Exploring Leadership and Management Approaches at Apple Inc.

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Apple Inc., focusing on the managerial and leadership skills demonstrated throughout its history, particularly during the tenures of Steve Jobs and Tim Cook. It identifies and analyzes the specific strengths and weaknesses of both leaders in various situations, linking their actions to different leadership theories such as autocratic, democratic, and situational leadership. The report critically evaluates the situational and systems leadership theories, further identifying theoretical approaches like Lean Kaizen and Just-In-Case/Just-In-Time (JIC/JIT) to address customer order fulfillment and quality issues at Apple. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches in the context of Apple's business environment, explaining the role of management and leadership in addressing problems and creating business value. Finally, the report identifies and analyzes potential factors in Apple's business environment that might affect the decisions of managers and leaders, concluding with key insights into Apple's strategic management.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1.............................................................................................................................................3
Specific situations where managerial skills and leadership skills were demonstrated in the
history of Apple............................................................................................................................3
Analyse the action and achievement of Steve Jobs and Tim Cook .............................................4
Identify and analyse specific strengths and weaknesses of the respective leaders in various
situations......................................................................................................................................4
Link specific managers’/leaders’ actions to different theories and models of approach. ...........5
Critical analysis of at least two of these stated theories...............................................................6
Identifying two theoretical approaches which could help address the customer order fulfilment
issues and quality issues at Apple ..............................................................................................7
The strengths and weaknesses of using those approaches in accordance to Apple. ...................8
Explaining the role of management/leadership in these approaches and explaining the business
value by addressing their problems ............................................................................................8
Identifying potential factors in the business environment at Apple.............................................9
Analysing the factors that might affect the decision of managers and leaders............................9
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is an ability of an individual to influence other people and guide them to do
productive work in the organisation. Operations management is the administration of practices to
get the highest efficiency level possible within the organisation. (Rutherford, 2021) This report is
going to conduct a brief analysis of Apple Inc. It is a software and hardware company which is
known for making products like iPhones, laptops and essential Software to run these products. It
was founded on April 1st, 1976, in Los Altos, California, the United States by Steve Jobs. This
report is going to cover various managerial skills and leadership qualities and focus on various
strengths and weaknesses of managing complexity and leading change. This report is going to
discuss different leadership and operations theories and issues related to management. Also, how
these issues will be overcome through effective approaches. At last, there will be a discussion
about the business environment to maintain stakeholders' relationships.
PART 1
Specific situations where managerial skills and leadership skills were demonstrated in the
history of Apple
The company's leadership and managerial skills were autocratic during the era of Steve
jobs from 1997 to 2011. Every important decision and managing business operation flows
through them. At starting apple was on the verge of collapsing. They were not generating enough
revenues and the future growth of the company was not stable. Jobs' clear vision and passion for
the company inspires everyone. This is the leadership quality that Apple followed in future. They
were able to innovate new ideas from which the company becomes the most successful in the
near future. These skills are important to gain and grow in the market. Apple proved its worth in
the market. It is now the most successful brand in the world. The company uses the most
fundamental management system (Wu, and Olson, 2020). In context to organisation, the
management style is highly disciplined and the organisation uses five workflows which
comprises of controlling, planning, organising, leading and staffing. All these functions are used
for the purpose to create a productive and diverse workflow in the organisation for the purpose
to generate revenues and gain efficiency in the organisation.
Here is a pic below with the most important dates in Apple’s history since 1976.
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Analyse the action and achievement of Steve Jobs and Tim Cook
In context to Tim Cook and Steve Jobs, there are various qualities which both the
leaders had which made the organisation, a successful company. In context to Apple, the
company is one of the most successful and known organisation and offers wide range of products
and services to the customers. In context to both the leaders, in order to manage the important
decisions, the leaders used their decision making skills in the most effective manner that helped
the management to take important and necessary decisions. In context to the situation of creating
an ecosystem, both the leaders used their communication skills in order to make the staff and
employees understand about the needs and preferences of the consumer. In situation of seeking
for growth, both the leaders uses their creative thinking skills for the purpose to discuss the new
knowledgeable thoughts to higher authorities of management.
Identify and analyse specific strengths and weaknesses of the respective leaders in various
situations
The strengths of respective leaders are different. Steve jobs follow an arrogant style of
approach. This approach comes with certain strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths of Steve Jobs – In context to Steve Jobs, he used to set stretch goals for th e
hardware and software for the purpose to achieve goals and objectives.
