UWS: Apple's Integrated Business Functions, Leadership & Strategy

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Apple's business functions and strategic decisions over the past decade. It covers the company's background, leadership styles of Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, resources, capabilities, and macro-environmental factors using SWOT, PESTEL, and Porter's Five Forces models. The report also examines Apple's corporate culture, shareholder value, and internal business functions, including marketing, human resources, operations management, and accounting and finance, highlighting how these functions contribute to the company's overall success and competitive advantage. The analysis considers Apple's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the dynamic business environment.

RUNNING HEAD: Integration of Business Functions 0
Apple
Integration of Business Functions

Integration of Business Functions 1
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Company background and leadership....................................................................................................2
Leadership styles and leaders link to theory......................................................................................2
Resources, capabilities and macro environmental analysis................................................................3
SWOT analysis..............................................................................................................................3
PESTEL analysis...........................................................................................................................5
Porter model..................................................................................................................................6
Corporate culture...................................................................................................................................7
Shareholder’s value...............................................................................................................................8
Internal business functions....................................................................................................................9
Marketing..........................................................................................................................................9
Human resources.............................................................................................................................10
Operations management..................................................................................................................11
Accounting and finance...................................................................................................................11
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................12
References...........................................................................................................................................13

Integration of Business Functions 2
Introduction
Apple was founded on April 1, 1976. Apple was started as a computer company. This report
traces the changes of strategy and strategic decisions of Apple in the last ten years. For this,
the report provides background and leadership of Apple. In the background of company,
different leadership styles, leaders, resources, capabilities and macro environmental analysis
have been explained. SWOT analysis, PESTAL analysis and Porter model have been
discussed under macro environmental analysis of company. Further the corporate culture and
shareholder’s value are described. Finally Apple’s internal functions such as marketing,
human resources, operations management and accounting and finance have been discussed.
Company background and leadership
Apple was established by Steve Paul jobs and Stephen Gary Wozniak. The company is a
predominant manufacture of personal computers. Apple was redesigned in 1996. Steve join
as CEO of company in 1996. He made every successful effort to make Apple leader in
consumer electronic industry. Currently Apple is one of the biggest technology companies of
the world. The company deals mainly with consumer electronics, computer software and
commercial servers. Apple is a multinational company. It operates in more than 50 countries.
The company relies on best quality to deliver it’s customers (Rahimi, Møller & Hvam, 2016).
Steve Jobs served from initiation of company to 2011. Tim Cook became CEO of Apple in
2011. The vision and leadership of Steve Jobs helped Apple in becoming innovative and
valuable technology company. Jobs made countless contributions towards success of
company. He attracted and inspired skilled employees and world class exclusive team. Tim
was selected as CEO after serving Apple for thirteen years. He was previously responsible for
the worldwide sales and operations of company, including sales activities, supply chain,
service and support in all markets (Panayides, 2017). Tim announced a planned expansion of
company towards Apple’s Swift curriculum.
Leadership styles and leaders link to theory
Apple is well known for the Autocratic leadership. Steve Jobs covered a period of 1997-2011
and managed a wide range of business operations. Steve was architect of many of the Apple’s
mazing products. He is also the reason behind success of company. Steve Jobs focused on
autocratic leadership in which leaders subordinate employees what to do and company

Integration of Business Functions 3
expects them to do. Steve demanded excellence from his employees. The subordinates of
these leaders are not involved in decision process. In this leadership, leaders have absolute
power on the working of team and individuals. The members have opportunity to make
suggestions (Saxena, 2014). The autocratic leadership includes five components, passion,
vision, innovation, motivation and effective communication.
Steve Jobs was charismatic and vision oriented as a transformational leader. He encouraged
intellectual development of staff by inspiring and motivating them to higher level of
effectiveness. He encouraged innovations and made change in the thinking of staff. As a
transformational leader, Job brought innovative digital technology to the consumers
((Fairhurst & Connaughton, 2014).
Steve Jobs as a transactional leader converted knowledge into valuable products for instance,
Macintosh personal computer (Niebuhr, Voße & Brem, 2016). The transactional leadership
was used by incorporating vision into reality. It was made possible by making products with
the help of employees. This leadership helped Apple to manage the whole business, different
departments and people of company.
Tim Cook is the current CEO of Apple. Tim became CEO in 2011 before that he was chief
operating officer at Apple. Cook Tim Cook has been praised for the inspirational leadership.
He introduced Apple Watch which was developed from scratch. Cook as a situational leader
lead in different situations. It is composed of both directive and supportive dimension. Tim
Cook is able to lead in any situation. He focused on the existing products and employee
relations. Cook also took an exceptional step which threatens security of customers. He
addressed the issue and provided legislation to support. He believes in taking risks in order to
succeed. He values diversity and considers people to be themselves. Being a great leader, he
believes to have faith in you to make the right decision. The actions of staff should reflect the
belief. Cook considers transparency a crucial step and values it in daily operations of
business.
Resources, capabilities and macro environmental analysis
SWOT analysis
The SWOT analysis represents strength, weakness as well as opportunities and threats of
company.
Strength

