Introductions
Apple - one of the largest and well-known corporations, which deals with the issue of personal and tablet computers, software, mobile phones and music players. It is now one of the biggest IT companies all over the world. Its price is considered to be almost twice higher than Microsoft’s and Google’s ones. Using innovative technology and exclusive design created the company unique reputation among electronics consumers. Apple products are recognized as worldwide cult.
The history of Apple began thirty years ago, when the two friends, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak decided to found their own company for the production and release of computers. Officially, Apple was founded on 1st April, 1976 (Web.bryant.edu, 2015). Right after, the first handpicked computer, Apple Computer I, appeared on the market. In February 1977, Michael Scott becomes the president of Apple. A significant step forward was the release of Apple Computer II in April of the same year - the first personal computer with colored graphics. Obviously it had an opportunity to display different colors as well as there were developed special commands to work with sound and, therefore, it had a built-in speaker and keyboard (Web.bryant.edu, 2015). Another breakthrough came in 1984, when the market entered a 32-bit computer Macintosh. Subsequently, he will be the main product of the company. The 21st Century should be called as "Golden years" of the company. In 2001, Apple introduced the iPod music player, which had enormous impact on the society, in 2007 first touchscreen smartphone iPhone and in 2010 the company presented the first tablet PC – iPad.
Branding
The branding strategy of Apple Inc. evolves through the decades of its existence, depending on their main products. Now, their main slogan is “Think Different”, but slogan itself if secondary point in the cut of branding, when the actual idea is the primary thing. The slogan - it's just a reflection of the idea, a way to convey the idea that stands behind the word, respectively, it is necessary to put the idea as an example to stand for. It is not difficult to guess that behind this slogan is the idea of "not to be like others," or in other words not be standard, not be an ordinary person. Standard person - is, first of all, humble, calm, dependent, ordinary, simple man. Accordingly, to be not like others, is to be rebellious, active, free, bold, in other words, be not like others - is to be a rebel. It can be concluded that the products Apple - this production, which allows to realize the idea of rebellion, it is popular among people who are in the depths of their souls - rebels.
Now, to continue the analysis of the Apple brand there is a need to understand how, where and why it has appeared, who is the personification of it, and some of its distribution area. Who was the first to rebel, who is the first, who bite the apple, despite the prohibitions? According to legend, the first rebels were Adam and Eve. They must not try the apple, but they did it. Their rebelliousness they showed exactly in this apple try. This may indicate that Apple logo - it's not just an ordinary apple, but namely the one, which Adam and Eve tasted. This may indicate that the Biblical story of Adam and Eve lies in the history of Apple brand name. This is one of the most famous legends. Billions of people around the world know this story and it may even unconsciously influence them. This means that the distribution area of rebellion ideas - the whole world. Perhaps, those ideas and its power is one of the main reason of such a huge popularity of Apple brand! If the logo Apple - it is exactly the apple that Adam and Eve tasted, it is one of the most literate and lucrative in the history of marketing moves.
Organizational Values and Corporate Social responsibility
Nowadays, Apple Inc. is one of the most popular brands all over the world. Its name is now synonym to innovation and many people consider them as some kind of ideal. Hence, their Corporate Social Responsibility statement will definitely have a huge impact on the modern society, regardless how it actually sounds. Luckily, TOP management of Apple understands that being one the best is a huge responsibility and not only in IT sphere itself, but the company should build trust and take proper actions in order to keep and increase its popularity. Thus, the company’s CSR statement sound the following: “To make truly great products, we feel it’s crucial to build them in ways that are ethical and environmentally responsible” (Apple, 2015). It is seen that Apple cares not only about their workers, customers and suppliers, but about the whole environment around. Moreover, this is stated at their official website so everyone can see and make appropriate conclusions for himself. Usually, customers are more likely to pay their funds for the company that actively supports ethical standards rather than to one, which has neutral opinion.
Except caring about the environment, Apple Inc. devoted separate page about how the treat their employees and main organizational values. They always improve the level of workers’ education and provide different programs for expanding the level of their knowledge. The main one is Supplier Employee Education and Development (SEED) program and since 2008, when it was launched, more than 860 thousand workers have passed this course (Apple, 2015). Moreover, Apple Inc. stated the must to treat the employees fairly and according to ethical and law rules even their partners and suppliers.
Global organization of production and Labor Treatment
Officially, Apple employs 63 thousand people all over the world. 43 of them are American and works in the US. The rest 20 thousand – overseas (Duhigg & Bradsher, 2012, n.p.). Apple provide an ideology of truly American company, however, it is rarely seen the statement “Produced in the USA” on any Apple’s product (iPhone, iPad, MacBook etc.). Instead of that, it is usually stated “Developed and Designed in California”, which definitely cannot mean that is actually produced there. The thing is that Apple Inc. has different suppliers all over the world. The biggest one is Foxconn, located in China, and where the most of Apple products are assembled and produced and it involves over 200 thousand employees (Duhigg & Bradsher, 2012, n.p.). Since 2009, the only manufacturing complex, which remains under Apple’s control is in Cork, Ireland and it is specialized only on Macintosh computers (Selden, Chan & Ngai, 2013, n.p.). Such development was predicted more than 30 years ago, when former Apple president Mike Scott state: “Our business is designing, educating and marketing” (Selden, Chan & Ngai, 2013, n.p.). Hence, Apple success, despite IT innovations, marketing and design development, lies in cooperation with overseas suppliers and their labor, Foxconn’s in particular. With this success Apple operating margins have been rapidly increasing from year to year since 2007, while their suppliers’ stats remain almost the same or even decreases, such as, again, Foxconn organization (see figure above).
