Management and Operations
Executive Summary
In this report, one will know about the history of Apple, as well as the different leadership and managerial skills of the top managers of the organisation. Starting from Gil Amelio, Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, the organisation has seen some weak as well as efficient leaders. This report deals with the distinct style of leadership with the development of various roles of managers and leaders. This report can help in the further illustration of distinct approaches of leadership in the context of organisational culture.
Furthermore, this report also deals with the different approaches of helping an organisation improving the quality of their products and solving customer issues. With the help of the Sales and Operations planning and the TQM approach, one will know about the different factors affecting the functions of an organisation.
In an organisation, apart from the various functions that the employees and employers have to perform, an additional skill is required to maintain the productivity of the organisation. The main skills required are managerial skills and leadership skills. Managerial skills help in the proper functioning of the organisation, whereas, the leadership skill ensures the proper working of the employees and helps the employees increase their productivity. In this report, one will know about the different managerial and leadership skills required to operate an organisation. For studying the concept of the skills, the chosen organisation is Apple Inc.
Apple is a multinational technology company serving technological products and services to several customers worldwide. The headquarters of Apple is situated in Cupertino, California. In 1976, Steve Jobs along with Steve Wozniak and Roland Wayne found the company, and it has grown since then. The brand value of Apple is very high, and customers all around the world buy and are inclined to the products that they deliver. Under the guidance of Tim Cook, the CEO of the company, almost 147,000 employees have dedicated their service through the company. Apple serves in almost 512 countries worldwide and is considered to be one of the top technological companies in the world (Levy, 2021).
Examine specificsituations in the history of Apple, where various managerialskills and leadership qualities (or lack of them) were demonstrated by the company’s top managers
When it comes to the different managerial and leadership skills that were demonstrated by the top managers in Apple, the first unsuccessful name that comes in mind is the Gil Amelio. Amelio replaced and took the position of Michael Splinder who failed to help Apple gain their reputation. However, during the three-years that Amelio served as the CEO of the company, the company faced more losses and was almost on the verge of bankruptcy. He lacked the efficient leadership skills required to manage the organisation, as well as, was not a suited manager for the company. During this time, the board members of the organisation decided to replace Amelio and brought Steve Jobs back to the company. Steve Jobs resigned from the company in 1985 as he was not pleased with the policies and leadership roles that Apple offered. After returning to the company, Jobs became the CEO of Apple in 1997 and started helping the business to grow back to its initial form. He then decided to work with one of the best designers to help rebuild the image of Apple publically.
Under the realm of Jobs, the company started gaining public trust and soon began one of the best technology companies in the whole world. Steve Jobs portrays amazing leadership skills, as well as managerial skills, and helps employees to increase their productivity, massively benefitting the organisation. In 2011, Jobs resigned from the CEO position and became the chairman of the company. However, in the same year Jobs died due to severe health issues, and the customers and tech gurus considered it to be the end of an era. Tim Cooks succeeded as the CEO of the company and with his efficient leadership skills was able to provide the customers with the same satisfaction although Jobs was not there to guide him. Without their leadership skills, the company would not have been in the position it is in today.
Your analysis should focus on the actions and achievements of Steve Jobs, and his successor (the current CEO), Tim Cook.
Steve Jobs is considered to be one of the best managers in the history of Apple. He found the company alongside Steve Wozniak and Roland Wayne. However, with time Jobs helped the company grow and even after resigning from the company due to internal affairs, kept a close look at the company to help it grow. In 1997, when the board asked Jobs to come back to the company and take the place of CEO, the company was almost on the verge of bankruptcy under the leadership of Gil Amelio. Steve Jobs was an efficient leader and always helped his employees work efficiently and paved those ways to increase their productivity. He realised that the company was in despair and the need for an efficient designer. It is when he discovered the rare talents of Jonathan Ive. Both of them collaborated in ways that helped the organisation grow its reputation back in the market and raised profit margins at a considerable rate. The leadership and managerial skills that Jobs possessed helped the company grow back its profit margins and helped the organisation reach its peak in the market.
During the realm of Jobs, Tim Cook was the Chief Operating Manager of the company. He was guided by Jobs himself, during the tenure he served. After the resignation of Jobs as the CEO of the company, Cook was selected as the next CEO. Under his leadership, the company continued its legacy and increased its market value in the market. It helped the organisation improve in ways that Steve Jobs had in mind. Even after Jobs death, he is still remembered by the technology industry, and Cook has followed his guidance ever since.
You should identify and analyse the specific strengths and weaknesses of the respective leaders in various situations, which should include examples of managing complexity and leading change.
Gil Amelio
When it comes to the leadership of Gil Amelio, he was not an efficient leader, ruining the chances of Apple to be in the number one position in the market. During his realm, the company faced tremendous loss and was even going to be bankrupt (Hormby, 2013). He was a weak leader and possessed no leadership skills, leading to the downfall of the organisation.
