Apple's Organization

1. Introduction to Organization Environment

Organization environment refers to those forces outside its boundaries that can impact it. Forces can be change over time and are made up of opportunities and threat. Organization environment had divide into two parts and it was general and specific environment.

General environment was conditions that may be affected by the external and might harm the organization. General environment consist of economic conditions, politic/legal conditions, socio-culture conditions, demographic conditions, and technological conditions.

Economic condition plays an important role to every organization and this controls the sales of the organization's product. When there is a strong economy, consumers have more money to spend where when the economy is poor, people rather save their money and spend less.

Politic/legal conditions are forces that could influence the operation of the organization by allowing them to do it or could not do it. These forces include federal, state and government influence such as new law that is imposed by the current ruling government.

Socio-culture condition must be adapted by manager to challenge the expectations of the society and their life style. Social culturerefers to the relation between people and groups.Different society has different structure and life style.

Demographic condition results from changes in the nature, composition, and diversity of a population. This includes of age, gander, level of education, and income level. For example, youngsters would buy a touch screen phone while the senior (which is 40 to 60 year old) would not do so. Therefore, the organization should invent on phones that are suitable for everyone.

Technological condition shows the skills and equipment used in designs, production, and distribution of an organization. This could change the way how an organization manage their operation. They should make new products and introduce to the market before being rejected by consumers.

Whereas specific environment is directly related to the achievement of an organization's goal that consist of customers, competitors, suppliers, and pressure group.

Customer is people who buy goods of an organization. These people play an important role for the organization. If consumers get dissatisfied about the product or services of the organization and decided not to buy from it anymore, the organization might end up in bankruptcy or close down.

Competitor is an organization that produce similar product with our own organization. Most competitors offer their goods at a lower price in order to strike down another organization. This might cause consumers from buying the product that offers a lower price which was similar with the product that offers a higher price.

Supplier is people who supply goods or materials to an organization. An organization should have a good relationship with their suppliers so that they would supply goods at a lower price. The organization should not have only one supplier. This is because if a supplier wanted to increase the price of the material, they could compare the price with other suppliers so that they are able to purchase their materials at a lower value.

Pressure group appears when the organization did something and harmed the society. These people would show up when they felt the environment being harm or polluted by the organization. Manager should take care and not to cause an problem with these group of people and to assure they change their opinion and attitude on certain matter and make them turn their back onto the organization.

2. Background of the Organization

Apple Inc. (formally known as Apple Computer, Inc.), was founded at April 1, 1976 as a computer company by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who created Apple Computer. With the release of Apple I at January 1977, Apple has been predominantly as manufacturer of personal computers, including the Apple II, Macintosh, and Power Mac lines, but faced rocky sales and low market share during the 1990s.

By the end of 1970s, Jobs and his partners had a staff of computer designers and a production line. Apple II was succeeded by the Apple III in May 1980 as the company struggled to compete against IBM and Microsoft in the lucrative business and corporate computing market. The designers of the Apple III were forced to comply with Jobs' request to omit the cooling fan, and this ultimately resulted in thousands of recalled units due to overheating. An updated version, the Apple III+, was introduced in 1983, but it was also a failure due to bad press and wary buyers.

On August 15, 1998, Apple introduced a new all-in-one Mac computer that reminiscent of the original Macintosh 128K which known as iMac. Jonathan Ive, who leaded the iMac design team, is also the designer of iPod and iPhone.

3. Strength and Weaknesses of the Organization

SWOT analysis is a strategic to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in their project or their organization. Most organization uses this analysis to evaluate their business and to identify the internal and external factors to achieve the objective.The internal factor includes the strengths and weaknesses of the organization while the external factor shows the opportunities and threats presented by the external environment.

What may represent strengths with respect to one objective may be weaknesses for another objective. Weaknesses of an organization may include all of the 4Ps and POLC.

Strengths:

1. Benefits of iTunes

Apple is expert in developing their own software and hardware. They had introduced the iTunes to every Apple users by allowing then to transfer their music and files through this software.

2. Good Marketing Strategies

Apple had created many products that were so popular and liked by the public. iPhoneand iPadthat released by them was so famous and we could see it anywhere using by most people nowadays.

3. Strong Research & Development Department

Apple had a strong research and development department. They always surprise their consumer with new and trendy technologies. For example, iPad 2 was designed with a thinner and slimmer version. They also had upgraded the software and speed of iPad 2.

4. Brand Loyalty

Apple was well known by the world and they have a good reputation for their consumer. They never stop inventing and always come up with new and better products.