Essay --

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in Cupertino, California founded Apple Inc. in 1976 (Glen Sanford 1996). The two first just created Apple Computers in the beginning and as their company became more successful, they branched out to other types of electronics such as laptops, various musical devices, computer software, and e-book compatible machines. Apple Inc was started because both Jobs and Wozniak had always been interested in electronics throughout their lives. Wozniak was part of the creation since he was interested in computer-design. Jobs was the one who encouraged Wozniak to sell the computer to see what would happen. On April 1, 1976 the first Apple Computer was created. The organizational chart of Apple Inc. includes three key elements which are centralization, span of control, and departmentalization. Centralization is defined as the foundation of power and control which in this case is the CEO of the company, Timothy D. Cook. The next part of the organizational chart is the span of control; it refers to the amount of people a manager overlooks (BUSN 235). Since Apple Inc. is a rather large corporation there are numerous managers who overlook lower-ranking employees in the office. There is not a specified amount of employees that are assigned to one particular manager. It is based on what the strengths and weaknesses are of the manager and subordinates, the workload, as well as the location of the staff members (235). The last part of the organizational chart is departmentalization; the breakdown of employees into rational groups such as functional, product, and geographical, customer, and process (235). The ones that apply to Apple is functional, product, and geographical. Functional departmentalization involves separat... ...se and they would not have been prepared for it. Also, to stay on top, companies must have to have a secure global database and Apple does not. Their jobs are mostly concentrated in the United States and then the parts to make the products are made and constructed overseas. Since I could not find a definitive mission statement, they will eventually have one set instead of having a list of achievements passing as their mission statement. A recommendation I would give to Apple is to create products that are cheaper because then more products would be sold. Another recommendation would be to construct offices that are around the world making products that are related to that particular country’s needs and satisfaction. I also agree with Shaughnessy about making Apple’s product market more elaborate and varied as well as to focus on the future instead of in the present.