UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

FACULTY OF ACCOUNTANCY

ACADEMIC YEAR 2022

MAC- AUGUST 2022 SEMESTER

MGT162 FUNDAMENTALS OF MANAGEMENT

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

Course Details

Course : MGT162 FUNDAMENTALS OF MANAGEMENT

Tutorial Group : JAC1101B

Lecturer’s Name : MAZIDA BT ISMAIL

Company’s Name : APPLE TECHNOLOGY COMPANY

Assignment Details

Due Date : Week 8 @ Thursday 26/5/2022 before 5pm

Important Note : Submission of assignments is the responsibility of the students.

Student’s Details
Name Student ID No.
NUR ADILAH DAMIA BINTI ABDULLAH 2022770237
 Assignment Overall Marks : ________________ Marks

No. Content Page

1 Introduction to APPLE 1

2 Planning:
APPLE’s Vision 2
APPLE’s Mission 2
Type of Plan: Strategic Plan 2

3 Organizing:
Organizational Structure 3
Type of Departmentalization 3

4 Leading
Leadership Approach: The Trait Approach 4

5 Controlling
Types of controls: Feed Forward, Concurrent, and Feedback Control 5
1.0 INTRODUCTION OF APPLE

Apple Inc. is a multinational technology firm headquartered in Cupertino,

California, that specialises in consumer devices, software, and online services. Apple
was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, and was
incorporated in 1977. Apple has a 30-year history, and during that period, the corporation
has had its ups and downs in terms of financial performance. With the introduction of the
iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad in 2007, Apple finally attained broad success. Its ticker is
AAPL, and it is traded on the NASDAQ. It is also included in the NASDAQ-100 and S&P
500 indexes.

As of August 2012, Apple has 393 retail stores in fourteen countries. Apple is also
the third-largest mobile phone maker after Nokia and Samsung. Recently, it introduced a
variety of new products such as the Iphone 13 models, iPadOS 15, WatchOS 8, and
many more. Apple's total net sales amounted to 365.82 billion U.S. dollars in their 2021
financial year, a slight increase from the historical record of 74.52 billion U.S. dollars in
financial year 2020. Apple's annual revenue quadrupled in the last ten years.

In August 2018, Apple became the first publicly traded US corporation to be

valued at more than $1 trillion, followed by $2 trillion in August 2020 and $3 trillion in
January 2022. Apple launched an online store in April 2022 that allowed anyone in the

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United States to view repair manuals and order replacement parts for specific recent
iPhones, though the cost difference between this method and official repair is expected
to be minimal.

2.0 PLANNING
APPLE Vision
Apple vision statement is “We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great
products and that’s not changing. “Through this statement, the company highlights that
they are always determined to deliver quality products for its clients. The statement also
points out that they intend to do so for quite some time. It gives a detailed account of
how the company approaches its operations to position itself as the dominant player in
the sector it operates in.

APPLE Mission
Apple mission statement is “ to bringing the best user experience to its customers
through its innovative hardware, software, and services. ” Tim Cook, Apple’s current
CEO, stated this as the company’s mission statement and included it in the 2018 annual
report. Through their mission statement, Apple highlights that it exists to offer its clients
the best service that it can. The statement also describes how the company intends to
achieve this.

TYPE OF PLAN: STRATEGIC PLANNING

Apple is the most well-known and successful firm in the world. It is a multinational
corporation that produces electronic products and distributes computer hardware and
software. Strategic planning is one of the causes for such a reputable and admirable
company's success. The managerial process of aligning the organization's objectives
and resources with changing market opportunities is known as strategy planning.

Apple Inc.'s goals and objectives are the primary factors that have contributed to the
company's success. The goals of this company are to provide the best and upgraded
product, to maintain investor support, and to ensure that the company has a long-run

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profitability, production and service. Other than that, the objectives of this company are
to expand the sales of product to whom it is not introduced yet, to produce products that
are full of enjoyment and service, to become the best company in the mobile device
companies, and to expand the production rate and have high demand of the products.
Apple Company places a high value on all three objectives. Because Apple is so well-
known around the world, Strategic Business Units can be evaluated (SBU). Large
corporations may handle a variety of quite distinct businesses through strategy business
units.