Simplification – In context to Steve Jobs, his creative awareness was the key driving
force for the success of the organisation.
Take responsibility end to end – In context to Steve Jobs, his main strength was his way
of guiding people and taking up responsibilities.
Weaknesses – In context to Steve Jobs, his major weakness was his attitude and rude
behaviour. As a person, Jobs was sometimes unreasonable, arrogant and fickle. He use to take
credit of other's ideas.
Strengths of Tim Cook – In context to Tim Cook, his major strength was to establish
cooperation and building team work among employees from a basic level to the highest levels in
the organisation.
Excellent Management Strategy: In context to Tim Cook, his excellent management strategy
helped the organisation in gaining big profits and organisation to grow.

Enhancing Participation– In context to Tim Cook, his communication and participation
skills played a very important role in enhancing participation in the organisation.
Weaknesses – In context to Tim Cook, his major weakness was that he lacks the charisma
in order to hype up the apple products on stage.
Link specific managers’/leaders’ actions to different theories and models of approach.
Leaders approach different types of models.
Autocratic – This leadership style is followed by Steve jobs it is an Arrogant style of
leadership. Every decision-making of the company should involve the upper authority to get a
successful result.
Democratic – This leadership style is followed by Tim Cook. It is an approach where
every individual is free to give innovative ideas for the future growth of the company.
Situational theory of leadership in accordance to Apple – The company uses this
theory very often nowadays. This theory suggests that there are four approaches to running any
company. Telling, Selling, participating, delegating. Telling means the leaders can make direct
approaches to every subordinate and tell employees. Selling means that the decision-maker is
only the leader but to get work done the leader can work with the employees. Participating
means the leaders work with the employees and involve them in making valuable decisions for
the company. The simple approach is to encourage and motivate them. Delegating means the
leader can assign the work to the employees to complete the work the staff can make the
decisions and do the work on their own. Under Apple, they are following the situational theory
for getting maximum outputs from their employees. They are working systematically and writing
directions. These all things reflect in the company's growth structure and business (Osman, A.
and Al-Hinai, N., 2018).
System Theory of leadership – This theory suggests that any individual or organisation
can use a different set of skills and capacities for growth. It combines various aspects of
leadership and systems to mobilize innovation for the future (Khan, 2020).
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Critical analysis of at least two of these stated theories
Situational Leadership Theory – The situational theory is based on the assumption that
no single leadership style is best and in context to Apple, the leadership style totally depends
upon the type of strategies and leadership suited according to the task.
Systems Leadership Theory – This theory approach is difficult for the new emerging
leaders how they take valuable decisions for the growth of the company. In context to Apple, the
systems leadership theory plays a very important role when it comes to handle situations where it
is important to take necessary decisions.
PART 2
Identifying two theoretical approaches which could help address the customer order
fulfilment issues and quality issues at Apple
Two approaches -
Lean Kaizen – This methodology helps us to decrease all kinds of waste and improves
efficiency in our organisation. Kaizen means continuous improvement. Lean Kaizen helps the
organisation to improve their business in every aspect and reduces unnecessary waste. Apple is
the most renowned and successful brand in the world (Choi, Wallace, and Wang, 2018). But
sometimes they are not able to provide customer satisfaction due to their order fulfilment issues.
The company's most successful product is the iPhone which is popular in the market due to its
unique designs and features. In the case of supplying the product the company always faced
some backlashes. The production of the iPhone requires some specific components for example
chips which is necessary a part of the iPhones. The company always get high demands from the
consumers, and they always fail to deliver the supply due to a shortage of products in the market.
This theory helps the company to maximize efficiency. The idea is to deal with more
manufacturers to get more components and provide the best consumer satisfaction and generate
more revenues in the market.
Just-In-Case/Just-in-time – JIC is the strategy where a company predicts that its
product is going to sell out in the market. That's why they hold large inventories in hand.
Whereas, on the other hand, JIT is a strategy where a company work closely with the suppliers so
that if any demand arrives in the market, they can fulfil the demand but not any sooner just on
time. Apple is the company that used to follow the JIC strategy because of its market goodwill

and reputation (Mišić, and Perakis, 2020). They always planned to hold huge inventory stocks to
meet consumer demands. The company did not face any difficulties in terms of quality. Their
products are always premium and refined and they serve quality products in the market. So
quality is not an issue quantity is the issue. They cannot use just in time strategy because of
reputation. It is always confirmed that their products are going to be successful and generate
huge revenues for the company.
