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Apple Inc. and Business

Mariana Barraza

South Texas College

ORGL 4351: Management Theory II

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Apple Inc. and Business

Have you seen a documentary film by the producer Limonero Films? One of his

documentaries films is about Apple Inc. in which we are focusing about in this paper. According

to Films Media Group (2019), this documentary is based on how Apple was weeks away from

bankruptcy in the past. They interviewed former executives to find out how Apple survived and

succeed again. Personally, this documentary is important to see because of two different reasons.

The first and simple reason is because you get to learn from an interesting story of how their

experience was when growing up about an important company which is Apple Inc. The second

and most important reason is because it gets you thinking about how an important company

failed to succeed. One day, I heard something that it is very true and that everyone should know

to not stressed when building up your business. For a company to achieve success, you must first

experience failure. There can be people who will not agree, but it can work for others to not

stress if your business fails someday. In this paper, we are going to talk and answer different

seven questions based on the documentary film about Apple Inc. These questions would let us to

know more about what this documentary is about, and how Apple Inc. is.

What strategic questions would you coach an organization to consider to prompt

evaluation of the industry and promote the execution of a strategy towards the intended

direction?

Starting off with this question, I would coach an organization with three different

strategic questions when considering to prompt evaluation of the industry and promote the

execution of a strategy towards the intended direction. These three strategic questions I would be

giving are simple but easy and fast to apply, go through, and get it done. The first strategic

question I would coach an organization is “Who will do the work?”. This strategy is important to
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implement when intended direction because organizations will know who and who will

cooperate to do the work. This strategic question will also let the organization to be able to put

their employees in sections to do their work. The second strategic question I would coach an

organization when being in that situation would be “What work needs to be done?”. This second

strategic question is also important because it would put the organization to think in what work

needs to be done. The last but most important strategic question I would definitely coach an

organization is “When will the work be done?”. In my opinion, this question is the most

important one to consider because it is like you are putting a deadline of when the work needs to

be finished. Having a deadline makes you know of when does the works needs to be finished,

which means it will push you to do work. I know some people will not agree with this last

question because they may feel that deadlines are toxic. According to Patton (2000, p. 421), he

concluded that having deadlines made more students to complete their courses satisfactory. By

reading this, this is why I say deadlines are important to implement when considering when the

work is going to be done. Having deadlines or not, you will have to get the work done, but

implementing deadlines in an organization will make it faster to go through their direction.

With respect to the global operations of Apple, please share how Tim Cook has exercised

the planning function of management in developing markets.

It must be very difficult for a company to be successful in a country other than its own. It

requires a lot of intelligence, effort, and a good management. Some people may think that it

depends only if they have good luck or not, but actually it is not. For a company to be successful

in another country that is not theirs, it requires good intelligence, this means they need to have

the right people. Effort is another type of requirement, this means everyone inside the company

needs to work hard to accomplish goals and to be successful in other countries. The last
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requirement and the most important one is to have a good management implemented. Having a

good management will let the company to handle and organize tasks and people. Tim Cook has

exercised the planning function of management in developing markets by having a good

management style. Tim Cooks works and has a democratic management style. I would say this

style makes Tim Cook and his organization to have the right strategies to apply in developing

markets. Although, we need to keep in consideration that Apple Inc. is an intelligent company,

and employees and CEO Tim Cook puts too much effort to accomplish goals. According to

Films Media Group (2019), we learn the experience that Apple has in developing markets in

China. Based on interviews on Chinese’s, Apple Inc. is an important company for them because

they explained how Apple has work/resulted for them. With all this said, we can conclude that

Apple Inc. has a good planning function of management.

Identify and discuss three of the nine principles of management from Peter Ducker's "In

Search of Excellence" as discussed in the chapter readings that you think best reflect

Apple's strategy for success. Support your selection with various examples from the

documentary and your research.

Going into the third question being asked, I have already found three of the nine

principles of management from Peter Ducker’s “In Search of Excellence” that I think best

reflects Apple’s strategy for success. Starting off with the first principle of management that in

my opinion I think it can relate to Apple is “Close to the Customer”. According to Carpenter et

al. (2012), “Close to the Customer” means to be able to understand the needs and wants of the

customers. I say this is the best one that best match Apple’s strategy for success because in the

video they mention that they try to always stay close to the customers wants and needs. The

second principle of management that I think it also reflects Apple is “Autonomy and
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Entrepreneurship”. According to Carpenter et al. (2012), this principle means actions that brings

up innovation and nurture customer as well as product champions. This principle also matches

Apple success because in their video they mention how they are always close to innovation to

sell even more. Lastly, the last principle of management is “Stick to the Knitting”. According to

Carpenter et al. (2012), this means stay in the place you know more and do well. By this, I can

relate with the first CEO of Apple which was Steve Jobs. I remember in the video when Steve

Jobs had to leave Apple, but years later came back and made Apple succeed. By this we can

know how Steve Jobs came back to what he knows well and can make it better.

