The Manager As A Planner And Strategist

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation. Apple Inc. is founded on April 1, 1976 that already has 36 years old history and the company headquarter is located in Cupertino, California. Apple Inc. has approximately 598,500 employees, about 307,250 employees are from engineering, manufacturing, and transportation field and about 291,250 employees are from economy jobs. Apple Inc. is active internationally because of its sale of software and hardware products in 31 countries around the world.

Apple Inc. is active in designing and manufacturing of consumer electronics, computer software and personal computers. This company is responsible for the sale and manufacturing of hardware products such as Mac computers, the iPod music player, the iPhone Smartphone, and the iPad tablet computer. As for the software products, are the OS X and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media browser, the Safari web browser, and the iLife and iWork creativity and production suites. Moreover, Apple is the world second largest information technology company by revenue and the world’s third largest mobile phone maker after Samsung. As a result, Samsung became the principal competitor for the hardware products and for the software and operating system products, is the Microsoft, one of the world’s superpowers in operating systems.

Besides that, it is also the second largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization. Lastly, Apple has own environmental and business practices so it will receive criticism for its contractors’ labour practices.( www.apple.com)

Tim Cook

Timothy Donald Cook (Tim Cook) is the CEO of Apple Inc. He became the CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011 and he is in this position about a year. Tim Cook joined Apple in March 1998 as SVP of Worldwide Operations and also served as EVP of Worldwide Sales and Operations and was COO until he was named the CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011. He served as Apple CEO for 2 months in 2001, when Steve Jobs was recovering from pancreatic cancer surgery and also serves on the board of directors of Nike. In 2009, he again served as Apple CEO for several months while Steve Jobs took a leave of absence for a liver transplant.( wikipedia.org)

Part 2: The Manager as a Planner and Strategist

Mission

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad. (www.apple.com)

Vision

We built our company on innovation, providing products that were new and needed.

Major Goal

"Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings."

Values

Empathy for Customers/Users

We offer superior products that fill real needs and provide lasting value. We deal fairly with competitors and meet customers and vendors more than half way. We are genuinely interested in solving customer problems, and we will not compromise our ethics or integrity in the name of profit.

Aggressiveness/Achievement

We set aggressive goals and drive ourselves hard to achieve them. We recognize that this is a unique time, when our products will change the way people work and live. It is an adventure, and we are in it together.

Positive Social Contribution

We build products that extend human capability, freeing people from drudgery and helping them achieve more than they could alone. But beyond that, we expect to make this world a better place to live. As a corporate citizen, we wish to be an economic, intellectual, and social asset in the communities where we operate.

Innovation/Vision

We built our company on innovation, providing products that were new and needed. We accept the risks inherent in following our vision, and work to develop leadership products that command the profit margins we strive for.

Individual Performance

We expect individual commitment and performance above the standard for our industry. Only thus will we make the profits that permit us to seek our other corporate objectives. Each employee can and must make a difference. In the final analysis, individuals determine the character and strength of Apple.

Team Spirit

Teamwork is essential to Apple's success, for the job is too big to be done by one person. Individuals are encouraged to interact with all levels of management, sharing ideas and suggestions to improve Apple's effectiveness and quality of life. It takes all of us to win. We support each other and share the rewards together. We are enthusiastic about what we do.

Quality/Excellence

We care about what we do. We build into Apple products a level of quality, performance, and value that will earn the respect and loyalty of our customers. At Apple, quality management is critical to our continued success.

Individual Reward

We recognize each person's contribution to Apple's success, and we share the financial rewards that flow from high performance. We recognize also that rewards must be psychological as well as financial, and we strive for an atmosphere where each individual can share the adventure and excitement of working at Apple.

