Leadership and Management Analysis: Apple's Operations and Strategies

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Apple's leadership and management practices. It begins with an overview of Apple's operations, products, services, and financial performance, highlighting its position as a technology leader. The report defines leadership and management, contrasting the characteristics of managers and leaders, and examines Steve Jobs' leadership style through the lens of Belbin's team roles theory. It identifies Jobs as a Plant, Implementer, Shaper and Specialist and uses the theory to understand his contributions. The report then offers recommendations for Apple to enhance its market strategies, including market penetration, product development, market development, and diversification. Ultimately, the report concludes with a summary of Apple's success and potential for future growth in the technological landscape. The report uses multiple sources, including books, journals and online articles.

CONCEPTS OF MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Overview of Apple, its operations, products and services and financial revenue.......................1
Definitions of Leadership and Management................................................................................2
Outline the key differences between characteristics of a manager and leader............................2
Using Belbin’s team roles theory, discussion the relatable roles with respect to Steve Jobs......3
Recommendations........................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
This report focuses on the profile of Apple globally with the other aspects of business as
mentioned below.
MAIN BODY
Overview of Apple, its operations, products and services and financial revenue
Apple is the top player in technology sector with eighth rank as the largest company in
the world. Its headquarters is in Cupertino, California. This mainly deals in development,
marketing with designing of software like iOS, macOS etc. along with computers and electronics
like iPhone, Mac, iPod etc., and it has their operations expanded in almost 24 countries by
approximately 500 stores that include 270 in USA and 231 in rest of the locations like Japan,
Singapore, Netherlands, Italy, Australia and many more. The most celebrated product is iPhone
as the first touch screen interface mobile has already sold more than 1 billion units. Apple earns
more than 60% of its total generation revenue from this product only (Coget, 2011). Currently,
Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO gave insights on their best June quarter revenues that showed net
income of $11.5 billion and is operating cash flow of $14.5 billion with respect to each
geographic segment.
(Source: Staff, 2018)
The above pie-chart representing Apple’s revenue generation in the form of percentage
distribution, based on their operative sections worldwide.
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Illustration 1: Apple’s shared revenues Third Quarter of 2018

Definitions of Leadership and Management
Leadership: It is defined as the ability of an individual to complete a specific task by
impelling group of individuals using persuasion (Halpern, 2016). Subsequently, it is refereed as
the complicated moral relationship between human collaborators to attain vision by employing
commitment, trust, emotion and obligation.
Management: As per Henri Fayol definition, it is the combination of components like
forecasting, planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling that can lead to the
successful management of activities in an organization (Peaucelle, 2015). Along with this, Mary
Parker Follet stated that management is an art to connect with people and making them do things
according to the requirements (Khorasani and Almasifard, 2017).
Outline the key differences between characteristics of a manager and leader
Roles/
Characteristics
Manager Leader
Decision-making Manager is the negotiator with an
ability to utilize and allocate
company’s resources.
Leader must link company’s
goals with personal growth
through proper execution.
Risk taking They control the occurrence or
minimizing of risks; mostly,
avoidance is the key.
They are known for initiating
new ventures that sometimes can
lead to failure but ready to take
such risks (McArthur, 2015).
Interpersonal role They influence sub-ordinates by
conceiving goals and maintain
discipline by assign tasks.
Good communication skills that
lead to innovative ideas and
influence employees.
Steve Jobs was the epitome of leadership. His risk-designing and confidence, not only
reduced barriers to success but managed in creating a plethora of inventions like animated movie
Toy Story in collaboration with Pixar, music player (iPod). He was quick at communicating
decisions effectively which led to many disruptions in the retail market and aided in
breakthrough innovations like concept of personal computer, iPhone and tablets of Apple which
sustained them on the top from so long.
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Using Belbin’s team roles theory, discussion the relatable roles with respect to Steve Jobs
Role Description Justification related to Steve Jobs
Plant The one with innovative
thinking with originality
(Bilton, 2016).
He pioneered the revolutionary concepts of
personal computer and Apple stores.
Implementer An individual who is focused
on executing plans or ideas
into utility.
He never believed in impossibility.
Breakout game was created by his persistent
push to ignore the real barriers in just four
days to get output.
Shaper This reflects on passion and
commitment towards
challenges and goals.
Jobs was known for his erratic behavior. He
used to get emotionally exasperated easily
but channelized it to constructive work
( Yoffie and Cusumano, 2015)
Specialist Individual who is an expert
with vast source of
knowledge.
He contributed enormously to Apple by
thriving on his technical skills and
knowledge.
Illustration 2: Belbin’s Team Roles Theory
(Source: McMahon, 2018)
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Recommendations
Few suggestions so that Apple business can run smoothly with record-breaking sales and
revenues. In order to expand business, Apple can use some market expansion strategies
suggested below:
Market Penetration: They always emphasis on quality, especially in foreign markets and
have started compromising on prices to sustain their core values by providing high standards.
Product Development: They are the tend-setter which have a huge effect on growth by
clearly positioning their target markets, competitors through shifting their new watch units
(Dempsey, 2015).
Market Development: Apple can continually concentrate on its expansion in Asian
region by installing stores to obtain business at international level. This can lead to immediate
market penetration by building spellbound experience for customers.
Diversification: Here, their objective must be to lower their products prices as its reach is
up till few targeted slot, who can afford it. They can move to other areas for few products,
costing more than 1000$.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, Apple is going to stay and rule the technological scenario due to its
passionate and innovative developmental designing ideas of the brilliant workforce. However, by
implying few marketing strategic plans, firm can surpass their competitors in this domain.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bilton, C., 2016. A creative industries perspective on creativity and culture. In The Palgrave
handbook of creativity and culture research (pp. 661-679). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Coget, J. F., 2011. The Apple Store Effect: Does Organizational Identification Trickle Down to
Customers? Academy of Management Perspectives. 25(1). pp.94-95.
Dempsey, P., 2015. The teardown: Apple Watch. Engineering & Technology. 10(6). pp.88-89.
Khorasani, S. T. and Almasifard, M., 2017. Evolution of management theory within 20 centuries:
A systemic overview of paradigm shifts in management. International Review of Management
and Marketing. 7(3). pp.134-137.
McArthur, J. J., 2015. A building information management (BIM) framework and supporting
case study for existing building operations, maintenance and sustainability. Procedia
engineering. 118. pp.1104-1111.
Peaucelle, J. L., 2015. Henri Fayol, the manager. Routledge
Yoffie, D. B. and Cusumano, M. A., 2015. Strategy Rules: Five Timeless Lessons from Bill
Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs. HarperBusiness
Online
Halpern, G., 2016. All Leadership is Situational. [Online]. Available
through:<https://aboutleaders.com/all-leadership-is-situational/#gs.E=6ntuE>.
Rochandubey, 2017. Ansoff Matrix of Apple Inc. [Online]. Available
through:<https://rochandubey.wordpress.com/2017/01/25/ansoff-matrix-of-apple-inc/>.
Staff, M., 2018. Apple Reports Q2 2018 Results. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.macrumors.com/2018/05/01/2q-2018-results/>.
McMahon, T., 2018. 9 Team Roles for High Performance Teams. [Online]. Available
through:<http://www.aleanjourney.com/2018/05/9-team-roles-for-high-performance-
teams.html>.
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