Changes of strategies and Strategic Direction (GC034)
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction.
2.0 The changes in strategy and strategic direction over the last 10 years in Apple Inc.
2.1 Organisational Structure.
1.2 Organizational Culture.
1.3 Business environment
1.4 Market forces.
1.5 Changing of Leadership.
3.0 Role of Apple’s business functions.
3.1 Human Resource Management (HRM)
3.2 Accounting and Finance.
3.3 Operational Management
3.4 Marketing.
3.5 Motivation program used by Apple Inc.
4.0 Apple’s strategy for the next decade.
5.0 Conclusion.
References
1.0 Introduction
Changes in strategies and strategic direction in modern organizations like Apple have been significant issues. According to Mullins (2014), the market forces and business environments, organizational culture and structure, business functions including human resource management, marketing, operational management, change management, leadership, and management are playing significant roles in the changes of business strategies and strategic directions. This paper evaluates several issues related to changes in strategies and strategic directions in Apple Inc.
In the first section, the changes in strategies and strategic directions in Apple Inc have been analyzed. Then, these changes have been related to the changes in organizational culture and structure, market forces and business environment, and strategic leadership.
The second section evaluates the role of Apple’s business functions including human resource management, operations management, marketing, and accounting and finances.
The third section of this report focuses on Apple’s motivational program. Finally, this paper provides recommendations for Apple regarding its strategy changes and strategic directions.
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2.0 The changes in strategy and strategic direction over the last 10 years in Apple Inc.
1.1 Organisational Structure
According to Mullins (2014), organizational structures are mainly classified as a hierarchical structure, flat structure, and matrix structure. Apple Inc’s structure is a hierarchical structure that has given huge success to the business of Apple Inc. Simplicity is the major advantage of Apple’s organizational structure.
The Chief Executive (CEO) keeps the power to control all of the departments including legal, retail, operations, software, design, iOS, software engineering, global communication, and product development (Apple Annual Report, 2015). The structure of Apple focuses on centralized decision making. The CEO and board of directors make all of the business decisions which are followed by the down line straightly to every individual staff (Lashinsky, 2014).
The structure of Apple helps to grab any opportunities identified by the CEO and board of directors. This means Apple’s structure is effective and efficient.
1.2 Organizational Culture
Mullins (2014) said organizational culture is a key factor in a business’s success. Briton and Gold (2013) classified the organizational culture as a role culture, task culture, power culture, and person culture. Apple Inc practices mix culture that determines capabilities in supporting any kind of changes, new strategies, and new policies.
Apple has been able to develop its staff effectively and integrated its employees into the business culture which has been supporting Apple to bring rapid innovation in products including iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, iMac, MacBook. Along with business strengths, Apple’s organizational structure imposes challenges and limits to the business. In addition, Apple has been able to match its organizational structure properly with the business dynamics.
Apple’s culture also supports its leadership including a number of significant characteristics such as top-notch excellence, creativity, innovation, secrecy, and moderate combativeness. These characteristics provide success and competitive advantages, rapid innovation process. However, the organizational structure of Apple brings challenges because of a moderate degree of combativeness and secrecy. In addition, Apple has more room for improvement in its human resource capabilities.
1.3 Business environment
Kotler et al. (2014) classify a business’s environment as the macro-business environment and a micro-business environment. The macro or external business environment can be analyzed using the PESTLE analysis tool. The micro or internal business environment can be analyzed using the SWOT analysis tool. The application of these tools on Apple’s business discloses that the business environment has profound effects on business performance………
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