THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY

FINANCE AND BANKING

PRESENTATION

MODULE: SPECIALIZED ENGLISH

Topic:

The departmental structure of Apple corporation

Group 2

Class: 231_ENTI1011_35

Teacher: Nguyen Quynh Mai

Hanoi – 2023

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 Table of contents
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 3

1.1. Establishment and Development ............................................................................ 3

1.2. Mission ................................................................................................................... 3

1.3. Goals and Objectives ............................................................................................. 4

2. The departmental structure of Apple Corporation ................................................. 4

2.1. Hierarchical organizational structure. .................................................................. 4

2.3. Product-Based Organizational Structure .............................................................. 5

2.3. Group and division collaboration .......................................................................... 6

3. Regards and conclusion .............................................................................................. 7

REFERENCE ................................................................................................................ 10

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1. Introduction
1.1. Establishment and development
Apple Computer, Inc. was founded on April 1, 1976, by college dropouts Steve
Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who brought to the new company a vision of changing the way
people viewed computers. Jobs and Wozniak wanted to make computers small enough
for people to have them in their homes or offices. Simply put, they wanted a computer
that was user-friendly. [1]
Jobs and Wozniak started out building the Apple I in Jobs' garage and sold them
without a monitor, keyboard, or casing (which they decided to add on in 1977). The
Apple II revolutionized the computer industry with the introduction of the first-ever
color graphics. Sales jumped from $7.8 million in 1978 to $117 million in 1980, the year
Apple went public.
The iPhone, a touchscreen cellular phone, introduced in 2007 was one of the
world's most successful products and the company has released several new versions
since. Not long after the announcement of the iPhone and Apple TV, the company
dropped "Computer" from its name to become "Apple Inc.," indicating that it is about
more than just computers. Other popular products include the iPad tablet and Apple
Watch. Most recently Apple has expanded its services segments with its credit card
(Apple Card), Apple News for news, Apple Arcade for games, and Apple TV+ for
streaming original content produced by Apple.
The popularity of iPhones made Apple the first company valued at one trillion
dollars in 2018 and two years later it doubled that figure.1.2. Mission

Apple’s mission statement, “bringing the best user experience to customers

through innovative hardware, software, and services,” is centered around delivering the
best possible user experience for their customers. Through innovative technologies and
services, Apple strives to provide products that meet the needs of its customers. [2]

From hardware — such as the iPhone, the AirPods, and the MacBook Pro — to
software — like iOS, macOS, iPadOS, and tvOS —, Apple continuously looks for ways
to improve upon existing products and create new ones to satisfy customer demands.
The mission statement encapsulates this goal, with a focus on continually innovating
and providing world-class experiences no matter what product or service they offer.
Ultimately, it serves as a driving force behind all decisions made at Apple, while also
highlighting their commitment to customer satisfaction through every stage of their
business.

Apple’s mission focuses on three key areas: best user experience, innovative
products, and quality service delivery.

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 1.3. Goals and objectives

The company's goal was to expand its market share globally by developing a
strategy that would allow it to gain access to various international markets. For its global
operations, Apple focused on three key business drivers: creativity, innovation, and
added value. The company's goal is to gain a competitive advantage over its main
competitors. Through innovation, Apple can provide consumers with unique products
that are aligned with their changing needs. [3]

2. The deparmental structure of Apple corporation

2.1. Hierarchical organizational structure.

Under Steve Jobs, every decision had to go through him. Jobs and only Jobs made
every single strategic decision that would affect the company. When Tim Cook took
over in late 2011 following Job’s resignation and passing, Cook restructured the
company, and part of this restructuring included changing how the company’s hierarchy
worked. This means that Apple’s VPs now have more autonomy, something which was
greatly limited under Jobs. [4]

Although Tim Cook introduced considerable changes to Apple's corporate

structure since assuming the top job in 2011, the structure still remains highly
hierarchical with many layers of management. The massive size of the company which
comprises 164,000 full-time equivalent employees globally necessitates the adherence
to the hierarchical organizational structure.

With Cook as the president, several senior vice presidents rank below him to help
in the control and coordination of organizational activities and processes. Below the
president are senior vice presidents for every functional unit. Specifically, Apple has a
chief design officer, and senior vice presidents in charge of finance, retail, worldwide
marketing, hardware engineering, software engineering, Internet and software services,
and industrial design. The stated leaders address business needs that relate to each of
their functional areas. They also function as the chief advisers to the president. Cook
then handles the overall business operations with pieces of advice or management inputs
from the senior vice president who oversees the detailed functioning of each department.

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 2.3. Product-Based Organizational Structure

The lower or the subordinate manager formation within Apple follows the product-
based leadership structure that embodies the divisional approach. This type of
engagement mainly focuses on the various goods and services the organization
manufactures and takes to the market.

The Apple company has created five different groups based on their products and
services, as listed below. [5]

• Mac
• iPad
• iPhone
• Services like Apple Music, ApplePlay, App Store, and iCloud
• A number of other products, including iWatch, storage devices,
headphones, Apple TV, displays, and other computing and connectivity
items.

Each subgroup has the right to decide on the direction of design, research, and
development of its products, but at the same time must comply with Apple's general
strategy and regulations in both technical and design aspects.

Every deputizing manager ensures that his or her line stands out effectively or
performs well without challenges so that the company has an exceptional reputation to
guarantee organizational success.

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 There exist different outputs or product leaders just below the senior vice
presidents who are in charge of each division of the organizational products. Apple has
vice presidents in charge of the iOS apps, iPad, worldwide human resources,
environment, policy and social initiatives, communications, user interface designs, Dean
and Apple University, and consumer applications.

This structure positions Apple as an organization to address the specific product

components the institution manufactures before launching them to the market or
responding to market or product manufacturing needs.

