founding fathers of Apple Inc used strategic planning to his advantage by making Apple’s mission a simple one- bringing easy to use computers to the general market, revolutionizing the computer market. In 2007, after thirty years, the organization changed its name from Apple Computer to Apple Inc., this was a significant move because the organization became more independent, and it was no longer known as a vendor to Macintosh personal computer line (Yoffie & Slind, 2008). This strategic move paid off; a year and half later, Apple Inc.’s third quarter net profit of $1.07 billion on a $7.46 billion in revenue (Yoffie & Slind, 2008). SWOT Analysis of Apple, Inc. Strengths (Competitive Advantage)