Assignment Template
A new manager is starting in the organisation shortly. You have been asked to provide an outline to this new-starter, so that they can gain some understanding of the organisation in preparation for their start. The information you provide should include: ? A list of the main products and services of the organisation ? An identification of the main customers ? The purpose and goals of the organisation An analysis of a minimum of 4 external factors and their impact on the business activities of an organisation ? The structure and at least 4 functions of the organisation ? An explanation of how these different functions work together within the organisation to optimise performance ? An identification of the culture of the organisation and at least 2 ways this affects operations.
In order to understand the organizational business or operation environment and cope with specific organizational culture, it seems important to get the comprehensive information regarding the products and services, customer base, organizational goals or objectives of the company and its internal or external influencing factors. Considering the same, brief insight about Apple Inc. can be of great help for new managers to understand and cope with new organizations culture. Apple Inc. is known in the global market place for its innovative new dimensions of digital technology, which acts as the core competitive advantages of its business.
Company has well known brand repute in the local and global market places, which entails it to expand its business of producing personal computers, computer software, servers, consumer electronics and digital media for distribution etc beyond the domestic boundaries. Apple has developed innovation and new digital technology utilization as the strategy for growth of organization and expansion of business in global territories. Most popular products of company are the iPhone, iPad, iPod, and the Mac computers and laptops, which have helped in establishment of its own niche market by the Apple.
Certain products like iPods and iTunes etc have generated high volume sales in its specific industry segment of consumer electronics and media sales. With grand success of iPhone series mobile equipments Apple is still reaping the market through its innovative product iPad. One of the founding member Steve Jobs has formulated and developed the culture of innovation and new dimensions of digital technology as the key competitive factors. Apple has aligned its strategic thoughts with that of the approach of creation and delivery of new product segments and improvements in the existing products in the market.
Through such approach of innovation and advanced technology product development, Apple has build up its specific organizational culture and with passage of time extensive research and development programs and quick upgrade of upcoming and existing products have become the integral part of its overall organizational development strategy. In its customer base main constituents are the young age individuals and institutional organizations, who utilises specific products like iPods, iPhones, iPads etc for their personal use and Mac computers and laptops for their professional or operational uses.
Improvements and upgrades in existing products and launch of new innovative products have helped in development of organizational value and sustain growth prospects. Basic approach of Apple towards operational imperatives seems to follow the integration framework, where different operational functions like designing, engineering, retail and research and development are integrated to develop high quality and advanced technology products. Such approach of integration of different operational functions helps it in gaining flexibility and quick responses in situation of change in environment.
Most of the operational efforts remain allocated to bring innovation and efficiency in core functions of Apple, like designing, engineering, retail and research and development, which bring uniqueness and sustainable quality in the offerings. As basic strategy of Apple Inc. is considered to be inclined towards development of specific products targeted to certain specific markets, thus even though it has earned impressive growth in past, a prospective threat of influence of external environmental factors also exists, which may potentially affect the business and growth prospects of the Apple Inc.
Certain external factors which may affect the Apple’s business can be mentioned as change in interest or preferences of the customers, dynamic changes in the technology, entry of other strong competitors in its niche market segment and change in rules and regulations of global market economies. Due to technological advancements most of the technical specifications of iPods became available in iPhones and other similar products of other competitors thus it poses enhanced internal and external competition for its products like iPods etc.
Similarly with spread of technology in global sphere several other competitors have also started optimizing their potentials to compete directly in the niche market of Apple, just like the case of Samsung which has posed significant competition to the Apple’s iPhone. Apple’s organizational culture is considered to be based on the integration of different operational functions and utilization of innovation and digital technology dimension in product development.
As Apple operates in global scenario and utilizes the organizational communication, open-mindedness, inter-disciplinary design reviews and collaborative operations of technical teams as its organizational culture components, thus certain issues like cross culture conflicts and respective barriers of communications can affect the productivity and sustainability of growth prospects. Cross cultural conflicts can hamper the competitive advantages developed by the Apple in several years of effort.