Good Management

The attitudes and behaviours of managers toward their people are of primary importance. Employees should be able to trust the motives and integrity of their supervisors. It is the responsibility of management to create a productive environment where Apple Values flourish. (www.seanet.com)

I think Apple Inc. has living up its mission. From its mission, Apple Inc. wants to design best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. From the Figure 1, they launch Nike+iPod, a device which measures and records the distance and pace of a walk or run. The Nike+iPod consists of a small transmitter device attached to or embedded in a shoe, which communicates with either the Nike+ Sportband, a receiver plugged into an iPod Nano, or directly with a 2nd Generation iPod Touch (or higher), iPhone 3GS (or higher) or a Nike+ Sportwatch. If using the iPod or the iPhone, iTunes software can be used to view the walk or run history. From this evidence, Apple Inc. has satisfied with the iLife, which create a better lifestyle for its users among the world. Besides that, Apple Inc. is the first company to launch the intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator, Siri, which works as an application for Apple’s IOS. Siri can answer and question to the user by using daily language and performs tasks in daily activities such as reminders, navigator, alarm and so on and this fulfil the mission of the company which is to create professional software. Last but not least, iWork for Mac makes it easy to create and design beautiful documents, spreadsheets, and presentation on the users’ Mac. The users can use iCloud, cloud storage and cloud computing allows users to store and get documents or data from iCloud everywhere at any time. Conclusion, Apple Inc. has living up to its mission.

About the vision, Apple Inc. launches the latest iPhone with latest technology. IPhone 3G can use to perform daily task for example calling and messaging, photographing and connect to the internet with limited speed. But the latest iPhone 5, which built in with 1.3 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and a tri-core PowerVR SGX543MP4 running at 266 MHz, which allow user to perform activities faster. For the compatible networks GSM, CDMA, 3G, EVDO, HSPA+, LTE, which allows user to browse or search information faster than the previous version of the iPhone. These evidences proved that the Apple Inc. is always providing products that were new and needed. Conclusion, Apple Inc. has been living up to its vision.

Apple Inc. is also concern about the individual reward. From the Figure 2, it shows that Apple Inc. has given one iPad 2 as a corporate gift or as a business reward. That’s mean Apple Inc. is not only concern about the company’s profit, but also the feedback or reward to the public as well. Conclusion, Apple Inc. has living up some of the values.

There is one the most serious significant strategic error that managers in the organization have made is launching the IOS6. IOS6 was previewed on June 11, 2012. The supported devices are on this release include the iPhone 3GS or later, the iPod touch (4th generation) or later, the iPad 2 or later, and iPad mini. Two notable apps that iOS 6 removed are Google Maps and YouTube. The Google Maps replaced by the map or navigator launch by the Apple Inc. company. The map comes out with many problems. For example, from the Figure 3, it shows that the Apple IOS 6 maps get warning from Australian police after having to rescue six people in two months who became lost while trying to find Mildura in Victoria. Apple Inc. does not really study about the map’s reliability because officially launch the map.

Part 3: Organization Structure

Apple’s Organization Structure

Apple manages and organizes its business based on a geographical structure. Their geographical structure groups together jobs and activities being performed by the employees in the same geographical region. The company has created operating segments based on the location and nature of the customers. The operating segments are the Americas, Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific, Retail and FileMaker operations. The Americas, Europe, Japan and Retail operations are Apple's reportable operating segments. The Americas, Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific segments do not include activities associated with the Retail segment. Asia Pacific includes Australia and Asia, excluding Japan. The Americas segment encompasses North and South America. European countries, the Middle East, and Africa are part of the Europe segment. Regarding the company's retail segment, these are the retail stores operating in the U.S. and international markets. Similar hardware and software products and services are provided for the same types of customers by each reportable operating segment.

Apple Inc. is such a large corporation that it has all levels of management from upper to lower. The organization has all types of managers including line managers whose work directly contributes to the production of apple’s goods and services. They also have staff managers who use their special technical expertise to support line workers (marketing, accounting, human resources, and legal services). As shown in the diagram above of how Apple's top managers are organized, the company has both functional managers, who are responsible for one area of activity, and general managers, who are responsible for complex areas. ( www.businessteacher.org.uk)

Advantages Apple Gained From This Structure

As the company enters a new era under the reign of freshly minted CEO Tim Cook, it is preparing to expand its markets in the US and abroad with the release of the iPhone 5. One of the areas that are most likely to garner a lot of Apple’s focus in the coming months is the Asia-Pacific region, and more specifically, China.

