Apple_Company_Management

1. Introduction This report will study, as I think, the most quickly developing and the most highly-technological corporation in the electronics market of the modern world – Apple. The report’s purpose is to embrace the main information about the company, its international work, issues, used strategies, various factors’ influence and, eventually, to put forward a few appropriate suggestions so that the company could enjoy more success. 2. Company background 2.1 Well, Apple, as it is well-known, is a multinational organization which specializes in production of mobile phones (the iPhone), PCs (the Macintosh line of computers), tablet computers (the iPad), players (the iPod), software (as the OS X, iOS...), different accessories to its gadgets and stuff. 2.2 Apple is a global company which operates in a lot of countries. It ranks with the world’s biggest mobile-phone makers such as Nokia and Samsung and longs to be on the top in production of their hardware. 2.3 The uniqueness of the corporation is in achieving something new and offering it to its clients. I think that the word «NEW» is a basic word of Apple. And, besides that, the second important word is «FIRST». 2.4 ‘Cause Apple was the first company to produce the prototype, as a lot of people think, of the computer that almost all of us have at home today (Apple II). This computer was the first to be produced by the millions of copies, by the way. A lot of innovations that today’s electronics market has was brought into it by Apple (just take, at least, this widespread touch screen the modern corporations have). And nowadays the brand and the logo of Apple are the most recognizable things on the market of electronics. And I suppose nobody can cause such a stir on the threshold of a new product’s release but Apple. 2.5 Moreover, the organization has the very convenient way of resolving any issues. The company can offer the support for its clients all over the world and figure your problems out if you have them just by a few clicks of a mouse. In addition, Apple has its own community on the website where you can find and share solutions with the other Apple users. 3. Environmental factors 3.1 To be cost efficient, firms are increasingly splitting up production around the world to take advantage of other countries’ ability to perform parts of the process better for less money. By establishing a global web of production activities, firms hope to achieve the highest quality standards at the lowest possible cost (book «Management» by Gomez-Mejia, Balkin). Just like it is with Apple. The company conducts most of its production in China and South Korean factories in America. For instance, Apple’s first Taiwan supplier Pegatron received the order from Apple to start the production of the new iPhone about two months ago. (macdailynews.com) Also there is a Taiwan firm called Foxconn connected with Pegatron (the world biggest electronics manufacturer) which produces the components for iPhone, iPad and MacBook. (apple.com) And the A5 chips of Apple iPhone 4S and iPad 2 are made in a factory in Austin, Texas, which is owned by Korean electronics giant Samsung. (guardian.co.uk) 3.2 High technology has made a whole lot of impossible, at first sight, things. One of those things is a convenient way of leading business. This way is called outsourcing. Outsourcing means just what it says - going "out" to find the "source" of what you need. So it’s when a company contracts with an outside provider for services or other business processes, rather than employing staff to do these services in-house. There are many reasons that companies outsource various jobs, but the most prominent advantage seems to be the fact that it often saves money. Many of the companies that provide outsourcing services are able to do the work for considerably less money, as they don't have to provide benefits to their workers and have fewer overhead expenses to worry about. Depending on location, it may also be more affordable to outsource to companies located in different countries. (wisegeek.org) And for Apple outsourcing is a very important part of leading business like for a lot of key product companies in the world. Here are the inquiry results of the leading world companies about the advantages of outsourcing (CIO Magazine, 2006): Sphere | Percent | Decrease in expenses | 79 % | Concentration on profile business | 75 % | Service quality improvement | 70 % | Increase in competitiveness | 67 % | Stock value increase | 62 % | Optimization of business processes | 58 % | Achievement of the world standards | 53 % | In addition, this tables show the difference in company’s business with and without outsourcing: 3.3 Consumer preferences and tastes are similar all around the world even if there are some cultural, opinion and life-leading differences. Why' Well, obviously, the mass media plays the main part of it. Look at these multinational companies like Levi’s, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Ikea, Procter & Gamble and so on, and so forth. Are their products the best…' Well, yeah, there is the quality… which plays not the last role. But these companies do take the consumers’ preferences and wishes into account, maybe, more than others and they know how to treat and some kind of play with the users’ tastes by the competent demonstration of their brainchildren all over the world and marketing strategies that tend to offer standardized products worldwide. And this system helps the corporations to gain less losses and to make a great profit on it, ‘cause doing so cost less than customizing goods to local conditions. (Book «Management» by Gomez-Mejia, Balkin) The same is with Apple. There are a lot of representative offices of the company covered the great number of countries. The organization tends to collaborate with heaps of foreign advertising and marketing agencies. So people all over the world can buy the products with a pleased smile upon their faces and have nothing to worry about knowing that all their preferences are embodied in one of the best and most recognizable contraptions they could ever get. 3.4 One of the most important things, to be more precise – questions is «Who is going to buy my devises, my food, my clothes…' » That is why a lot of companies choose their ways of providing their clients with the goods very accurate. They look at who is the most interested in their product, the age of the clients, their gender and status. And then they correct their possible mistakes and choose the right direction of the business. The corporations are trying to find out what this or that particular group would like to see in their product. Of course, the same thing is with Apple. Here is the thing… The guys who are the most interested in Apple devices are about 