ORGANISATIONAL EXCELLENCE

Rejuvenatory Organisational Excellence:

In 1985, the then CEO John Sculley and Jobs had conflicted due to their varied management
styles. The disagreement on the price of Macintosh, in turn causing decline of its sales, led to
irrevocable professional damage between them (Hormby, 2007). Sculley removed Jobs from
his managerial duties, thereby instigating Jobs to leave the company in 1985.
The policy of 55 or die by Jean-Louis Gassee Jobss replacement for the high-priced
Macintosh adversely affected Apple in the late 80s. With the advent of Microsoft Windows 3
and low cost alternatives by IBM, Apple lost its monopoly in the market and the loyal
customer base. Stock price dropped by 20% and Gassee departed from the company
(Rawlinson, 2016).
In 1997, Apple acquired NeXT Jobss new company for a new operating system.
Appointed as the Interim CEO, Jobs restructured the organisations operations. He reduced
the range of products, dropped certain ineffective licensing deals and the most significant of
all formed an alliance with Microsoft to release Office versions for Mac. He formed a
winning partnership with Jonathan Ive Apples chief designer for numerous creative
modifications, transitioned to Intel chips, realised the impact of effective advertising and was
widely appreciated for visualising pioneering electronics line (Rawlinson, 2016).
According to Jobss official biographer Walter Isaacson, Jobss perpetual enthusiasm,
creative mind-set and the fearless determination helped transform the technology industry
(Isaacson, 2011).
Creative Organisational Excellence:
Continuous creativity and innovation has been one of the vision of Apple. It is one of the
culture of the organization. The selection of the employees is done on the basis of their skills,
knowledge and creative abilities. Apple encourages its employees to find the fault in their
products and take necessary steps to change or improve it without thinking about getting the
approval from higher authorities. It thus provides freedom to its employees to experiment and
take risk which is the foremost requirement to innovate. Apple also provides flexibility to its
employees to switch to other departments or products where they think they can contribute
the best. These characteristics help the company to continuously develop solution to meet the
changing demand and preferences of the customers.

ORGANISATIONAL GOALS
Organisational goal of Apple Inc. is represented by its tagline i.e. Think Differently. The
companys goal is to be the leader in the technology market. The company has clearly stated
its vision and mission statement whereby the aim is to continuously innovate in the way of
ensuring continued growth and success. The companys vision is to dictate the movement for
future technology. The company believes that employees are the most important asset and
their excellence and collaboration is the key to success.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickhull/2012/12/19/be-visionary-think-big/#7425feb822f7

EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
Financial Resources: Availability of finance is major concern in any organization. Due to
healthy financial performance, the company started capital return program from August 2012
and has successfully returned over $163 billion to shareholders till March 2016
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2016/04/26Apple-Reports-Second-Quarter-Results.html

Socio Cultural Factors: Apple has tried to target people of all age groups and households
with all income level and have been successful in attracting older people comparatively more
than younger population. (Appendix)
http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/29/technology/apple-customers/
Market Sector: The key to Apples growth in the market has been its innovative line of
products to satisfy the ever-changing consumer demand. The demand for its products has
risen in emerging economies. Apple has also been strategic in providing their products
through various distribution channels such as e-commerce and direct outlets, reaching target
market segments and increasing revenue. (See Appendix F)
International Sector: From 1988, Apple has acquired 78 companies to enhance its
operational domain and expand the range of services, the recent acquisition being Beats
Electronics in August 2014. In the global scenario, the market share of Apple in Q1 of 2016
has dropped to 14.8% as compared to 17.9% in Q1, 2015 despite an overall increase of 3.9%
in smartphone sales. (See Appendix G) Samsung still leads worldwide with Oppo garnering
the best performance in terms of improvement (Hardwick 2016).

Human Resources Sector: Apple has an unconventional yet simple way of hiring. It believes
in the right fit impact of appointing the right person for the right role. It makes the
employees self-reliant in terms of career advancement and learnings. Stock grants as an
economic reward is provided to retain top talents (Stafford, 2013).
Raw Materials Sector: One of the leaders in supply chain excellence, Apple contracts several
key components as well as assembly of the product both domestically and internationally.
Approximately 90% of suppliers are from Asia, with China having a majority stake of 44%
(Elert, 2013). The Chinese factories produce faster with large scalability, saving operating
cost and reducing expenses. (See Appendix H)

References:
Hormby Thomas, (2006, February 22). Growing Apple with the Macintosh: The Sculley
years. Retrieved from: http://lowendmac.com/2006/growing-apple-with-the-macintosh-thesculley-years/
Rawlinson Nik, (2016, April 1). History of Apple, 1976-2016: The story of Steve Jobs and
the company he founded. Retrieved from: http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/apple/historyof-apple-steve-jobs-what-happened-mac-computer-3606104/
Isaacson Walter, (2011). Steve Jobs. Simon & Schuster.
Hardwick Tim, (2016, May 20). Global smartphone market grows in Q1 2016 as iPhone
share shrinks to 14%. Retrieved from: http://www.macrumors.com/2016/05/20/smartphonemarket-grows-2016-iphone-shrinks/
Stafford Tim, (2013, November 14). Talent Strategy: Why Apples approach is increasingly
common. Retrieved from: https://www.cebglobal.com/blogs/talent-strategy-why-applesapproach-is-increasingly-common/
Apple Supplier Responsibility. Retrieved from: http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/progress-report/
Elert Emily, (2013, February 21). Who supplies Apple with all those parts? [Infographic].
Retrieved from: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-02/who-supplies-apple-allthose-parts-infographic

Appendix-F

Source: http://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/multi-channel-distribution

Appendix G

Source: Hardwick, 2016

Appendix H

Source: Supplier Responsibility Apple

Appendix I

Appendix J