Apple
(April 2010) the organizational structure of Apple is described in following figure. The figure describes also functions of members.
As we can see this organizational chart is very large and shows all the important
functions. But it is not much descriptive. More descriptive will be choosing only the
main functions of the company which affect the organizational structure of the all
product lines.
The main areas of Apple´s management
Marketing
Marketing makes up the basic part. The goal of this part of the firm is to identify
the customer´s needs and the products that satisfy them.
iPhone Software
It seems that the iPhone is such important product for Apple that needs its own
department for managing the software what iPhone comes with. Furthermore very
similar software is used in iPad the new Apple´s device.
General Counsel
General Counsel helps to coordinate all Apple´s organizational departments in
order to work perfectly and effectively.
Industrial Design
Industrial Design is responsible for crafting the appearance of all Apple products,
including the Apple Macintosh computer line.
Device Engineering
Device Engineering solves all the problems that relates to all Apple production
lines except the design of the products. Production tasks, hardware and software skills.
Apple´s design is managed by another department.
Retail
The main task of this unit is to maintain all the business channels that Apple uses
including Apple Store or iTunes.
Software Engineering
Is responsible mainly for developing of the operational system OS X and then also
about others Apple´s software products like iWork, etc.
Next few pages briefly show the evolution of organizational structure of Apple since
its foundation in 1976.
From the very beginning (year 1977) the company Apple had very simple
organizational structure which was created only by Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak.
But the same year was hired first professional manager A.C. Markkula.
As the enterprise was growing there came more complicated structure and in
1983 was as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1.: 1983 Apple organizational chart
There came a slowdown in sales in early 1980s, the new Apple´s products were
not competitive enough. This was the reason to retire of Markkula as the CEO (but still
remained as a consultant) and hire on his post John Sculley from PepsiCo.
Later in 1984 new President John Sculley decided to simplify an organizational
structure. The main change was to reduce the number of Apple product division to
three: Macintosh, Apple II and an accessory and product group. Figure 2 shows the
structure. Job maintained the position of the chairman of the board of directors.
Figure 2.: 1984 Apple organizational structure
In 1985 Sculley made another big reorganization when The three product
divisions as described above were consolidated into one called Product Operations. Also
this reorganization should lower operating cost. Steve Jobs was no longer a member, he
resigned from Apple and Jean-Louis Gassee, head of Apple France, was promoted to
replace him. Steve Jobs found company NeXT what will be bought by Apple later.
Figure 3.: 1988 Apple organizational structure
In an effort to centralize operations and involve Apple’s senior management in
day-to-day decisions, Sculley created a new position of Chief Operation Officer to which
Yocam was appointed.
Figure 4.: 1988 Apple organizational structure
In 1990 Robert Puette, former head of Hewlett-Packard's personal computer
business, became head of the Apple USA division. This was other time when was the
organizational structure changed again as follows.
Figure 5.: 1990 Apple organizational structure
Scully was forced out of his leadership position by Apple's board of directors in
1993 due to bad results of the firm. His replacement, Michael Spindler, broke tradition
by licensing Apple technology to outside firms.
But, Spindler made a horrible mistake in 1995, when Apple had unfilled order in
worth of $1 billion (underestimated demand). This was his last mistake, after that was
replaced by Gil Amelio. But Amelio was not the chairman for much time. In 1997 was
replaced again by Steve Jobs. This was because lately in 1996 Apple bought NeXT, Steve
Jobs’ enterprise.
Sources:
[1]
http://www.cogmap.com/chart/apple-inc
[2]
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Apple-Computer-IncCompany-History.html
[3]
http://www.stern.nyu.edu/mgt/private_file/mo/rfreedma_ca/apple.pdf
[4]
http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/tiuatech-209428-applepresentation-education-ppt-powerpoint/