The Apple Corporation

Introduction

The majority of organisations enjoy enormous success as a result of integrating value supply chains in order to satisfy their customers’ needs, enhance their customer’s values, and improve their supply chain. Effective management of the supply chain is one of main keys to the success of organisations. This paper seeks to examine how the supply chain has been used by successful organisations to enhance their customer values.

Section I

Apple Corporation Overview

Leadership styles are extremely influential in the management of any business. The Apple Corporation has used and adopted unique leadership styles. They include planning and organizing, designing and structuring the organisation, managing change in the organisation, human resource management, understanding and encouraging team work, motivating and rewarding employees, communication and interpersonal skills, controlling the link function and ensuring total quality management and productivity. All these functions of leadership can be enveloped into planning functions, staffing functions, organizing functions, and controlling functions. A planning function is a function that involves drawing up a map that will help to achieve the goal. An organizing function is possible only after a plan has been laid down. This function helps a manager to organize the team easily in order to achieve desired goals. A staffing function defines all the aspects that relate to the staff or employees. This function involves training the staff, recruiting the staff, and developing their education levels or skill levels. A leading function involves more than just a plan. It involves communicating, motivating, encouraging, and guiding. This way, the leader is in charge of the company and all the aspects that can relate to the employees. Controlling, on the other hand, involves continuous checking. The leader needs to check continuously results and goals. If the results are short of the goals, then the leader should look for a solution to improve the situation. In this regard, leaders have control over the solutions after the continuous checking of the results.

Operation Strategy at the Apple Corporation

The Apple Corporation uses an employee empowerment operational strategy. The leadership in the Apple Company has not only empowered the staff and employees, but also has helped to motivate an employee in order to achieve the goals of the Apple Company. The question arouses about the type of the leadership, i.e. whether the leadership has been transactional, transformational, or both. Transformation leadership is a method or process that influences its followers by transforming and changing them into agents of the collective goal achievement, thus making them overcoming their personal concerns. On the other hand, transactional leadership is based on the fact that employees get motivated through the system of reward and punishment. In view of the above, the leadership of the Apple Corporation has been both transactional and transformational in the achievement of goals. So, it is worth finding out how the ladder fulfills its functions. The ladder is particularly valuable since it defines duties and responsibilities of the staff and employees ranging from the management to the lower cadre employees. The leadership of the Apple Corporation has used the “best to best” method in order to communicate the vision of the company to the employees. This way, the leader has been able to communicate the goals and ensure that each employee understood and was aware of the goals of the company. The “best of the best” method is a highly effective and efficient method that ensures that the goals get communicated to the appropriate leaders.

The Apple Corporation Business Strategy

The control of a company relies on the business strategy of the leadership. The business strategy in this case involves checking the goals against the results. If the results do not reflect the goals of the company, then resolutions are made in order to achieve these results. The ways of controlling a company include: defining the structure and organisation design, looking into the financial output, and identifying the behavioral organisation and cultural reward systems. These ways will not only help to control the company. It will also help to come up with resolutions if the results do not reflect the goals set by the company. This way, the company has a clear picture of the results and resolutions.

Impact of Business Strategy on the Apple Corporation Operations

Business strategies help to deal with recession impacts, public presence, human capital, marketing, corporate strategies, governance, and other business domains. In this case, business strategies help to shape the company’s operations and position in the business in order to operate in the competitive environment. Brand marketing, product management, and other traditional marketing approaches are some of the strategic marketing methods that can be applied to enhance customer values in the organisation. It simply means that the creation of customer satisfaction and customer value is a highly significant aspect that brands the organisation for success. It enhances a paradigm shift that impacts brand investment and customer satisfaction values. Branding and positioning the organisation is a remarkably effective tool that helps to align and link key processes in the organisation.

The most successful organisations have used chain supply in an attempt to develop a management frame work that has the primary goal of delivering customers value, creating the flow of values within the organisation, ensuring efficient production and operational processes, creating the driven demand by working closely with suppliers, developing close relationships with customers and suppliers, developing long term relationships with suppliers, and ensuring the delivery efficiency. It simply means that the most effective foundation of the successful organisation is to achieve the value chain visibility as a formula to provide a mechanism to enhance customer value, maintain a close network with the suppliers, and meet all the customers’ demands. It is necessary to note that in order to ensure the delivery of the customer value by organisational branding and positioning the most successful organisations have aligned the core organisation processes in order to develop unique customer values. This way, leadership styles perform extremely vital functions in the management that the Apple company uses effectively in order to achieve its goals. The business strategies deal with issues that help to control business operations and in this case the Apple Corporation.