Integration of Business Functions 4
Advertisement capabilities: The advertisement capabilities increase the brand awareness. As
a result, it creates strong demand for the products of company.
Leadership position: Apple is the leading technology company in terms of revenue generated.
It also ranks second in the manufacturing of smart phones. Apple is the largest publically
traded company in the world which defines the leadership position of company (Bull, et. al.
2016).
Innovative products: Innovation is the key strength of company. Apple has launched hit
products like MacBook, iPOd, Ipad, Iwatch and Iphone. The company has attained leadership
in innovations.
Weakness
Incompatibility: The key issue with Apple is that various products of company are
incompatible with third party software. Whenever a person purchases products of company
than that person enters into the different universe and has to continue with Apple only.
Dependency on selected products: The company has only 8-9 products in comparison to it’s
competitors like Google and Microsoft. So dependency of company on it’s products is very
high. It is a huge loss to company if any of it’s product fails.
iCloud security concerns: iCloud is a big concern for the security reasons. The awareness of
customers is increasing whether it is safe to use iCoud.
Opportunities
Technology advancement: The technology advancement is always an opportunity for the
company. It can leverage technology to it’s best by advancing Iphones, Iwatches, Ipads and
Macbook’s in the coming time.
Electric car project: The company can plan building an electric car. The reports also indicate
that Apple has been offering employees of Tesla to join Apple (Doncic, Peric & Prodanovic,
2015).
Threats
Growth of android: Apple has threat from the companies which are running on Google’s
android platform. There is risk to market share of company.

Integration of Business Functions 5
Competition from Samsung: The company has competition from Samsung as it is technology
giant. The products of Samsung are relatively cheap.
PESTEL analysis
PESTEL analysis is used to identify external forces in situation analysis.
Political factors:
 Apple manufactures various parts and products from outside United States like
Ireland, Korea, China and Cork.
 Apple has dependence on China for manufacturing. The deteriorating relationship
between US and China has bad outcomes for the company (Song, Sun & Jin, 2017).
 More than the half of the sales of products of company comes from the countries
other than USA.
Economic factors:
 The increased labour cost in China could snatch cost advantage of some products of
Apple.
 Due to the recession and economic crises, the revenue of company can be affected to
a large extent due to premium price policy.
 The exchange rates are increasing due to the rising value of US dollar. It can affect
the cost of products of company.
Social factors:
 The company has made some brand acquisitions to satisfy and fulfil need of
customers, Such as acquisition of Embark Prime Sense and alliance with Sony,
Motorola and Philips.
 Due to the higher prices it has become a symbol of social status. The people who are
from higher class can afford products of Apple.
 The company has marked it’s presence in the international market (Vahlne &
Johanson, 2017).
Technological factors:
 Technology keeps on updating. So it is required for the company to upgrade products
more often so that it does not become outdate.

Integration of Business Functions 6
 The company has made huge investment in research and development. So, the
products of Apple are at top in new innovative products.
 The most technologically advanced product of company is iPod which vanished the
trend of Walkman.
Environmental factors:
 Apple’s commits towards environment by disposing of electronic equipment. It
recycles the products at the end of useful life.
 The side effects from manufacturing of products in China are a growing concern such
as pollution and other environmental side effects (Grünig & Kühn, 2015).
Legal factors:
 The company is participant in various legal proceedings since it’s inception.
 The regulations and government can be increased by entry of company in financial
services via Apple Pay.
 Apple can face increased level of lawsuit by making entry in new sectors.
Porter model
The porter’s model supports the current position of company.
Threat of new entrants: The threat of new entrants is moderate. There is presence of
substantial entry barriers such as massive capital requirements and creativity to possess
intangible assets. The time of entry is also another barrier for new entrants. There is one
significant factor in favour of new market entrants that is innovation potential.
Bargaining power of suppliers: Apple experiences low bargaining power of suppliers.
Apple has bargaining power based on high number of suppliers and overall supply. The
company has less than 200 suppliers for it’s products. But there is availability of more
suppliers around the world. This situation makes suppliers weak in imposing their demand on
company.
Threat of substitutes: There is weak threat of substitutes which can affect business of
Apple. There is high availability of substitutes in the market but their low performance
cannot affect Apple. For instance, people can use digital camera instead of iPhone but the
substitute have low performance. So, customers would rather like to adapt apple products
because of their advanced features (Fitzpatrick, Nguyen & Cayan, 2015).