The most recent news is Apple breaking the ice in China in 2011. Apple has already seen some success in China. Unlike Japan, which contributes a relatively small amount of Apple’s overall revenue, China has increasingly become a market that is a major factor in Apple’s current financial success. In the first 9 months of this fiscal year, the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, accounted for a whopping 20% of Apple’s reported revenue. That’s 1/5 of all of Apple’s revenue worldwide coming from the region. This is an increase of 191%, bringing Apple’s reported revenue in the region to just north of $16 billion. The immense year-over-year gain is illustrated in the chart above.

Historically, China isn’t the friendliest market for American brands. Google has found it tough to do business there because of restrictive censorship and retailers like Best Buy and Home Depot have run up against heavy price competition. Yet, despite the conventional wisdom, Apple’s business in China is booming and is set to get even better over the next year. (thenextweb.com)

Less Friction in Apple’s International Marketing Strategy

Apple’s focus is on the best product. They are a company that focuses on innovation, and by that I mean with new products, but also improvements on their existing products. They are using the focused differentiation strategy, by making products that are exclusive, and pretty expensive. Not everyone can afford an Apple product. Apple's target market is people who are willing to pay more for products with a better user experience, people who like to have fun with technology, music enthusiasts and people who work with media and design professional. They have done a good job by finding out which customer needs to satisfy. They have found out that these customers want a nice, beautiful and simple design and user input, and they have focused on programs that help you to take pictures, programs that edit both pictures and videos, and good music programs, both to listen, and to make music. To make these programs, they have to have to focus on innovation, and have programmers and designers that can make a program like this, that are both easy to use, beautiful to look at, and can do everything you can expect from programs like these.

If in the future Apple is going for another outstanding strategy internationally, it would be possible because of their existing organizational infrastructure which creates a path for easier approach of their targeted customer and the innovating principle carried by the corporation. (internationalstrategicmanagement.blogspot.com)

Part 4: Motivation and Leadership

According to the research we had made, Apple provides a program, "Education and Development Programs" for its workers which giving free college classes in language skills, computer and other objects to help its workers improve their skills and knowledge so that can motivate the worker to perform more efficiency. (www.apple.com)

Apple also offered its employees with "Employee Purchase Plan" that allow Apple’s employee to get discount when purchase various Apple product. At the same time, the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, who praise his workers in the media events have fully motivate Apple’s workers. Besides that, Apple rewards its executives with about 3 to 5 percent of bonus of their basic salary. With those benefits, Apple successfully motivates its employees. In this paragraph, it shows that Apple taking positive reinforcement which is the CEO praise the employees in public and giving promotion to the employees. (www.storify.com)( www.macrumors.com)

Apple motivates its workers base on Alderfer’s ERG theory. It satisfies its employees with the salary that Apple paid and it fulfills the existence needs. We also found out that Apple also has strongly applied relatedness needs, those workers whose work in Apple also satisfy with their working environment and they have a great relationship with their coworkers and managers. With the training Apple provided also fulfill the Growth needs. (www.indeed.com)

Recently, Apple has also given its employees more vacation days due to the strong performance in production sales. With this plan, workers can release their stress after they concentrate in their work for a long time, after that they can more focus on their works and perform more efficient and effective. This is also a way that Apple motivates its workers. (www.storify.com)

By the way, one of the reasons that Apple can motivates its workers so well, is because Apple has a good leader that can lead its workers, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple. Previous of his work at Compaq was responsible for procuring and managing all the Compaq’s product inventory, and he is the operating officer of the Reseller Division at Intelligent Electronics. It shows that Tim Cook has a expert power that base on the knowledge and skills. (www.apple.com)

Tim Cook is a person who has a maturity mind, he admitted the mistake and announces a apologize letter to the public for the mistake that they had done when launching the new version of iOS devices through the Apple official website. By the way, he also becomes a self-confident speaker in the presentation that he has attended. Tim Cook speaks highly of Apple in a presentation, he is confident in the products that Apple made. He believes that Apple’s products are truly the best in the world. Tim Cook is not the best leader but he is a good leader that has good leadership and can lead Apple’s to the better future. (www.apple.com)(www.executivespeaking.com)

Part 5: Managerial Control and Change

Output Control

Apple's Financial Standing

Bureaucratic Control

In an apple’ retail store, some of the surprising details of the rules in that store are:

Employees are forbidden from correcting customer mispronunciations, because it would make them feel "patronized".