2.3. Group and division collaboration

In essence, grouping and division collaboration is about fostering teamwork and

communication between team members who bring different perspectives, experiences,
and knowledge to the table. This collaborative effort leverages the strengths of each
department to achieve shared objectives. [6]

Despite the hierarchical structure, Apple significantly emphasizes collaboration

among different departments and teams. This collaborative approach is crucial for
innovation and ensuring that various parts of the organization work seamlessly together.
This collaboration is the secret sauce that fuels innovation and efficiency in modern
organizations. It involves breaking down the traditional silos that exist within
organizations and encourages employees with diverse expertise and skill sets to
collaborate toward a common goal.

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 A primary example would be that, initially, under Jobs, hardware and software
teams would have to run their ideas by the CEO with little interaction between the teams
themselves. However, the development of each Apple product now involves an intensive
collaborative effort between various groups and divisions. In other words, some degree
of functional rigidity has been sacrificed to enable creative and efficient innovation.

3. Regards and conclusion

Benefits of Apple’s organizational structure

One of the most easily seen benefits of Apple corporation’s departmental structure
is the strong corporate control. The hierarchy in Apple’s organizational structure
supports strong management control in the organization. Theoretically, hierarchy
empowers top leaders like Tim Cook to control everything in the organization.
Throughout the hierarchy, business functions and product-based groups are effectively
controlled through the decisions of the CEO and other top executives. This advantage
of Apple Inc.’s corporate structure facilitates rapid and effective strategic management
implementation and helps to establish coherence throughout the entire company. This
structure would give business unit leaders full control over key functions, which allows
them to not only do whatever is needed to meet the needs of their individual units’
customers and maximize their results but also assess their performance.

The second benefit of the structure of Apple Corporation is the expertise-focused

hierarchy system implemented within their organization. The individual divisions all
enjoy enough autonomy to enable them to perform at their very best, leading Apple to
create some truly market-leading products over the years.

As a matter of fact, their company divisions are organized by expertise related to

products, which means every single individual working for Apple has a specialized role
with specific duties. Every single employee could be able to carry out the role best suited

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to their skill set, which would result in their ability to create truly integrated products
with an excellent user experience.

Furthermore, functionality is another significant benefit of Apple’s structure.

Although product-based grouping is an important element of organizational structure as
discussed above, senior vice presidents reporting to the CEO are in charge of functions,
not products. Functional organizational structure is not common for behemoths like
Apple, however, the tech giant benefits from the current patterns of its corporate
structure. Specifically, unlike many other large companies there is no fight between
heads of product divisions at Apple for resources. All the departments have to debate
and find out how to make the last crucial decision before showing it to Tim Cook.

Last but not least, functional organizational structure allows the tech giant to
neglect short-term financial targets when developing new products that require
considerable investments.

Drawbacks of Apple’s organizational structure

The organizational structure embraced by Cook’s leadership has a downside of

limited flexibility. That is to say, any commands or strategies would take a long time to
be conveyed to lower-level employees as the final approval has to come from the top
management and then be conveyed to different departments and finally to every staff
member. Therefore, implementing sudden changes to respond to the business
requirements or market demands would be sometimes impossible, which results in a
great disadvantage when competing with its opponents.

Moreover, another drawback of this kind of departmental structure is that it seems

easier to make mistakes in the decision-making process. This is because applying a
hierarchical organizational structure means that Tim Cook would totally be responsible
for the business performance and efficiency of the whole corporation, which can lead to
a great deal of stress as well as tension. As a result, he would easily make mistakes in
his commands or strategic decisions for the company. In addition, this issue also derives
from the fact that only high-level managers could be able to contribute to the decision-
making process, which would lead to decisions that are affected strongly by personal
attitudes. Therefore, there could be a high risk of making mistakes in any important
strategies.

Furthermore, this departmental structure can fail to encourage the employees’

commitment. That is to say, when lower-level employees or staff members are not able
to take part in the decision-making process, they would become more dependent on top-
tier executives and would just complete the assignments without any comprehension of

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them. Therefore, employees could become less dedicated, which would result in a
decrease in their working performance as well as productivity.

Conclusion

By personalizing its organizational structure, Apple Inc., has established itself as

one of the most prominent startups in the 21st century. Its departmental structure has
been changed and modified to become more effective and suitable for the corporation
itself. Nevertheless, Apple Inc.’s organizational structure also has its limitations, such
as inflexibility in responding to market demand and employees being less dedicated, and
so on.

-End-

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 REFERENCE

[1] Kenvine, "The foundation of Apple Inc," The business, 2023.

[2] "The vision statement of Apple Inc.," Essay 48, 2023.

[3] Peter, "Goal and objectives of Apple Inc.," The business, 2022.

[4] Hasond, "The departmental structure of Apple Inc.," Business analysis,

2022.

[5] Havenno, "Products-based grouping, why Apple Inc, applied this?," The
business secret, 2020.

[6] bronoun, "Analysising the organizational structure of Apple Inc.,"

International share , 2022.

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 BẢNG ĐÁNH GIÁ THÀNH VIÊN NHÓM 2

STT Thành viên Nhiệm vụ Đánh giá

• Nội dung phần 3
7 Vũ Văn Dũng A
• Powerpoint
8 Nguyễn Ánh Dương • Nội dung phần 1 A

9 Nguyễn Hữu Đại • Nội dung phần 2.2 A

10 Chu Thành Đạt • Nội dung phần 2.3 B+

11 Phạm Thành Độ • Nội dung phần 2.1 A

• Lên đề cương
• Phân công
12 Nguyễn Công Đức (NT) A
• Nội dung phần 3
• Tổng hợp word

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