Steve Jobs
When it comes to one of the best leaders in the tech world, everyone comes to one name, that is, Steve Jobs. With the help of Jobs, Apple was able to restore its faith in the customers and was considered to be one of the leading companies of the technological world. One of the strengths of Jobs was that he had efficient skills to lead his employees, and helped them grow and achieve their goals (Teckman, 2018). He helped the employees to increase their productivity, proving to increase the profit margins of the company. When it comes to weaknesses, one of the weaknesses that Jobs possessed was that he did not accept people who did not lead to the success of the company. He held the position of the company before anyone else, thus proving to be rude when it came to people who were not contributing to the success of the organisation.
Tim Cook
Tim Cook has proved to be an efficient and capable leader, guiding the employees of Apple. He believes that everyone possesses unique qualities and talents and that the executives working under him have brilliant ideas to take forward the company’s legacy. It is one of his strengths to trust the employees working under him, thus encouraging them to perform better (Fiener, 2019). However, one of the weaknesses that he possesses is similar to that of Steve Jobs. He believes that the company should always remain in the peak no matter what comes by.
Link specific managers’/leaders’ actions to different theories and models of approach. (These should include situational leadership, systems leadership, and contingency)
Leaders and managers role are linked with various leadership and management theory help ineffectiveness of business. A successful business can be influenced by the growth of vision and success along with a change in planning and control. Three distinct models can explain the role and development of a successful business along with the change in the creation and staffing of the organisation.
Systems leadership: According to this system leaders and managers help in the development of a various system for the growth of process. This can help in analytical focus and desired outcomes in the development of goals and objective with vision and realisation (Allen, 2018). The modification and change involve a critical role in the development of this leadership model for a specific organisation.
Situational leadership: According to this theory leaders play the directive role on the other side the employees are to be placed in a supportive role. The personal evaluation and job skill with the development of personal evaluation can change in the development of personal evaluation. The managers are the key person in the design of this leadership model in an organisation.
Contingency leadership: Managers deals to play a vital role in this approach along with the development of an effective model of leadership. The change of situation involves Vroom and Yetton’s model in a decision-making model with the change in the objective and goals of the company.
You should include a critical analysis of at least two of these stated theories.
Situational leadership: It is an effective leadership style that adapts various team members with the workplace style in the development of goals and circumstances. The change in the situation with strategy help in the development of various team member deals with flexibility. This theory of leadership is dependent on the premise for the evaluation of the current situation in the development of team development theory. Situational leadership help in the development of workgroups and leadership style in the development of goals and circumstances (Tortorella and Fogliatto, 2017). This style of leadership develops with insight and change in management that fit the strategy of leadership along with a change in management style.
Contingency leadership: This theory of leadership deals with effect and leadership style to suit a specific situation. This theory along with effective leader deals with one circumstance belongs to the idea of contingency leadership. This model can be explained in the context of an organisation with a frame of three frameworks. This can help in illustration of distinct styles in the development and growth of contingency theories along with important style in the development of the theory (Vidal et al., 2017). This model of leadership increases the relationship between co-workers to enhance the goals and objective along with the development of employee maturity level.
You must identify two theoretical approaches which could help address the customer order fulfilment issues AND quality issues at Apple. You should choose from Six Sigma, LEAN/Kaizen, Just-In-Time/Just-In-Case, Sales & Operations Planning and TQM
Two effective theoretical approaches to help Apple address their customer issues and quality of products is the use of Sales and Operations Planning and TQM.
Sales and Operations Planning
It is one of the most effective approaches in business when it comes to addressing the needs and desires of the customers. With the help of a proper supply and operational planning, the organisational will be able to fix quality issues of the product, as it is planned closely relating to the effective supply chain management, including financing, production, distribution and sales (Kristensen and Jonsson, 2018). It helps the organisation increase its product value, improving the quality of its products. Moreover, with the help of providing an efficient customer satisfaction plan, the organisation will also be able to address and then mend the different issues that consumers face.
TQM
TQM is the abbreviated form of Total Quality Management. With the help of this approach, an organisation can eliminate the different errors that organisational management is facing. It helps in improving the production process, as well as, helps to improve customer satisfaction and looks after the welfare of the employees (Chiarini, 2020). With the help of TQM, an organisation will be able to address and rectify the different issues faced by customers, and also help in providing a better quality of the products to the customers. Not only does this approach look after the management errors of an organisation, but also helps in fixing employee welfare, thus encouraging the employees to provide their efficiency.
