Assignment:
The Task
For this assignment you are to research publically available material on Apple Inc and its competitors to provide comprehensive answers to the following questions. It is expected that each section be answered in 300 to 500 words. Bullet points are fine. Feel free to add diagrams or tables. Ensure that you use in text referencing. Remember, this is a Turnitin assignment. Do not copy and paste. If you are quoting a reference, ensure that you use quotation marks and acknowledge the source.
Ensure that you provide a cover sheet, answers to each section (do not repeat the questions as Turnitin will pick it up as plagiarism) and your list of references. I suggest you design your own cover sheet as Turnitin will pick up the MQU standard version as plagiarism. Your reference list is not included in the word count. Appendix 1 contains information on academic writing and the correct way to cite references.
Consider the principles discussed so far from our textbook, Robbins et al. Consider the chapters on contemporary management trends, organisational culture, managing in a global environment, social responsibility and managerial ethics, managing change and innovation, decision making, planning and strategic management. Complete answers for each section will need to include a mention of pertinent sections of the textbook. Do not use the textbook as the authority on Steve Jobs or Apple. There are more comprehensive and up to date sources.
1. Consider the post 2000 period for Apple. What do you think were the driving forces that led to Apple's phenomenal success to become the world's largest company by market capitalisation? How did Apple identify and capitalise on market trends? How did they achieve global success? Which companies lost market share?
Which market segments grew as a result of Apple's strategies?
ISYS360 Assignment One Page 3 Semester 1, 2018
2. Describe Steve Jobs' management style. What was it like working for Jobs? How would describe the culture at Apple? How would you rate Apple in terms of social responsibility and managerial ethics? Has Tim Cook adopted a different style?
3. Provide an overview of Apple's current market position. Why has it declined from its pinnacle of market leadership in the smartphone and tablet segments? Is Apple losing its ‘cool'? Why did Apple fail to adequately defend its market position? Will Android expand its dominance of smart phone operating systems? What about Xiaomi, Huawei, Honor and OnePlus, will they effectively compete globally against Apple? Apple had a first mover's advantage, market leadership in its major segments and a massive cash flow to fund investment. What went wrong?
4. Apple continues to innovate its product line with the latest upgrades to iPhone with the 8 and X, iPad, iMac Pro, Watch, MacBook Pro etc. If you were the CEO, how would you steer new product development at Apple? The Board and shareholders would certainly like to see Apple regain its reputation as the market innovator, not follower. Where will the next generation of innovative products and services come from?
Submission
This is a Turnitin assignment. Do not wait until the last minute to submit as Turnitin can take up to 24 hours to process a submission. Your submission time will be time stamped by iLearn. You will fail if 30% or more of the report has been plagiarised.
Resubmitting through Turnitin can be very slow, so if you want to pre-screen your submission for plagiarism, you can use the free software Viper.