Organization Assessment Report
Organization Assessment Report
Apple Inc. is probably the most known company in the manufacture of technological products; it has a cutting edge and produces something that everybody desires to have in their possession. The company incorporated in 1976 was founded by Steven Paul Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Gerald Wayne on April 1, 1976. The company’s headquarters is in Cupertino, California. The company originally started at the bottom of a garage as opposed to an expensive business location as many would think. It is this historical background of the company that amazes people in terms of their brands and computer designs.
Until the 1990’s, the company boasted of manufacturing the best personal computers in the world. Some of the company’s products include the Apple brand, Macintosh and Power Mac computers. However, increasing competition from other companies saw the downfall in sales of their product later on in the century leaving the company contemplating their next move to stay productive. In 2001, the company produced the Apple iPod whose technology other companies in the world are now copying. The company manufactures and markets mobile communication and media devices, personal computers and portable digital music players. The company is also involved in the sale of other related software, services, peripherals and third-party digital content and applications.
The company’s products include iPhones, iPads, iPods, iMacs and Apple TVs, amongst other products. The company sells and distributes its products through the iTunes Store, the iBook Store and Mac Apple Store. It sells its products worldwide through retail shops, online stores and direct sales.
Steve Jobs was born in February 24th 1955, in San Francisco, California. He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs, who also had a daughter named Patty. Jobs saw his first computer at the age of twelve and would spend most of his time working at a neighbor’s garage. Jobs dropped out of school in 1974 and flew to India. He had realized that there was a huge gap in the computer market. In 1975, Jobs met Steve Wozniak, who was trying to come up with a small computer. They designed their first computer in 1976 and named it Apple Computer Company. They redesigned the computer in 1977 and this time they targeted specific end users. The same was named the Apple II. Once in the market, Apple II was able to make an impressive sale of $2.7, in their first year and this grew to over $200 within three years.
Competition in the market continued to rise with its biggest competitor being International Business Machine. To keep up with the pace Apple III was produced. It was, however, faced with technical and marketing problems forcing to withdraw it for repair after which it was reintroduced.
The Macintosh revolution
The same was introduced in 1984. Its special feature was the presence of small pictures called icons that one would point at send click on using a mouse to select. It, however, lacked other features possessed by other personal computers leading to a decrease in the market. This was the first time Jobs’ graph declined. He resigned from the company but retained his title as chairman of the board.
NeXT
Jobs hired his former employees to form NeXT. It was user friendly, had excellent graphics, magnificent sound system and faster processing speed. It, however, was expensive, black and white and not compatible with other computer software.
Dianey Pixar
Jobs bought a graphics company in 1986 from George Lucas and renamed it. Pixar specialized in animations. Nine years later Pixar produced a Top Story, which became a huge box office hit.
NeXT and Apple
In December 1996, Apple purchased NeXT for over $ 400 million and Jobs worked as part time consultant to the Chief Executive Officer. In 1997, Apple entered into a partnership with Microsoft. In 1977, Jobs was announced interim CEO of Apple. In 1998, Jobs announced the release of iMac, and in 1999, the iBook was unveiled.
Tim Cook
Tim Cook is the current CEO of Apple Inc. He was born in November 1, 1960 in Mobile, Alabama. He graduated from Auburn University with a degree in industrial engineering in 1982. In 1988, he got his MBA from Duke University’s Faqua School of Business. After his graduation from Auburn, Cook spent in IBM’s personal computers business rising to the position of North American Fulfillment. Later on, he served as chief operating officer at Intelligent Electronics- a computer reseller division. He also served as the vice chair for corporate materials at Compaq for six months.
In 1988, Tim Cook was asked by Steve Jobs to join Apple Inc., his first assignment in the company was in the capacity of the Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations. He was later promoted to the position of Chief Operations Officer in 2007. However, he had served in two different stints as the CEO of the company. In 2004, he served as the company’s CEO for two months while Steve Jobs was recovering from surgery. He also served in the same capacity in 2009 after Jobs had a liver transplant. He was included in the Times Magazine’s Annual 100 Most Influential People in the World list. He was named Apple’s CEO in August 24, 2011.
An analysis of the personalities of Steve Jobs and Tim Cook
A look at the personalities of these two individuals depicts a difference in their personalities in the way they managed the company. To begin with, unlike Steve Jobs’ iron fist style of management, Steve Cook seems to be transforming the company into a more typical, corporate structure, more accessible to the public and with immense focus on overseas workers’ conditions. Cook has distinguished himself as a smiling and actually down-to-earth manager. This is in contrast to Steve Job’s mode of operation where he portrayed himself as Apple’s top manager.