You should clearly identify how each of your two stated theoretical approaches would address each issue; and the strengths and weaknesses of using those approaches in this context
Sales and Operations Planning
With the help of this approach, an organisation will be able to fix all their issues related to customers as well as improve the quality of their products. The main area where this approach is used is the working of supply, production and distribution of products in an organisation. It helps an organisation to address all the issues that customers face, providing proper customer satisfaction. One of the key strengths of this approach is that with proper planning, the organisation will be able to increase their production process, improving the quality of the products produced (Ambrose et al., 2018). On the other hand, one of the main weaknesses of this approach is that it does not have any involvement in cross-functional management
TQM
TQM is that kind of approach, which helps an organisation achieve its goals with the help of deleting errors in the management of an organisation. Using this approach, various organisations were able to increase their sales and improve the quality of their products. With the help of properly executing the TQM approach, the company will be able to address the different issues the customers face, providing customer satisfaction. One of the biggest strengths of this type of approach is that it looks after the welfare of the employees and helps to select efficient and worthy employees for the organisation (Nasim, 2018). However, one of the weaknesses of this approach is that not all the levels of management perform in this approach.
You should explain the role of management/leadership in your recommended approaches, and explain the business value of addressing these problems.
A proper managerial skill is required to help in providing efficient planning when it comes to the Sales and Operations Planning. With the help of an efficient manager, the organisation would be able to plan their activities more efficiently, providing a suitable approach to improve the quality of the products and provide proper customer satisfaction. On the other hand, when it comes to the TQM approach, efficient leadership skill is required to fulfil the requirements to improve product quality and resolve a customer issue. With the help of resolving the issues faced by the customers and improving product quality, the company will be able to gain back the trust of the customers and attract more customers, not by marketing but by word of mouth of the existing customers (Boone et al., 2019). It will not only increase its brand value but also increase sales at a considerable rate.
Identify potential factors in the business environment at Apple that may impact on the realistic possibility of carrying out your recommended approaches. Those factors should cover leadership/stakeholder relationships, competing interests and sources of conflict.
Stakeholder Relationship
When it comes to using the Sales and Operations approach, it helps in building an efficient stakeholder relationship, as the planning is done very simply, helping the stakeholders understand the improvement of the products, and attracting more customers by resolving their problems.
Competing Interests
With the help of TQM, the organisation will be able to resolve its quality of products, as well as offer proper customer satisfaction. It will help in increasing the value of the company, thus gaining a competitive advantage in the market. Thus, with an increase in brand value, more customers would try to shift to the company and increase its sales.
Sources of Conflict
When it comes to the sources of conflict in an organisation, it mainly signifies poor management and uncertain job roles of the employees, providing zero satisfaction with the employees. However, with the use of Sales and Operations planning or TQM, an organisation will be able to resolve all the sources of planning in a workplace, helping the organisation to work smoothly.
Analyse how those factors might impact on the decisions managers/leaders will need to make with regard to carrying out your recommended approaches.
When it comes to carrying out the approaches mentioned above, the first thing that the leader or manager will do is identify the key issues that the organisation is facing. After identifying the issues, the leader will then apply the TQM approach to wipe out any error in the managerial functions and improve customer satisfaction (Dilwalo et al., 2019). Moreover, if the organisation is facing issues building a proper relationship with its stakeholders, the manager will efficiently apply the Sales and Operations planning to improve the relationship between the company and the stakeholder. When it comes to removing the sources of conflict, the leader has to identify the type of conflict before applying one of the two approaches to fix the conflicts.
With the help of this report, one comes to know about the different roles and responsibilities that the managers of Apple had to help the company reach the top of the market place. Moreover, different leadership theories are explained in the report to help deliver the knowledge of an efficient leader. This report portrays the different approaches in which an organisation can restore customer faith and help in increasing sales and brand value of the company. Thus, there are different managerial and leadership functions which help an organisation grow and expand. It also helps the organisation improve in different ways.
Allen, W.E., 2018. Leadership Theory: A Different Conceptual Approach. Journal of Leadership Education, 17(2).
Ambrose, S.C., Matthews, L.M. and Rutherford, B.N., 2018. Cross-functional teams and social identity theory: A study of sales and operations planning (S&OP). Journal of Business Research, 92, pp.270-278.
Boone, T., Ganeshan, R., Jain, A. and Sanders, N.R., 2019. Forecasting sales in the supply chain: Consumer analytics in the big data era. International Journal of Forecasting, 35(1), pp.170-180.
Chiarini, A., 2020. Industry 4.0, quality management and TQM world. A systematic literature review and a proposed agenda for further research. The TQM Journal.
Dilawo, R.S. and Salimi, Z., 2019. Understanding TQM implementation barriers involving construction companies in a difficult environment. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management.
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Kristensen, J. and Jonsson, P., 2018. Context-based sales and operations planning (S&OP) research. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management.
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Vidal, G.G., Campdesuñer, R.P., Rodríguez, A.S. and Vivar, R.M., 2017. Contingency theory to study leadership styles of small businesses owner-managers at Santo Domingo, Ecuador. International Journal of Engineering Business Management, 9, p.184.