Integration of Business Functions 7
Bargaining power of buyers: The bargaining power of suppliers is strong in the case of
apple. The buyers can impact the business they want. It is important to provide customer
satisfaction as the buyers can easily change the brand if they are not satisfied. Apple should
include bargaining power of buyers as one of the important variables.
Competitive rivalry: There is strong competitive rivalry. Apple is having competition from
the companies like Samsung, Blackberry, LG and more. It is easy for the customers to switch
to another brand so innovations should be focussed to attract customers.
Corporate culture
The corporate culture is a key factor behind success of Apple. The corporate culture is
sufficient enough to support changes, new policies and strategies. The culture is based on
self-motivated individuals who work hard. The culture supports the firm leadership and
includes the following features:
Excellence:
The corporate culture of Apple includes workers who can give their best. Steve Jobs was well
known for firing employees who did not used to meet his expectations. Excellence is
determined as most of the critical factor for product design and development of company
(Guiso, Sapienza & Zingales, 2015).
Creativity:
The employees are selected by Apple on the basis of their knowledge, skills, creativity. The
corporate culture shows the importance of creativity. The employees involved in product
design and development processes are most creative. The culture has the capacity to develop
solutions for the needs of business and consumers.
Innovation:
The corporate culture of company is very innovative. Apple is praised and known for the
innovations. The employees of organisation are trained to innovate products in terms of
individual work performance. The employees contribute ideas for the development of
products (Jiang, et. al. 2017).
Secrecy:

Integration of Business Functions 8
Steve Jobs developed policy of secrecy to maintain at corporate culture. Secrecy has role in
minimising leakage of information. At the time of hiring, employees agree to the secrecy of
corporate culture. It is also reflected in the policies, regulations and employment contracts.
Adequate combativeness: This characteristic is linked to the combative approach of
leadership. The employees re challenged to know the skills required for the company. Apple
changed it’s corporate culture to more sociable and less aggressive under the leadership of
Tim Cook.
Shareholder’s value
Apple is continuously increasing it’s shareholder value. According to a report of 2014, Apple
increased share repurchases authorization to $90 billion from $60 billion. The company
declared dividend to shareholders through a series of share buybacks. The company
repurchased shares of $6 billion which ended on 31 December, 2015 (Market realist, 2016).
On April 27, 2015, the company proclaimed that the board of directors permitted an increase
of more than 50% to the company’s capital return program. The company increased share
repurchases authorization to $140 billion from $90 billion in 2014 (Market realist, 2016). The
company returned in excess of $153 billion to the investors from 2012 to 2015. It also
included $110 billion through share buybacks.
Apple has been focusing on providing dividend to shareholders. From 2012 to 2016 Apple
returned $43 billion dividend to shareholders. In the fiscal year 2016, the company returned
$3.6 billion in the form of dividend to investors. It was higher than the previous years, as $3.3
billion was returned in the first quarter of 2015 and $3.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015
(Yahoo Finance, 2016). The company spent $45.9 billion on share buybacks of technology
sector. The IT sector leads in buyback of shares. Qualcomm, Microsoft and Oracle lead in the
buyback of shares. The company marks up 16% of technology select sector. Apple has also
done acquisition of Beats Music and Beats Electronics for the consideration amount of $3
billion. The company aggressively look for the acquisition opportunities to aid shareholder
value creation through acquisition of exciting technologies and innovations (Teo, Nishant &
Goh, 2017).

Integration of Business Functions 9
(Sourc
e: Motley fool, 2017)
Internal business functions
Marketing
Apple has developed a marketing strategy to focus on expectation of customers. The
company attempts to understand need of customers and provide tools and skills to enhance
use of Apple’s products. The company makes use of marketing to move products from
company to customers. It includes four elements, product, price, place and promotion
(Sandlin, Croxton, Knemeyer & Rebolledo, 2015). The company focuses on marketing by
considering these points:
 Keep it simple: The customers do not require complex marketing campaigns. Apple
makes sure that the marketing is as simple as possible. The company features the
price, lists, voice overs and special effects. The marketing messages are also often
straight forward.
 Focus on value proposition: A big part of company’s marketing is that it does not
involve in price wars. It sticks to the price which is much higher than any
competition. The company focuses on providing great user experience with advance
features and extensive applications (Khan, Alam & Alam, 2015).