Nevertheless, treatment of labor in suppliers’ organization remains at the quite high level: having usual breaks and no more than 60 working hours per week, at least it is always stated by officials and at Apple’s website. However, employees in Foxconn usually works for more than 12 hours per day and 6 days per week (Duhigg & Bradsher, 2012, n.p.). Indeed, the work place facilities and feeding remain at good level: Foxconn kitchen cooks about 3 tons of pork and over 10 tons of rice per day. This facility even has 30 guards, which follow the employee traffic in corridors in order to prevent crushes (Duhigg & Bradsher, 2012, n.p.). Of course, everyone can understand that any American worker would never work in such conditions and live in dormitories, but still Apple is trying to provide as good labor treatment as possible, even though they located outside the US.
Wages
Employees’ wages in Apple Inc. is public information and can checked by anyone interested. According to PayScale the wage level starts from just $19000 per year for being Sales Associate. Average wage level is shaping from $35000 to $60000 per year. Once the employee get promotion to any Senior level, the wage level begins $80000. Again, according to PayScale, the maximum wage, which was officially stated, is $300 thousand per year for being the Manager of Program Operations (Payscale.com, 2015). However, these wages level is for only those employees, who works for Apple Inc., but it never stated how big salary receives a usual worker in, for example, Foxconn organization, where the Apple products are actually made.
Environmental Impact
“We believe true innovation must consider everything” – state official Apple website, when you go to Environmental Responsibility page. True, according to the Apple 2014 Annual Report regarding this responsibility. During that year, Apple launched the biggest privately owned solar array. The company is not just trying to provide energy-efficient facility, but more concentrating on renewable energy in order to achieve Net Zero Energy (Apple, 2014, 5). By the end of 2014, all Apple’s data centers are working on fully renewable energy principle. It includes wind, solar and geothermal power which also result in zero greenhouse effect.
Apple Inc. used and keep using three main approaches to renewable energy, which is:
Displacement, when they are looking for the options to displace those forms of energy, which pollute the environment more;
Additionality, which is striving to create new sources of energy with zero pollution rate;
Accountability – strict measuring and tracking the amount of energy Apple Inc. uses and trying the best they can to reduce that amount from year to year. (Apple, 2014, 6)
Social Activities
Apple Inc. is not only caring about the environment around themselves and to use less energy than everyone does, but they also apply these principles into their products. Thus, OS X, operation system of MacBook or iMac, always use any opportunity to save some energy, if it could do so (Apple, 2014, 13). Even when the customer is surfing the browser, which does not requires a lot of system work, OS X put the devise’s hard disk into sleep and make the processor work at the ultralow power (Apple, 2014. 13). Definitely, Apple Inc. cares about overall environment around the world and about each and every Apple user!
On the other hand, there no specific report regarding the company’s social activity. Except caring the environment and their customers (which definitely are not that poor), there is no other social activity, such as charity.
Conclusion
No doubts, Apple Inc. is a huge, multinational organization with more than 400 retail stores, millions of customers and billions sold products. It is more than just successful company. Getting an iPhone, iPad or any other Apple product is a dream of millions kids and adults all over the world. Hence, the influence of this company on the modern can hardly be overestimated. According the Case Study above, Apple Inc. has a lot of advantages, especially in environmental sphere, however, its suppliers’ labor treatment should definitely be re-evaluated and even if Apple Top management states they care about that, it should be also hardly controlled and if something goes wrong – measures must be taken accordingly.
Additionally, Apple should also provide the wage ranking of low level stuff and the wages in their partners’ companies as well as suppliers. This would significantly increase the authority of the organization and make it more open to the world, as it is a multinational company!
References
Apple,. (2015). Apple - Supplier Responsibility. Retrieved 19 July 2015, from https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/
Duhigg, C., & Bradsher, K. (2012). How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html
Selden, M., Chan, J., & Ngai, P. (2013). The politics of global production: Apple, Foxconn and China's new working class. The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 11(32). Retrieved from http://japanfocus.org/-Jenny-Chan/3981/article.html
Apple Inc.,. (2014). Environmental Responsibility Report. Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/Apple_Environmental_Responsibility_Report_2014.pdf
Payscale.com,. (2015). Apple Computer, Inc Employer Salary, Average Salaries by Job | PayScale. Retrieved 19 July 2015, from http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Employer=Apple_Computer%2c_Inc/Salary/by_Job
Web.bryant.edu,. (2015). History of Apple Computers. Retrieved 19 July 2015, from http://web.bryant.edu/~ehu/h364proj/fall_97/hill/happle.html