The strengths and weaknesses of using those approaches in accordance to Apple.
Strengths – Lean Kaizen theory helps the company to maximize efficiency and reduce waste
which is important to get more for the company. Apple is working in a very structured manner.
The company's democratic style of leadership helps them to innovate new ideas and follow new
market trends which is more beneficial for the company.
Just-In-Case/Just-in-Time – This methodology simply works on Apple. Their products
are popular is on the highest level in the market. They only face backlashes due to the demand
and supply but with the help of this theory, they can hold more stocks of their products to meet
the consumers' demand in the market.
Weaknesses – The company's idea of leadership helps them to get more efficiency in the
market but sometimes with the new changing trends in the market. The company also face some
huge losses with their ideas which do not end on a positive note.
The company always fails to meet consumer demand with the launch of its newer products every
year in the market (Størkersen, 2021). The quantity demand in the market is the biggest problem
for the company because they always face a shortage of resources to give adequate supply to the
consumer.
Explaining the role of management/leadership in these approaches and explaining the
business value by addressing their problems
Role of management and leaders in accordance to Apple – Management of the
company is very agile and structured in every manner because of the experience for which the
company is known. Their leaders always seek to help more individuals to innovate new ideas and
get maximum efficiency from their employees. The company uses the Lean Kaizen theory very
effectively and efficiently. The company motto or we can say business value We build products
we believe in. The company always builds quality products but because of the demand and
supply in the market, the company always face some huge difficulties in the market (Varisco, and
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et.al 2018). Company's another problem is their overpriced product which is not valuable for the
customers. The person can choose a different brand which is offering a similar number of
features but on the low price factor. They are facing competition due to this from their
competitors in the market. The leaders of the company always state that their product offers a
new range of technology which is wrong because other companies and stepping up newer
updated and better technology on a valuable price factor to the consumers.
Identifying potential factors in the business environment at Apple
Potential Impact of Political factor – Apple is one of the world's largest smartphone
manufacturing companies. They are heavily dependent on China because of low manufacturing
costs. The political factors in China could disrupt the manufacturing of Apple products in the
world. Apple's dependence on China for manufacturing the products could be vulnerable. The
company needs to find different alternatives with low costs. The Lean Kaizen approach can be
used for maximum efficiency. The leaders and upper level of authority are using this strategy to
generate more sales and revenues. The main external stakeholders of apple are its customers,
suppliers, local communities and the government (Tönnissen, and Teuteberg, 2020). The
relationship is very agile because of the brilliant strategy used by apple. The valuables decision
that Apple makes involve all their stakeholders sharing some thoughts over that decision.
Technological factors – The company is known for its unique software which they use
as their most popular product iPhone. It gives a far different and unique experience from other
products which are available in the market. The organisation is heading towards more
technological growth in this sector with their new innovative ideas for example Apple pay. They
are also facing huge competition from different competitors like google. It took less than a year
for this company to find some different alternatives for example they have introduced google pay
in the market to compete with different brands and specifically Apple. The company also
launched a new video service that will include movies and shows backed by apple a digital
service like example Netflix. They are competing in different sectors in the market. Different
sources of conflict may affect the company's future growth. There are concerns over many
factors like Apple vs FBI (Lamba, and Singh, 2018). The company denied sharing the encrypted
data with the authorities. This situation arises many conflicts with the department.

Analysing the factors that might affect the decision of managers and leaders
These potential factors like political, social and technological can affect the organisation.
But these did not affect the right decision-making capabilities of a leader. The company is
working with the right set of strategies as well as balanced leadership qualities which helps them
to make sustainable changes in the market with new upcoming trends in the market (Choi, 2019).
They are following perfect methodology and approaches like Democratic style of leadership,
Lean Kaizen etc. These all help them to sustain the market and partnering up with new
technologies helps them grow in the market.
Conclusion
From the above report, it has been concluded that leadership theories and strategies are
important for a company to gain success. Apple is using all these theories in a structured manner
and tends to use these theories also in future. They are also using a different methodology for
example Lean Kaizen etc. To get maximum efficiency and reduce waste and innovate new ideas
in the market for consumer satisfaction. The company can generate more profits and revenues by
following these theories. They are getting one step ahead of their competitors in every aspect of
the business.
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