Based on how Apple chose to innovate and develop its product line, do you believe the

company was properly applying Moore's Law of Technological Advancement? Why or

why not? Use examples from the documentary to defend your position.

In my opinion, my answer is no, I do not think that Apple was applying Moore’s Law of

Technological Advancement. I do not believe they apply it because Apple is a big successful

company, and I have heard that Moore’s Law of Technological Advancement is not resulting

good anymore and not being used no more. Since Apple is a big important company, I do not

think they will put their whole work and goals on this type of law when it is said that it does not

works well. For example, in the documentary Apple works as a team they never mentioned any

type of law they added to work with. That is why I do not believe they applied that type of law.

Please explain how the temperament of Steve Jobs can be related to the principle of equity

at Apple.

By seeing the documentary, we can conclude that Steve Jobs had a good, strong, and

intelligent temperament. He was not seemed like a bad leader, although he was an intelligent and

with a strong temperament, he would not let people put him down. He always made sure that
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Apple became a successful and important company, he was out from that company for years but

later came back to keep trying to reach success. By learning that from the documentary, I can say

that Steve Jobs can be related to the principle of equity at Apple by looking at how Apple has

reached success and be described as an important and great company from their customers. Both

Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. are defined as successfulness. I would say that he is related to Apple

in good actions.

When the board of directors forced Steve Jobs to resign from Apple, what kind of effect

did it have on esprit de corps? Please use examples from the documentary to support your

answer.

Now, going next with this question, before I provide my answer, I would like to define

what esprit de corps means. According to Vitell and Singhapakdi (2008), esprit de corps means a

feeling of pride and loyalty that is being shared by members of a certain group. Now, going into

answering the question, I would say that the type of effect/reaction that resulted when Steve Jobs

was resigned from Apple was that in a certain way their fellowship was broken. By this I mean

that their employees at that time may felt that all their hard work together as a team with Steve

Jobs was broken apart and that nothing would ever be the same without him. When a team is

made for a long time, loyalty, pride, fellowship, and even love is born in it trough the process.

That is what I think it happened with Apple (employees) and CEO Steve Jobs, and when he was

resigned from there.

Identify two popular quotes about leadership, such as the ones appearing in your chapter

readings for this course, that you believe closely represent the leadership style of Steve

Jobs. Explain why you think they best represent his approach to leadership, using various

examples from the documentary to support your answer.

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Lastly, finishing up with this question, I have two interesting leadership quotes that in my

opinion I believe they closely represent the leadership style of Steve Jobs. This question is so

important and interesting for me because I took the time of searching for leadership quotes that I

believe they most relate to Steve Jobs. What I found and learned was even more interesting

because I found different quotes from Steve Jobs, this means he created leadership quotes. The

first leadership quote from Steve Jobs according to Smoteks (2021), says “Sometimes when you

innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your

other innovations”. This leadership quote made by him is a very interesting quote and it totally

represent him in the part of the documentary when he always tried to made innovations and did

not result how he wanted, but he did not give up and always kept innovating. The second

leadership quote made by him that I learned according to Smoteks (2021), says “Sometimes life

hits you in the head with a brick. Do not loose faith”. This leadership quote from him always

reflected him in the way that he never gave up and lose faith. In the documentary we saw how

his products were not generating any type of profit, but he never lose faith and kept going until

he was accomplishing goals.

In conclusion, the documentary film of the producer Limonero Films was an interesting

documentary. From there we learned how Apple started, their process, how they were going into

bankruptcy, and how they reach success. From this documentary we can also learned that no

matter what happens in the process, never give up and always keep trying until you reach

success. In this paper, we were able to talk and answer different seven questions based on the

documentary film. These questions let us to know more about what this documentary is about,

and how Apple Inc. is.

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References

Carpenter , M. A., Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B. (2012). Management Principles . Ancient history:

Management through the 1990s. Retrieved October 6, 2022, from

https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/management-principles-v1.1/s07-02-ancient-

history-management-thr.html

Films Media Group. (2019). Apple. Films On Demand. Retrieved October 4, 2022, from

https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=99118&xtid=210566.

Patton, M. A. (2000). The Importance of Being Flexible with Assignment Deadlines. Higher

Education in Europe, 25(3), 417–423.

https://doi-org.ezproxy.southtexascollege.edu/10.1080/713669270

Vitell, S. J., & Singhapakdi, A. (2008). The Role of Ethics Institutionalization in Influencing

Organizational Commitment, Job Satisfaction, and Esprit de Corps. Journal of Business

Ethics, 81(2), 343–353. https://doi-org.ezproxy.southtexascollege.edu/10.1007/s10551-007-

9498-x

Smoteks, H. (2021, January 2). 30 Steve Jobs Leadership quotes to help you achieve success in

life. 30 Steve Jobs Leadership Quotes To Help You Achieve Success In Life. Retrieved October

6, 2022, from https://marketmegood.com/blog/steve-jobs-leadership-quotes/