Their personalities are depicted in the current investment ratios in the company during the stint of the two Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s). During Steve Job’s tenure as the company’s CEO, little investment was made to the company. The investors were also not happy with the Steve Jobs. As a result, profitability of the company went down in the 1990’s. The current CEO of Apple has adopted a different approach when dealing with the company’s shareholders. Tim Cook has time to listen to investors and also shows his concern about them. In particular, Tim Cook does not have the religious perspective when it comes to paying dividends. As a result, shareholders are happy with him. This has contributed to the rise in the number of investors in the company and support of the CEO by the shareholders. The combined effect of the above is the company’s increased profitability in the current market. The change in attitude towards shareholders by the CEO has been a crucial factor in the maintenance of the productivity of the company in recent times.
In response to the decline in sales of the company’s products in the 1990’s Steve Jobs guided the company to investment in innovation in the latest technology as a way of maintaining the company’s competitive advantage. This move saw the company develop the iPod that revived the sales of the company. This was followed by the iPhone series release that took the world’s technology by storm. Steve Jobs also contributed to the invention of new ways of selling the company’s products through the company’s iTunes Stores, the iBook Store and the Mac Book Stores. The company realized that the conventional mode of marketing the company’s products would not generate much income for the company thus necessitating the development of this model.
In addition, innovation appeared to be the only option to fight the ever growing competition in the market. In contrast, Tim Cook did not continue with the path taken by Steve Jobs. As a result, the company’s profits have hit an all-time low in recent times. In light of the growing competition and copying of the company’s products from competing companies, it would be advisable for the current CEO to invest in development of more sophisticated technology in the manufacture of their products.
The differences in the two people’s personalities were also a contributing factor in the development of the company into a multibillion company. Steve Jobs was behind the innovation and strategy that trust the company towards a trillion dollar valuation. However, it was Cook’s operational approach for the company that propelled Jobs’ vision to fruition. The two persons utilized their diverse approaches in the manner in which the company should be run to develop the company to be amongst the most profitable companies in the United States. As a result, differences in approaches in the manner in which the company should be managed may be reconciled for the benefit of the company. The approaches adopted by Steve Jobs and Tim Cook came on the backdrop of the company’s reduction in the profits in the 1990’s.
In contrast to Steve Jobs management philosophy that was based on innovation, Tim Cook’s philosophy is more corporate and shows more corporate social responsibility. To this effect, under Jobs’ tenure, the company invented the most sophisticated mobile and communication gadgets during those times. This move was motivated by the desire to set out the company’s brand as unique and conversant with current technological advancements. Under Tim Cook, however, the company has witnessed a transformation in its management philosophy. The company has acquired Beats Electronics Company for $3.2 Billion. Cook believes that through acquisitions, the company’s profit margins would increase. The current CEO is also dedicated towards improving the company’s image in the social setting. Under his leadership, Apple also has displayed more social responsibility by working to improve labor conditions in the overseas factories that assemble its devices and taking steps to reduce pollution caused by its data centers and gadgets.
In the recent few years Apple Inc. has been faced mainly by increasing operational costs. The increasing costs have been occasioned by the global financial meltdown that nearly brought the international financial system to a breakdown. In addition, Apple Inc. has been embroiled in intellectual property battles with its most fierce rival Samsung with the former winning more of the law suits. In terms of the organizational behavior contrasted to the leader behavior, one may observe that the structure being entertained currently by the organization is hierarchical whereby the channels of management are observed. However, the two leaders (read Jobs and Cook) have preferred the open flatter organizational behavior where accessibility to the top management is critical. Nonetheless, Apple Inc. continues to stand out internationally as one of the most profitable and most promising organizations.
References
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Cable Network News. (2014, January 3). Apple Inc. Retrieved June 6, 2014, from Cable Network News: http://money.cnn.com/quote/profile/profile.html?symb=AAPL
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Kopytoff, V. G., & Streitfeld, D. (2013, April 30). Times Topic: Timothy Cooks News. Retrieved June 6, 2014, from The New York Times: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/timothy_cook/index.html
Laura, S. (2013, December 12). Steve Jobs - Bio for Apple Founder Steve Jobs - Information about Steve Jobs. Retrieved June 6, 2014, from Bio For Steve Jobs: http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/historyoftechindustry/a/SteveJobs.htm
Victor, H. (2012, May 25). Tim Cook's more communicative, amicable personality is transforming Apple's image. Retrieved June 6, 2014, from phone arena.com: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Tim-Cooks-more-communicative-amicable-personality-is-transforming-Apples-image_id30585