18-25 years old. (Source - Hitwise service) And I suppose that’s why Apple is trying to draw all those young guys’ attention to its product, just because it’s easier to surprise them, to attract them and they need a lot of functions that Apple can give to them. And, of course, we all understand that today’s young generation is just possessed with the high-tech world. So it’s easier to attract this group of people. And, no doubt, older men and women need Apple’s electronics too, not so much like youngsters, but at least they need it. By the way, in terms of who need it more men or women, the difference is not very vast. For instance, here is the data of the US demographic profile of visitors to Apple iPhone Website for the four weeks ending June 23, 2007. It’s for Apple’s iPhone announced in January, 2007. Age | Traffic share | 18-24 | 32.22% | 25-34 | 21.45% | 35-44 | 22.05% | 45-54 | 15.35% | 55+ | 8.92% | Gender | Traffic share | Male | 51.51% | Female | 48.49% | Source: Hitwise service | Today’s 2012 situation doesn’t differ much from 2007, except for male and female ratio. Today it’s 43% for female and 57% for male. (deodex.ru) 4. Important factors. There are a lot of important factors that can impact on production of any company. They are: political, economical, social and technological. And every time a company tends to spread its production it should do PEST Analysis to foresee the future events that could impact a company’s market and its stakeholders as well as they could affect the strategic development of a business. So PEST analysis (which stands for the previously told important factors) is a useful tool. Let’s take two of the factors and apply them to Apple Company. 4.1 Political factor: Political factors that Apple Inc. might have to take into consideration when launching a new product or entering a new market might be laws and regulation like the Employment law, Consumer protection Law, competitive regulations, inter-country relationships, terrorism, taxes and government structures. For example, in some countries it is illegal to employ people under a certain age without proper approval by the guardians. Also some countries enforce importance of local employment before employing a foreign person.4.2 Technological factor: It is important to keep up with the dynamics of technological changes, as there is a threat of market loss if you lag behind the existing tendencies. The analysis of technological environment allows a company to be reconstructed on manufacture and realization of technologically perspective product in due time, and also to refuse out-of-date technologies in time. So Apple follows the leading tendencies and implants more and more high-tech things in its devices like new chips, modern monitors and materials, and also provides the consumer with the pile of new functions. 5. Functions of management Within any organization there is management who work to effectively and efficiently bring success to the company. In being able to do that managers must understand the four important functions of management. The functions consist of planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Managers will work with employees, their superiors, and resources to make sure that all of these functions are being used the most suitable way for the organization. What each one does is specific to how it will help the company achieve success. So, of course, we can also apply it to Apple and see what exactly should do managers of Apple to bring on the success to the company. 5.1 Planning is the basic function of management. It deals with chalking out a future course of action & deciding in advance the most appropriate course of actions for achievement of pre-determined goals. So planning is deciding in advance - what to do, when to do and how to do. It bridges the gap from where we are & where we want to be. 5.2 Leading involves influencing others toward the attainment of organizational objectives. Effective leading requires the manager to motivate subordinates, communicate effectively, and effectively use power. If managers are effective leaders, their subordinates will be enthusiastic about exerting effort toward the attainment of organizational objectives. 5.3 Organizing is the process of bringing together physical, financial and human resources and developing productive relationship amongst them for achievement of organizational goals. According to Henry Fayol, “To organize a business is to provide it with everything useful or its functioning i.e. raw material, tools, capital and personnel’s”. 5.4 Controlling implies measurement of accomplishment against the standards and correction of deviation, if any, to ensure achievement of organizational goals. The purpose of controlling is to ensure that everything occurs in conformities with the standards. An efficient system of control helps to predict deviations before they actually occur. According to Theo Haimann, “Controlling is the process of checking whether or not proper progress is being made towards the objectives and goals and acting if necessary, to correct any deviation”. 6. Recommendations Well, it’s hard to recommend something to such company like Apple. But, however, I think that the consumers would appreciate the fact of lower products’ price, especially in the countries where big taxes take place. And as BBC and CNN sometimes say that global economy is expected to go down so the products should be cheaper. Moreover, experts establish the fact that the competition in the world market of mobile devices becomes more and more rigid day by day. In struggle for attention of clients, the large companies of the market aspire to interest consumers not only by stuffing of smart phones, but also their attractive price which the corporations try to provide by introduction of every possible discounts and actions. Also, as a lot of people say, the main Apple’s problem is the recent absence of the hopes come true. Let’s take the iPhone 4S or the iPad 3. Scores of people were disappointed with the absence of notable innovations and with higher price. So, I think that Apple should stun its consumers with, so to say, «meaty» products but not just by another generation devices for higher price. Let’s hope the iPhone 5 will be the Apple’s claim to fame. 7. Conclusion Well, here we took a look-see around the Apple Company’s business and the ways of its leading. Told about different business factors, that can affect any business, and applied them to the organization. We also got into some key facts and statistics in order to find out what the main company’s public is and how different decisions can keep the entity going. And, of course, there is no ideal corporation in the world, and customers are not always satisfied, so some recommendations took place as well.