Section II

Main Processes in the Organisation

The Apple Corporation is a successful organisation recognizing that the corporations supply chain is made up of customers, intermediaries, and downstream and upstream suppliers. Therefore, the supply chain processes have always encompassed resource transformation, supply partnerships, asset management, marketing planning, customer development, and value proposition. The supply partnership is a process that helps the organisation to respond to the customers and opportunities quickly. It ensures that organisations maintain their competitive position in the market. The asset management entails effective utilization of the asset value in order to access more markets. The resource transformation helps to improve supply chain operations by focusing on the strong customer value. The customer development entails using unique purchasing strategies, purchasing styles, and customer motivation methods.  The marketing planning involves using a unique supply chain marketing approach to carry out marketing activities. The value proposition entails customer networks, customer portfolio, customer retention, service and product performance, and the organisation’s reputation.

Process Types

The organisation success monitor helps to ensure that the organisation maintains its competitive business position in the market, effective service and product performance, considers the portfolio and product brands, and maintains a representative and stable organisation reputation. It is necessary to note that the reputation of the organisation is the key fundamental aspect of maintaining a representative and stable image. It simply means that the successful organisation ensures proper management in order to maintain the organisation reputation. Similarly, service and product performance is a truly essential aspect that links the brand to the organisation’s reputation. This way, successful organisations use the supply chain success monitor to ensure that their services and products make the right impression on the customers. Additionally, the customer portfolio and product brand ensure that the organisation understands product portfolios in order to focus on the target market. Successful organisations also use supply chain monitors to review the mechanism used to achieve customer value and interpret the organisation brand.

The majority of tasks in the Apple Corporation hardly require workers’ interaction.  These tasks are handled more effectively through processes that help to provide server functionality such as serving web pages, to coordinate access to the shared resources such as databases, and to perform most work for the foreground application such as file system access. At a glance, the process types involved in providing information and technology development are incorporated with a code in order to start up the process type in the system.

The Apple Corporation’s process of delivering products to the consumers is simplified by creative types within the organisation. The Corporation’s design processes involve brilliant ideas and powerful software. Ideas are solutions stemming from inventions, ideas, and design processes. The company ensures that only original, ingenious, and extraordinary ideas are integrated into the design process. This way, the company maintains its competitive advantage by producing and creating the best products that money can buy.

Technology Used

Compelling technology helps to improve production planning, customer service, competitive advantage, and enhanced customer value. Successful organisations have benefited significantly from integrating effective management of the supply chain. It has not only helped in creating the customer value but also in improving customer relations and productivity. Therefore, a supply chain is a system of functions that constitutes an essential element of the organisation.

The Apple Corporation has fully integrated the recent technology into its business processes. The Apple company also provides technology that is scalable, powerful, and flexible. The Apple Corporation technology ranges from easy to complex technologies. Since the year 2001, the Apple Corporation has progressively advanced to reach the level of the best technology that money can buy. This new technology has given the Apple Corporation a competitive advantage over other companies. This way, the Apple company brings powerful advantages into the market with compelling abilities and features. The company’s new technology software is a particularly valuable and marketable product.

All employees and executives of the corporation use new technological devices such as smart phones, latest Apple laptops, and other software. This way, employees and executives are able to perform their duties quickly and effectively. Up-to-date technology ensures the increased productivity and effective and efficient work procedures. It simply means that technology helps to simplify the work and increase the quality of the productivity.

Process Analysis in the Apple Corporation

In the business world, change is always certain. It happens because every business intends to evolve in making beneficial and strategic changes. In the Apple Corporation, change is a form of the process analysis that helps to improve other processes, update company’s processes, and expand other new directions. All individual processes in the Apple Corporation comprise a set of activities or tasks that ensure that the corporation delivers quality products. This way, the company’s processes are efficient, improved, and effective.

The Apple Corporation realizes that understanding each activity within a process is the first step to ensuring the effective process analysis. This way, the company uses an aggressive approach to implement appropriate changes, decrease operational costs, and increase the long-term profitability. The process analysis in the Apple Company is thoroughly weighed and tested in order to ensure quality and innovations of the product designs. The Apple Corporation realizes that the only way to come up with the best innovations is to ensure a smooth process analysis within the corporation’s processes and innovations. It has helped the company to maintain its high position in the modern technology market.

