Report on Apple's Financial Management: Objectives and Impact

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Apple's financial management, focusing on the period following the CEO transition in 2011. It examines the evolution of Apple's financial corporate objectives before and after Tim Cook's appointment, critically discussing their impact on key financial decisions within finance and capital markets. The report further evaluates the influence of the economic environment on Apple's financial management, supported by real-world examples. It adheres to the specified word count, formatting, and referencing guidelines, aiming to fulfill the learning outcomes of critically discussing corporate objectives, analyzing key financial decisions, and assessing the impact of the economic environment. The analysis includes an examination of Apple's stock performance, cash reserves, product strategies, and the CEO's leadership style, providing a well-rounded understanding of the company's financial health and strategic direction. This report is designed to meet the assessment requirements and provide insights into Apple's financial management practices.

Financial Management assignment
Assessment Task:
The case study provided below described a general situation of Apple following the
change of its CEO in 2011. You are required to do some follow up research based
on this and explain a few topics in fulfilling the learning outcome needed for this
assessment. The tasks required are as follows:
1. Identify Apple’s Financial Corporate objectives before and after the new
CEO change, and then critically discuss the impact of those corporate
objectives towards the key financial decisions in finance and capital
markets.
2. Evaluate the possible impact of the economic environment on Apple’s
financial management.
(Details on topics and criteria are shown in the specific marking criteria provided.)
Total word count: 1000 words (+/- 10%), the report should be in the form of a
business report or article justifying the financial management aspects outlined in the
assignment work, and using the APA referencing system.
(Note) Learning outcome to be achieved:
To be able to critically discuss the financial corporate objectives of the firm and
be able to analyse the key financial decisions in finance and capital markets and
discuss the impact of the economic environment on the financial management
Marking Criteria
Contents Criteria Marks
1. Examining the firm
1.1 1. Identify Apple’s Financial
Corporate objectives before and
after the new CEO change
To provide a good introduction and
research about the firm understudy
and identifying the financial objectives
within the transitions.
10
1.2 Critically evaluate the impact of the To show understanding in the 35

financial corporate objectives
towards the key financial decisions
in finance and capital markets
relationship between financial
corporate objectives and the key
decisions in finance and capital
markets.
To show good research with
appropriate referencing related to this
in strengthening the arguments and
discussions.
20
2. Possible Impact
2.1 2. Evaluate the possible impact of
the economic environment on
Apple’s financial management.
To show a general understanding of the
relationship between Apple’s financial
management and the economic
environment
25
2.2 To provide some real case examples of
the impacts affected financial
management due to the economic
environment
10
Total Marks: 100
References:
 Gowthorpe, C. (2011). Business Accounting and Finance for Non-Specialists (3rd
ed.), [S. I.]; South Western.
 Horngreen, C. T., Bhimani, A., Foster, G., & Datar, S. M. (2008): Management
and Cost Accounting (4th ed.). [S. I.]: FT Prentice Hall.
 Madura , R. & Fox, J. (2011), International Financial management (2nd ed.), [S.
I.]: South Western.
 Watson, D., & Head, A. (2006). Corporate Finance Principles and Practice (4th
ed.), [S. I.]: FT Prentice Hall.
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Apple’s Tim Cook leads different
Adam Lashinsky
Mar 26, 2015
Tim Cook assumed he was ready for the harsh glare that shines on Apple’s (aapl, -
0.47%) CEO. He had, after all, filled in for Jobs three times during the Apple founder’s

medical leaves of absence. Cook ultimately became the company’s chief executive six
weeks before Jobs died, in October 2011.
What Cook found out instead is that there is no preparation for the scrutiny that comes
with succeeding a legend. “I have thick skin,” he says, “but it got thicker. What I learned
after Steve passed away, what I had known only at a theoretical level, an academic
level maybe, was that he was an incredible heat shield for us, his executive team. None
of us probably appreciated that enough because it’s not something we were fixated on.
We were fixated on our products and running the business. But he really took any kind
of spears that were thrown. He took the praise as well. But to be honest, the intensity
was more than I would ever have expected.”
Cook’s reflection on his trial by fire comes at an other-wise triumphant moment. On this
sunny Sunday in March, he is taking a breather from rehearsals for the event the next
day in which he will reveal details of the Apple Watch, the first all-new device of his
tenure as CEO. Sitting under a canopy at an outdoor café in San Francisco, steps from
the auditorium where Apple will put on the product-reveal spectacle, Cook, 54, nibbles
on snacks as he reflects on the 31/2 years that he has run Apple. He’s heard the
repeated refrains that “Apple can’t innovate under Tim,” that the company needed a
low-cost iPhone to thwart the progress of Google’s Android, that Cook never could
replicate the Jobs magic—and therefore that Apple never again would be “insanely
great.”
Cook taught himself, he says, to block out the noise. “I thought I was reasonable at that
before, but I’ve had to become great at it. You pick up certain skills when the truck is
running across your back. Maybe this will be something great that I’ll use in other
aspects of my life over time.”
Already there is tangible evidence that the tread marks left no permanent scars. No one
will be able to say for quite a while whether the Apple Watch or new services like Apple
Pay or the $3 billion acquisition of headphone maker and music service Beats last year
will prove financially successful. What can be said is that each in its own way
constitutes proof that Apple is moving forward under its first nonfounder CEO since Gil
Amelio got the ax in 1997. What’s more, those moves and others speak volumes about
Cook’s leadership, at least measured against the widespread assumption that he would
simply mind the company Jobs left in his custody.
In fact, there’s little debate that the state of Apple under Cook is fundamentally sound.
Its stock has soared from a split-adjusted $54 to a recent $126 since Jobs died,
translating into a market capitalization well north of $700 billion, the first company to
cross that level. Indeed, its market value is more than double that of either Exxon Mobil
or Microsoft. At the same time, Apple’s cash hoard has tripled since 2010, to more than

$150 billion. (That’s despite the fact that Apple has spent a total of $92.6 billion in
dividends and buybacks under Cook, all the more noteworthy because Jobs frowned on
distributing cash to shareholders.) Apple has defended its high-end turf in smartphones,
especially in China, where it sold $38 billion of merchandise overall in 2014. Cook has
handled the occasional product snafu—Apple Maps comes to mind—with candor and
humility. As well, he largely has held together the long-tenured management team he
inherited from Jobs, augmenting it with a few key players and owning up to the
occasional hiring blunder.
Remarkably, Cook has come into his own as a high-profile leader of Apple, not merely
tolerating the spotlight but leaning into it to focus attention on issues of importance to
him and his company. His decision last October to announce publicly that he is gay
instantly made the onetime low-profile and exceedingly private executive a global role
model. It also made him the only openly gay CEO in the Fortune 500. And Cook has
used the pulpit provided him by Apple’s worldwide platform to opine on subjects as
diverse as human rights, access to education, female representation on Wall Street,
immigration reform, and privacy rights. He even ventured into the heart of the Deep
South, to the capital of his home state of Alabama, to lament the sorry state of racial
equality there.
Cook has differentiated himself from Jobs in myriad ways, and not merely with his
willingness to speak out on societal issues. Cook, who joined Apple from Compaq
Computer in 1998, came from an operations background and had spent the formative
years of his career at IBM. At Apple that means he’s not what company executives like
to call a “subject-matter expert” on such critical areas as product development, design,
and marketing. Consequently he behaves much more like a coach who trusts his
players than the manipulative mastermind Jobs was.
(Source: Fortune.com)