Integration of Business Functions 10
 Speak to audience in their language: Speaking with customers using their own
language creates a deep bond and encourages more sales. The terms and explanations
should be avoided as it can overwhelm and confuse customers.
 Use visuals: The visuals have a great impact on customer’s experience. The company
uses fewer words and more images to make it simple and approaching.
 Leverage reviews: The company believes in getting views from it’s customers. The
customers feel privileged if company asks for reviews. A free trial can be offered that
appears on review website.
Human resources
The people involved in the human resource of Apple are at marketing, technical and staff
positions. The company has employed different human resource practices to retain it’s
employees. The human resource focuses on minimising financial risks with maximising
return on investments. The human resource functions of Apple are:
 Recruitment and selection: The recruitment and selection have great role towards
success of company. Apple has done huge investment on the recruitment process. The
company focuses on getting the right talent who can fulfil expectations of company.
The employees who can fit in the organisation are hired.
 Diversity and equal opportunities: The company provides equal opportunities to the
employees. It does not difference on the basis of gender, race, religion or disability.
Apple attracts different workforce from various parts of world (Brewster, 2017).
 Employment benefits and compensation: Apple provides competitive package to
employees. The benefits are provided on the basis of status and geographic location of
staff. The benefits include insurance cover, investment and savings plan and more.
The employees are also entitled to get product discounts.
 Employee appreciation and recognition: The company has Apple Fellows Program to
identify the employees who make extra efforts towards company. The employees who
get this reward are entitled as leaders.
 Training and development: Apple operates a unique training approach to equip right
skills to employees. This program can enhance skills development. It encourages
people to develop self-reliance (Tracey, 2014).

Integration of Business Functions 11
Operations management
The operations management considers the important aspects such as quality management,
process design, location strategy, layout design, job design and human resources, supply
chain management, inventory management and more. The different approaches to operations
management are:
TQM and Lean: TQM is helpful to company in achieving corporate and social goals. The
focus of TQM is to maximise profits. It keeps in mind to provide innovative solution that
does not harm society anymore. The employees are motivated to perform at their best level.
This approach has helped company to understand need of employees. It helps to fulfil the
need of employees in the best way possible. The TQM principle teaches that each employee
should be treated with respect and dignity. This model also ensures proper training of
employees (Harvey, Heineke & Lewis, 2016).
Globalisation, Green and supply chain management: This approach commits renewable
energy and waste reduction in the production of the company. It involves wind energy which
covers all energy consumed producing Apple products. The globalisation approach has strong
influence on revenue generation. It ahs enabled company to enter into new markets (Bromiley
& Rau, 2016). The company has restructured it’s operations to operate at global level to take
advantage of international global markets.
Accounting and finance
Apple is one of the country’s most valuable companies. The accounting is tackled by the
accountants in two major fields, Management accountants and financial accountants.
Management accounting analyses and provides information to decision makers to help them
run the organisation. The management accounting helps company in running it’s operations.
It has great role in helping mangers to carry out their duties and responsibilities. The reports
are prepared according to the requirement of individual mangers. The purpose of these
reports is to provide significant, accurate and timely information which aid managers in
making decisions (Loughran & McDonald, 2016).
Financial accounting provides information to individuals and groups. The information is
provided inside and outside the organisation to assess financial performance of company.
However the main focus is given to external users. The financial accounting informs to
outside people about operations of business. The financial accounting is liable for preparing
financial statements of company. It summarises the past performance of company.

Integration of Business Functions 12
Accounting evaluates the current financial position on the basis of past performance of
company. These financial statements of Apple are public. It adheres a uniform set of rules
known as GAAP.
Conclusion
From the above report it can be concluded that Apple has successfully faced changes of
strategy and strategic decision in the last ten years. It reflected changes in leadership,
organization, culture and market forces. The background provided justifies the performance
of company. The different leadership styles and contribution of CEOs linked to Apple have
been discussed. The background includes the resources, capabilities and macro environmental
analysis of company. The corporate culture and increased shareholders value shows the
success of company. The annual report of company clearly shows the growth of company in
terms of current ratio which was 108% in 2014 and it increased to 128% in 2017. The cash
ratio was 40% in 2014 and improved to 74% in 2017. The internal functions of company are
competent to take strategic decisions. Finally the internal functions such as marketing, human
resources, operations management, accounting and finance have contributed towards growth
of Apple.