Section III

Organisation Value Chain

The organisation value chain in the Apple Company helps to support activities that are performed and developed for the external customers. It is necessary to note that the organisation value chain is a business management concept that performs chain activities in order to deliver valuable products and services. This way, the Apple Corporation’s value chain has a framework that is used as the management forefront. It is also used as a powerful tool in the corporation’s strategic planning. The value chain concept applies to all distribution networks and supply chain networks. In this case, value chain creates an extended value chain that captures and generates product and service value. Analysis of the operation research shows that the Apple Corporation has successfully integrated the value chain as a new approach to the maintenance and management strategies. Therefore, the value chain in the Apple Corporation helps in research and development, design of products and services, production, sales and marketing, distribution, and customer service. 

Quality Level

The acceptable quality limit or level in the Apple Corporation is the average percentage that is considered to be acceptable through random sampling or inspection. In this case, the defects found in the products during the inspection are classified as critical, main, and minor levels. It simply implies that the company’s quality levels require all products to promote basic health and safety needs. This way, the company’s products are able to reach high standards and quality. Interpreting project measurements is one of the ways how quality is assessed. In this case, data determines service and products levels. It helps the company to determine trends and norms, interpret project measurements, identify target levels, identify problems, and investigate the cause of problems.

Organisation Link between Quality Level and Value Level

The objectives of the value chain is to gain a basic overview of the value chain as a valuable step in guiding and analysing the management concept, identifying possible solutions and constraints at different levels, identifying positions and locations, and visualizing networks in order to establish connections and better understanding between processes and actors, demonstrate independency between processes and actors, and create awareness among actors in order to look beyond the value chain involvement. In this case, a value chain helps to set activities that are carried out by the organisation to create value for its customers. It simply means that the general purpose of the value chain is to examine activities and how activities are connected. This way, the company can determine costs that affect profits.

The value level is linked with quality levels in relation to accounting purposes and support activities, inbound logistics, operations, marketing, sales, and services that maintain the value of the products. Inbound logistics is related to processes that involve storing, receiving, distributing, and internal inputting. Operations involve transformation activities that go through operating systems to create value and sound quality. Outbound logistics helps to deliver services and products to customers in the distribution, storage, and collections of the same in order to ensure the value chain and quality. Marketing and sales involve processes that are used to persuade clients and customers to purchase from the company instead of other competitors. Services involve activities related to the product and service value for the customer to ensure top quality products and chain value.

These activities are supported by primary functions that play a crucial role in supporting operations within the company. These include: the procurement human resource management, technological development, and infrastructure. In order to ensure high quality and value level, the company identifies support for each activity directly, indirectly, and through quality assurance. This way, the management can identify links and look for other opportunities in order to increase value and quality.

Section IV

Operations Conclusions

Operations in an organisation should reflect the overall strategies in relation to improving the value chain and quality in order to set the company apart from its competitors. In this case, the Apple Corporation has given priority to inevitable changes, value chain analysis, and approaching business strategies from an individual level. It is necessary to note that the main purpose of the research is to inform a change and action. Research operations help to pursue the debt study on the policies and development that will enhance and support the company’s growth and success.

Advantages

Research operations are a good source of hypothesis that provides in-depth information, sheds light on situations and problems, allows the operation researcher to manipulate the situation or problem, and allows the use of sophisticated equipment.

Disadvantages

Research operations sometimes only represent individuals within an organisation. Observations may be biased and do not allow to make a complete conclusion on the issues and problems. They are not reliable, are difficult to construct, do not necessarily identify effects and causes, generalize main problems within the organisation, thus being not an effective research method.

Recommendations

It is necessary for the operations researchers to use useful information in investigating and finding solutions. The operations researcher should have the following objectives: to discover new facts about the company, products and services, to verify importance of the facts in relation to the same, to analyze different processes within the organisation in order to ascertain and identify effects and solutions, to develop tools, concepts and theories, to solve problems within the organisation, to find solutions to all problems arising from the research, and to ensure that the company maintains its competitive place in the market. This way, the organisation will be able to solve challenging problems, encourage creative work, acquire respect, be recognised, and be on top of all its competitors.