In-store technicians are asked to deal with emotional customers by using "simple reassurances" that they are listening, like, "Uh-huh" and "I understand".

Employees at the Genius Bar are asked to say "as it turns out" instead of "unfortunately", for a more positive spin on their bad news.

Apple's retail philosophy is described by the acronym A.P.P.L.E.

"Approach customers with a personalized warm welcome", "Probe politely to understand all the customer's needs", "Present a solution for the customer to take home today", "Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns", and "End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return".

Employees who are six minutes late three times in six months may be fired.

New employees are made to shadow more experienced co-workers and are forbidden to talk to customers until they're ready, which takes a few weeks, or more.(www.huffingtonpost.com)

Clan Control

Little claimed that, like most companies, Apple has its fair share of red tape that can frustrate employees. As an employee, if a project does not involve a top manager, namely, the CEO, it will take months of meetings to move things forward. In short, to get a project’s progress done smoothly, just use the CEO’s name, for instance, "This project is for Steve".

Apple, unlike any other companies, is very concerned about secrecy. An example of working culture under secrecy, if employees are working on secret projects at Apple, they must "pass through a maze of security doors, swiping their badges again and again and finally entering a numeric code to reach their offices". Once inside the top-secret areas, employees are often monitored by surveillance cameras as they work. Those working with the most sensitive projects are allegedly instructed to "cover up devices with black cloaks when they are working on them, and turn on a red warning light when devices are unmasked so that everyone knows to be extra-careful". (appleinsider.com)

Other cultural decisions that changed Apple forever by Steve Jobs are the instillation of 8 design cultures into Apple, when he returned to Apple in year 2000.

The 8 Design Cultures

1. Design is everything.

Traditional companies don’t have a design culture. Sure, they have designers, but design isn’t the #1 priority from the very top of the organization to the very bottom. For Apple, design is everything. Steve Jobs knows and believes this. When you have a leader that knows and believes in the impact of design, it makes it easy for everyone else to follow suit. When an entire company focuses on design, the result is a foundation for breath-taking products.

2. Design reports to the CEO

Apple is probably the only company where design reports directly to the CEO. If design is the most important element of a product, why wouldn’t the CEO want to take part? However, this doesn’t mean that every CEO qualifies to take part. The reason it worked for Apple is because Jobs is a systems thinker and designer. He simplifies complexity. If you have a CEO who doesn’t know how to cut things to its simplest level, but instead does the opposite, then you may not want the CEO to take part in the design. Better yet, you might want to change CEOs.

3. A very small team designs their products

Quality trumps quantity when it comes to teams. Apple has a small select group of skilled and talented designers (12 to 20) who design their major products. Compare that with companies who have large teams with groups of people on a project. Not at Apple. You may get more ideas with more people working on a project, but Apple’s focus is on quality not quantity. They want the best ideas from the brightest people at their company, and they manage to do it well with a very small elite team.

4. Designers make the design decisions

Does it make sense to have non-designers make design decisions? Apple knows that non-designers making design decisions are a recipe for disaster. That’s why they hire the best and trust that they’ll make smart decisions. To make sure of this, they have an executive level position that focuses on design. Jonathon Ive is the senior vice president of industrial design and is the principal designer of many Apple products. You can bet that all design decisions go through him.

5. They do pixel-perfect mockups

When Apple launches new products, there’s no surprise to anyone about what the product will look like. This is because they do pixel-perfect mockups that include the real content they will use, not placeholder content. This means that everyone will be critiquing the real thing and won’t see any interpretive changes by designers or engineers after the review. What you see in the mockup stage is what you will get.