Integration of Business Functions 13
References
Brewster, C., 2017. The integration of human resource management and corporate strategy.
In Policy and practice in European human resource management (pp. 22-35). Routledge.
Bromiley, P. and Rau, D., 2016. Operations management and the resource based view:
Another view. Journal of Operations Management, 41, pp.95-106.
Bull, J.W., Jobstvogt, N., Böhnke-Henrichs, A., Mascarenhas, A., Sitas, N., Baulcomb, C.,
Lambini, C.K., Rawlins, M., Baral, H., Zähringer, J. and Carter-Silk, E., 2016. Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats: A SWOT analysis of the ecosystem services
framework. Ecosystem services, 17, pp.99-111.
Doncic, D., Peric, N. and Prodanovic, R., 2015. Holistic marketing in the function of
competitiveness of the apple producers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ekonomika
Poljoprivrede, 62(2), p.309.
Fairhurst, G.T. and Connaughton, S.L., 2014. Leadership: A communicative
perspective. Leadership, 10(1), pp.7-35.
Fitzpatrick, B.D., Nguyen, Q.Q.A. and Cayan, Z., 2015. An Upgrade To Competitive
Corporate Analysis: Creation Of A" Personal Finance Platform" To Strengthen Porter's Five
Competitive Forces Model In Utilizing. Journal of Business & Economics Research
(Online), 13(1), p.54.
Grünig, R. and Kühn, R., 2015. Global Environmental Analysis. In The Strategy Planning
Process (pp. 89-96). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Guiso, L., Sapienza, P. and Zingales, L., 2015. The value of corporate culture. Journal of
Financial Economics, 117(1), pp.60-76.
Harvey, J., Heineke, J. and Lewis, M., 2016. Editorial for Journal of Operations Management
special issue on" Professional Service Operations Management (PSOM)". Journal of
Operations Management, 42, pp.4-8.
Jiang, F., Kim, K.A., Ma, Y., Nofsinger, J.R. and Shi, B., 2017. Corporate Culture and
Investment–Cash Flow Sensitivity. Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-15.

Integration of Business Functions 14
Khan, U.A., Alam, M.N. and Alam, S., 2015. A critical analysis of internal and external
environment of Apple Inc. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and
Management, 3(6), pp.955-961.
Loughran, T. and McDonald, B., 2016. Textual analysis in accounting and finance: A
survey. Journal of Accounting Research, 54(4), pp.1187-1230.
Market realist, 2016. Apple Continues to Increase Shareholder Value. Retrieved on 18 April,
2018. Available on https://marketrealist.com/2016/01/apple-continues-increase-shareholder-
value
Motley Fool, 2017. The Definitive Guide to Apple Stock Dividends. Retrieved on 18 April,
2018.Available on https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/05/25/the-definitive-guide-to-apple-
stock-dividends.aspx
Niebuhr, O., Voße, J. and Brem, A., 2016. What makes a charismatic speaker? A computer-
based acoustic-prosodic analysis of Steve Jobs tone of voice. Computers in Human
Behavior, 64, pp.366-382.
Panayides, P.M., 2017. Global supply chain integration and competitiveness of port
terminals. In Ports, cities, and global supply chains (pp. 43-56). Routledge.
Rahimi, F., Møller, C. and Hvam, L., 2016. Business process management and IT
management: The missing integration. International Journal of Information
Management, 36(1), pp.142-154.
Sandlin, D.E., Croxton, K., Knemeyer, A.M. and Rebolledo, C., 2015. The Individual
Barriers to Internal Integration of Marketing and Logistics. In Proceedings of the 2008
Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 199-199). Springer, Cham.
Saxena, S., 2014. What Would Steve Jobs Do?-How the Steve Jobs Way Can Inspire Anyone
to Think Differently and Win. South Asian Journal of Management, 21(1), p.181.
Song, J., Sun, Y. and Jin, L., 2017. PESTEL analysis of the development of the waste-to-
energy incineration industry in China. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 80,
pp.276-289.

Integration of Business Functions 15
Teo, T.S., Nishant, R. and Goh, M., 2017. Do Shareholders Value Green Information
Technology Announcements?. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 18(8),
p.542.
Tracey, J.B., 2014. A review of human resources management research: The past 10 years
and implications for moving forward. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management, 26(5), pp.679-705.
Vahlne, J.E. and Johanson, J., 2017. The internationalization process of the firm—a model of
knowledge development and increasing foreign market commitments. In International
Business (pp. 145-154). Routledge.
Yahoo Finance, 2016. How Apple Is Continuing to Increase Shareholder Value. Retrieved on
18 April, 2018. Available from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-continuing-increase-
shareholder-value-120457421.html