3.0 ORGANIZING

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

TYPE OF DEPARTMENTALIZATION

APPLE’s departmentalization is based on a functional structure. This means that

the company has been organized around areas of expertise, rather than individual
products. The products themselves are then worked on by individuals from across the
different areas of expertise. On the top level of CEO is the APPLE Chairman. Arthur D.
Levinson is the current Chairman of APPLE. On the second level of CEO is Tim Cook
who is the Chief Executive of officer while on the top level of CEO is Jeff Williams who is
the Chief operating officer.
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 APPLE is split into focused divisions. Each division has their own upper
management and vice presidents. As an example, this means that APPLE has a Senior
Vice President for Operations (Sabih Khan), one for Hardware Engineering (Dan Riccio)
and one for Machine Learning (John Giannandrea). There are 15 departments
responsible for specific tasks. These departments are finance, legal, software
engineering, marketing, retail and online stores, hardware engineering, industrial design
and human interface, internet software and services and many more.

As previously mentioned, product-based grouping is an important aspect of

organisational structure; however, senior vice presidents reporting to the CEO are in
charge of functions rather than products. Although functional organisational structures
are uncommon for behemoths like Apple, the tech giant benefits from current corporate
structure patterns. Specifically, unlike many other large corporations, Apple does not
have a resource war between product division heads.

Furthermore, the tech giant's functional organisational structure allows it to overlook

short-term financial goals when developing new products that require significant
investments. Importantly, senior R&D executives' bonuses are determined by the
company's overall financial performance rather than revenue from specific products. As
a result, Apple executives are trained to approach the business holistically, similar to
small entrepreneurial firms.

4.0 LEADING

Influence, individual or group, and aim are three factors that can be used to characterise
leadership. Organizational leadership focuses on how managers influence and direct
subordinates to achieve the organization's objectives.

Leading can be defined as the organization's leader motivating and directing its
members so that they can contribute to the attainment of the organization's goals. A
leader is someone who has the ability to influence others' behaviour and successfully
communicate with everyone, making it easier for others to understand and believe in
what they are saying. According to the characteristics of a great leader, a leader must
inspire others, which is why a leader should display their best attitude in order to be
inspired.

The Trait Approach is one of the leadership styles used by APPLE. The trait approach
views an individual's personal characteristics as the primary determinants of his or her
potential success as a leader. Additionally, it holds the belief that leaders are born, not
made.

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 Arthur Levinson, a physicist turned CEO, knows how to foster creativity. In just 15
years, he went from Ph.D. scientist to Genentech CEO, thanks to his research acumen
and managerial abilities. Levinson led Genentech's research, development, and ultimate
sale of groundbreaking medications, including Herceptin, the first genetically targeted
cancer therapy. Levinson also serves on the board of Apple Inc., where his knowledge
and experience with the company's visionary creator, Steve Jobs, made him the natural
choice to take over as chairman of the board after Jobs' death. Levinson is known for his
strategic entrepreneurship and innovation, and he is known for leading enterprises with
ethics and a firm dedication to improving human health.

5.0 CONTROLLING: FEEDFORWARD, CONCURRENT, FEEDBACK CONTROL.

There are times situations will get out of control in different departments of the
organization. The situations will be effectively managed with the use of control
techniques such as feedback control, concurrent control, and feedforward control with
the correct person in APPLE management.

Firstly, feed-forward control mechanism in apple’s organization is very effective, this

organization is a system of innovation and differentiation in which a feed-forward control
mechanism would benefit this organization tremendously. This is due to Apple's system's
focus on serving consumers' requirements and wants, as well as the ability to predict
their future wants and needs and evaluate the functionality of their organization's
operations. APPLE is an organisation built on control and the effectiveness of that

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control. A feed-forward control mechanism lays out all rules and regulations in all of the
organization's operations and employee-based decisions and activities.

Secondly, because the focus is on environmental awareness of the products in the

manufacturing process, transportation, product use, recycling, and facilities, APPLE's
use of a concurrent control mechanism is one of their key objectives. A Comprehensive
Life Cycle Analysis is a concurrent control in the oversight of the usage of greenhouse
gas emissions in the process of producing their products (APPLE, 2012). APPLE
requires eyes on the production cycle in order to monitor the arbon emitted during the
manufacturing of their products, therefore a concurrent control mechanism is one of their
key focuses in their firm and serving the needs of their clients across the world.

Thirdly, APPLE tries to be the best in all aspects of its operations, including
marketing, where it competes with other multibillion-dollar corporations. A feedback
control system is concerned with the feedback an organisation receives about its
procedures and operations. This is APPLE's driving force in order to be the most
inventive and differentiate themselves, they must rely on feedback from all departments
and activities within the company.