6. They have paired design meetings

In order to create great products, engineers and designers have to work together as a team. That’s why every week the engineers and designers at Apple get together for two complementary meetings. The first is a brainstorm meeting where everyone leaves their inhibitions at the door and goes crazy thinking of different ways to tackle different problems. After that, comes the production meeting where they nail their ideas down into a plan for execution.

7. They do no market research

There’s no place for market research at Apple. The people at Apple have good taste. They know what’s good, and they’ll stick to their convictions. The responsibility is on them, not the will of the people. It’s a burden to meet the expectations of millions of people. Instead, they know who they are, what they represent and set their own expectations. This is about designing based upon their own philosophy and values, not somebody else’s.

8. If it’s not perfect, it doesn’t go out

Near perfect is not good enough for Apple. They shoot for perfection. Their policy is that if it’s not perfect, it doesn’t go out to the public. However, this doesn’t mean they are perfect. They sometimes make mistakes too. It just means they work hard for perfection, while other companies believe in getting it out there and fixing it later. Apple believes in getting it right the first time. From there, they’ll work to improve their products with newer versions, but they’ll never ship a mediocre product and fix its holes later.

For a company to match or surpass the level of success Apple’s had, they absolutely have to have a design culture permeates through the organization. This starts at the very top, with leadership that places design as their highest priority. They not only have to believe in design, but they have to think and understand it. Steve Jobs is living proof that when you have a leader who has a great passion and enthusiasm for design, you end up creating products that consumers can’t live without. (uxmovement.com)

I suggested improving the bureaucratic control of Apple Inc. The diagram above shows that each department and position of the company are centralized and control by the CEO of the company start from Steve Jobs generation until now. Those departments and members have to follow what's already mentioned or listed in the company’s SOP. For example, they have to get the permission for material support to do experiments on the new products from the top management and those approvals might take a long time from sending the request until approved. Apple Inc. is a high technology and creative company and the technology of the world is keep on changing. For example, the latest smartphones’ processor in the beginning of the year 2013 is quad-core but now is already take place by 8-core and the inductive charger starting to replace the traditional charger. This shows that the transformation of technology is very fast and Apple needs to follow the step of the technology. I suggested Apple Inc. to put its R&D department, designers and engineers in a special position and give them freedom and opportunity to create and produce new technology and solve their problems by using their creativity and knowledge because bureaucratic control can discourage creativity and innovation throughout the organization. But some of the departments such as service department still can use bureaucratic control to standardize the output so outcomes are predictable.

Part 6 Ethics and Social Responsibility

Apple Inc. has made a few kinds of investments such as empowering workers and health & safety.

Go Greener Apple

Apple Inc. current practices and progress towards these go greener as a goal, they want to recycle the old products and try to remove toxic chemicals in their products.

Apple started recycling in 1994 and today they operate recycling programs in countries. Besides, Apple’s approach to recycling begins in the design stage, where they create compact, efficient products that require less material to produce. The materials they do use to produce the product are included arsenic-free glass, high-grade aluminium, and strong polycarbonate and these materials are reclaimed by recyclers. Even their product packaging uses recyclable materials wherever possible. In addition, they recycled 13 million pounds of e-waste in 2006 and nothing is shipped overseas for recycling or disposal. Furthermore, Apple does not allow the use of prison labour at any stage of the recycling process nor disposal of hazardous electronic waste in solid-waste landfills or incinerators. This program can decrease the waste of the world and Apple also responsible the social safety. (www.apple.com)

Apple's Donations To Charity 

Tim Cook wants to change the stingy reputation of the company, therefore Apple Inc had made a big change such as donations to charity. Tim Cook decides to give $50 million to Stanford University hospitals, he had split into $25 millions to build the new children’s hospitals and other $25 millions for a new main building. In addition, Apple Inc. also donates $50 million to the African aid organization (Product)RED. These two donations are decided during an internal Apple meeting celebrating the company's stellar fourth quarter. (www.huffingtonpost.com)

I agree on the investments because the Go Greener Apple Program shows the Apple Inc. is ethics and social responsibility cooperation. The program is to decrease the pollution on the natural environment and also can let the social have a comfortable life. In addition, Apple Inc had donated to charity, these donations would help many people in the world.