Provide a clear statement of the purpose and objectives of the company
Apple is a multinational company operating in the technology industry. The headquarters for the Apple Company is in California. The company is involved in the development and sale of electronics to the customers, production of computer software, and provision of online services. The purpose of Apple Company is to bring the best user experience by promoting its innovativeness to enhance development of hardware, software, and services. The objective of the Apple Company is to enhance growth of the company to the global market, to ensure that the company improves the lives of its customers through the development of products using high-end technology, and produce quality products in order to gain leverage against the competitors in the industry (Lusted, 2012).
Size and location, products and services of Company
Apple is the largest technology company in terms of revenue. The company in 2019 had revenue of 265 billion. With its headquarters in Cupertino, California, Apple has expanded to different parts of the world, with stores in 155 countries. The company is also taking steps to expand to other different countries as well, in order to boost its presence to 175 countries. Products include; IPhone; this is a smartphone produced by Apple Company, and currently the IPhone has been upgraded up to IPhone 11. Continuous upgrade of the phone has been as a result of the innovativeness from the company, and with each new phone, the company focuses on upgrading its features (Apple, 2020). IPad; this is a media tablet that also has a mobile version. It enhances interaction of the multimedia formats and has a 9.7 inch screen (Apple, 2020). Apple Watch; this is a wearable accessory that was produced by the company in 2014. It has features such as health and fitness tracking, and like the other company products, it has been improved to the Apple Watch Series 5 in 2019 (Apple, 2020). Apple targets high end or premium individual customers who are willing to pay more for the highest technology. The products produced by the company have advanced designs and capabilities, and this explains why they are sold at high prices. The company also targets customers who have value for style and aesthetics, who in this case are the individuals between 18-35 years.
PESTLE Analysis
The PESTLE analysis identifies with the external factors that have impact on the nature of business operations. Elements of PESTLE include;
Political factors; these include but are not limited to the trade policies, and stable political environments in the different countries of operations. These are opportunities to enhance continuous growth and development of the business. However, according to Khan, Alam and Alam (2015), there are threats resulting from disputes between nations. Economic factors; these relate to the stability of the economies in the developed countries and growth in developing countries. Increased incomes among the target customers are also an important aspect that enhances Apple’s increase in sales and revenue.
Sociocultural factors; factors include changes in lifestyle among the customers, and the rise of mobile use among the millennial. These are factors considered to have an impact on the life of the consumer, and mostly, these vary between nations. Technological factors; low prices in technology and technological integration, and the growth of the mobile market are aspects that enhance Apple’s operations in providing value to customers. However, competition in technologies used by different countries may be a threat to Apple in the production of its products and services.
Environmental factors; Apple has put focus on enhancing greenhouse effect from its manufacturing. It has also focused on energy efficiency trend, and has used technology to enhance business sustainability. Legal factors; the company’s compliance to legal rules related to labour laws, environmental laws, intellectual property laws, and patent regulations. These are sometimes challenging to Apple especially because they become a burden to the business and sometimes Apple may be required to adjust its policies and practices to meet the regulations.
How organisational functions work to optimise performance
The executive team leads the different departments in the company. The senior vice presidents report to the Chief design officer and chief operating officer, who work closely with the CEO. However in order for the business operations to be enhanced, the departments integrate to enhance performance. The SVP Internet and Software for instance has to work with the SVP hardware technologies in order to promote business and enhance provision of the best software and hardware products to customers. The SVP communications and SVP marketing also work to ensure that they make the products meet the end users. These together enhance promotion of business performance at Apple.
Company’s internal culture
Apple’s internal culture works on creating a positive business reputation and empowers the employees towards enhancing the business operations. The culture of secrecy is highly developed to ensure that no information is discussed outside the organisation. This is guided by the business policies and practices. Sometimes however, team leaders are never kept in the loop and this may have negative impacts on the business (Arocha, 2017).
Apple has a culture of work and no politics. There is no information produced for politics and individuals are expected to complete tasks solo. Much attention is paid to work and work-life balance is a mess at the company. This demotivates employees and sometimes they lose morale, and thus may have negative impact on business operations (Arocha, 2017).
How company’s HR and L&D activities support its strategy, goals, and objectives
The HR provides learning interventions to the new employees joining the company. Training programs are provided to the employees to ensure that the employees gain the knowledge and skills needed to transform how Apple Company operates. New workers are taught how to carry on their responsibilities while at the company, and thus have to put their focus on learning the organization culture as well. This enhances development of Apple’s goals and objectives in production of the highest quality tech products.
L&D activities at Apple are focused on enhancing continuous professional development, to which the employees are expected to own ownership. The reason behind this is that Apple is continuously getting involved in the development of new projects, and the extent to which the employees have invested in their professionalism, determines how they would be involved in the company operations. This means that the employees have to get involved in continuous learning in order for them to be part of the organisation.
Apple promotes work-based learning, and this is important especially because the company produces new products in development industries. This means that the employees have to be proactive in promoting their expertise especially because their skills are expected to change as the requirements for the new products and projects change. The company according to Chen (2014) provides classes to the employees to show how the company reflects to the world, and since the company highly values the culture of secrecy, it becomes difficult for anyone to access information on what the company teaches.
Role of HR and L&D functions in supporting line managers and staff
Apple uses the learning and development programs to ensure that the employees become skilled and competent to carry out their duties and responsibilities. Through the learning process, employees at Apple are encouraged to be self-reliant. The management expects that the duties given to the employees should be completed by them alone, without involving the teams. This according to Cascio (2019) promotes professional development of the employees, which is a strategy followed towards supporting the staff at Apple Inc. Second, HR works on ensuring that they promote a collaborative environment where new learning concepts are included to help the employees and the management learn behaviours, skills, and knowledge meant to enhance performance of the individual staff and the performance of the organisation as well. Rana, Ardichvili, and Polesello (2016) argue that it is within the learning environment that the learners participate in the planning of the organization, thus creating support to the all employees in the company. Collaboration promotes interaction between the staff, and this enhances good employee performance. Third, HR and L&D undertake the activity of coaching and mentoring employees, which then enhances provision of insights and strategies meant to support new employees joining the organisation. It is very clear that learning is promoted among the new employees at Apple, and HR has to take responsibility in ensuring that they support the employees by providing them with the support needed to enhance performance (Ladyshewsky, 2017).
References:
Apple, 2020, Online < https://www.apple.com/> [Accessed 23rd July 2020]
Arocha, J.B., 2017. Getting to the Core: A Case Study on the Company Culture of Apple Inc. Online < https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1074&context=rptasp> [Accessed 23rd July 2020]
Cascio, W.F., 2019. Training trends: Macro, micro, and policy issues. Human Resource Management Review, 29(2), pp.284-297.
Chen, B. 2020, Simplifying the Bull: How Picasso helps to teach Apple’s Style. New York Times, Online <https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/11/technology/-inside-apples-internal-training-program-.html> [Accessed 23rd July 2020]
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.
Ladyshewsky, R.K., 2017. Peer coaching as a strategy to increase learning and development in organisational life-a perspective. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 15(1), p.4.
Lusted, M.A., 2012. Apple: The Company and Its Visionary Founder, Steve Jobs: The Company and Its Visionary Founder, Steve Jobs. ABDO.
Rana, S., Ardichvili, A. and Polesello, D., 2016. Promoting self-directed learning in a learning organization: tools and practices. European Journal of Training and Development.
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