Apple iphone
Company Information
Apple Inc. (Apple) designs, manufactures and markets a range of personal computers, mobile communication and media devices, and portable digital music players, and sells a range of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications. It’s products and services include Macintosh (Mac) computers, iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, Xserve, a portfolio of consumer and professional software applications, the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems, third-party digital content and applications through the iTunes Store, and a range of accessory, service and support offerings. The Company sells its products globally through its retail stores, online stores, and direct sales force and third-party cellular network carriers, wholesalers, retailers, and value-added resellers. As of September 25, 2010, the Company had opened a total of 317 retail stores, including 233 stores in the United States and 84 stores internationally. Change all words
Introduction
Firms operating in an international environment face a host of uncertainties that make it difficult to meet deadlines reliably. To be reliable in an uncertain and changing environment, firms must be able to quickly respond to changes. Change all words.
Analysis: When managing a change in an organisation ie, inventing the Apple iphone 4, the life cycle model could be adopted. This approach states that managers view change in a logical way, plan in advance, set objectives, responsibilities, deadlines and budgets. After the manager and his team have identified a gap in the market and ready to invent the new product ie, iphone 4, the manager can set a goal for a new product development and objectives could be set in order to produce the right product. In Apple inc. the manger Mark Papermaster did not have good managerial skills which lead to the company producing a product with a fault. Mark Paparmaster did not follow by having a proper plan for iphone 4, he did not test the product well enough before it was introduced in the market and also the design of the product was an issue eg, when the phone was held in a certain position the signal strength from the device woulf fade away.
Management models
In the recent years information technology has increased vastly leading to creating new ways of organizing business processes within the company. It is important to have management models in an international competative organization ie, Apple iphone. Hence the management model helps problems to be identified, understood and resolved. (Aalst W,Hee K. (2002). Workflow management: models, methods, and systems. Available: http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=O1xW1_Za-I0C&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=importance+of+management+models+&ots=I7fxd5Ce1Q&sig=ugUWEV3lD8TgHpnbJA3vrhbmPEE#v=onepage&q=importance%20of%20management%20mo. )
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Putting in order a management model is important as it helps to identify a situation in the organization and enables managers to plan, organise, lead and control operations in the internal business organization. Joan Magretta said, ‘without a theory of some sort it’s hard to make sense of what’s happening in the world around you.’ (pg 39) Managers use the management model and theories to help guide their actions in working accurately and efficiently hence reducing problems arising in the organization. This usually is very useful in an international competative organization ie, Apple iphone.
The most commonly used management model is competing values framework by Quinn et al (2003), which consists of: Human relations, Open systems, Internal process and Rational goal model.
Scientific management (e.g. Taylor, 1917; Gilbreth, 1911); Fox, (1974); Morgan, (1997); Kirby, (2003); competing values framework, (Quinn et al., 2003); rational goal models and approaches (e.g. Cooper and Taylor, 2000);
The rational goal model is used for large companies like Apple inc. which employees around 46,600 employees. This model helps to increase production levels as well as maintaining efficiency and producing more in a smaller period of time hence reducing cost levels. Apple inc. follows the Fredrick Taylor (1915) theory of the scientific management style. For example, Apple produces their products using an assemble line which reduces the time it takes to produce one product. Timothy Cook, the Chief Operating Officer has closed down manufacturing industries and built relationships with contract manufacturers, hence this showed that Apple stock was moving fast and improved profitability on the balance sheet as stock was manufactured faster and stock days reduced. Since Apple outsourced its production to reduce costs, it was able to compare its stock with Dell. This was done with the use of the ‘computer manufacturing efficiency system.’ Hence a scientific management approach is used by Apple.
At Apple inc. the employees receive high-quality training, appropriate equipment to work with which make the employees work well and hence built their self-respect and pride. Therefore this leads to saving time and unnecessary actions taken by emoplyees eg, asking managers what they are intended to do. This was argued by Gilbreth (1911).
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Apple Motivation System
Apple applies different motivational tools to get their employees up to the mark. The Sales Manager is normally, acutely aware of the importance of having a team that is highly motivated so that the set tasks are achieved and the organization moves closer towards its set goals. Apple motivation system determines all variables in affecting the motivational levels of employees, and one of them is Job Satisfaction. Job satisfaction is a measure of an employee’s positive emotions and pleasurable feelings about his or her job. In simple terms, it answers the question – “Are you happy with your job?”
Creating a culture of trust; leverage the power of peer recognition and focusing on the enablers and tools that help salespeople reach their potential in an increasingly complex business environment. These are all the critical parts of the overall picture of motivating sales force that Apple use.
By gaining a deeper knowledge of human motivation, Apple sales system focus on encouraging and rewarding the behavior that help produce high performance.
Apple identifies the motivational factors that the whole company relies on as:
· Recognition
· New challenges
· Opportunities to meet new people
· A chance to learn and develop new skills
· Autonomy, being given extra responsibility
· Clear goals; a chance to achieve tangible outcomes
· Feeling involved
· Status – a new title or privileges
The next are the tools used by the sales manager to motivate Apple sales team.
1-Encourage sales team by Involve them in making important decisions. Employees are
motivated when they feel appreciated. Patting people on the back for a job well done is a good first step, but asking them for their input is even more powerful. Apple job enrichment support: the way sales managers can challenge the sales representative is to give them big responsibilities, authority & contests over their jobs, also many people like to have variety in their work
2- Builds the right informational networks inside and outside the company to enhance
collaboration within the sales reps team. The customer feedback is a very useful motivation tool it let the sales representative to see their effort and what they achieved.
3-Offer a base salary in addition to commission, offer competitive benefits and maintain an open door policy
4- Provide good salaries, job security, promotion and growth opportunities. The sales manager motivates employees by the title changes for example changing a representative’s title from sales representative to senior sales representative.
5-Creating learning environment by giving sales reps new opportunities to perform, learn, grow and develop which will motivate them to excel by Spend time with each team member regularly, at least once a quarter if not every month. Ask questions like: ”what do you most/least enjoy doing?” What would you like to do more/less of in future?” What would you like to get exposure to or learn about?” ”How do you like to spend your time at work?
6- The nonfinancial rewards are the recognition awards such as pins, trophies & certificates, praise & encouragement from management, job enrichment, and opportunity for promotion. The sales rep got these awards in a public in front of all the employees and the top management adds a prestige to the award.
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