Introduction
Apple Company is a multinational company which produces the personal computers, computer software, portable digital players and networking solutions. Apple’s product family also manufactures Macintosh desktops, notebooks, and iTunes Music Stores. Apple Company also has 125 retailing stores which is called as Apple Stores at United States, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. The major products that Apple Company manufactures are iPod Portable Media Players, iPod Tablet Computer and iPod Smart Phone. Apple has the good image of the reputation in this consumer electronics gadgets industry. Apple has a very strong customer base because they are producing the good quality of the products which is also given a fully good satisfaction for the buyers and to the consumers.
In 1976, Apple Computer, Inc. started as the computer company and incorporated the company in 1977. After that Apple started produced and expanded the business into a very complicated company which produces much more than only computers. In 1980, Apple started to convert the business to public ownership. Apple is the first personal computer company which reaches its annual sales around $1 billion in 1982. After that, the management was lightly shake- up which gave impact to the departure of the Jobs and several other Apple executives in 1985. Then, the Powerbook line of notebook computer launched in 1991 whereas in 1994, Power Macintosh line launched in 1994.
Steve Jobs back to Apple industry in 1996 and became as an interim chief executive officer in 1997. In 1998, the all-in-one iMac product released. Steve Jobs became a CEO and he started to focus deeply the Apple. In 2001, Apple started to produces the iPod, which is mastering by the dominant market leaders in music players and also opened the first retailing store at Virginia. The first store of Apple opened in Japan in 2003. In 2005, Apple produced the video iPod which is the fifth generation of the device. After that, Apple started to produce the iPhone and joined to the phone industry, which is also a very successful company in domestics and international level.
The CEO of the Apple Company is Mr. Steven P. Jobs who is known as Steve Job. We also cannot forget his partner, Mr. Steve Wozniak who helps to build this Apple Inc. Steve Wozniak is 26 years old and Steve Jobs is 21 years old. Both are the college dropout students. Wozniak is a self-taught electronics engineer who is the very talented person. Then, Jobs consulted with Mike Markkulla, who is a retired electronic engineer from Intel Corporation and Fairchild Semiconductor to make the Apple Company as a larger company firm. After that, Jobs recruited Regis McKenna as an advertiser and public relation to design the Apple Company logo and promoted the personal computers and all the electronic gadgets in the consumer’s magazines. By the end of 1978, Apple Company has carried out its products by more than 100 dealers and it also stated as one of the fast-growing companies in this world.
Apply Inc. also has recently launched iPhone 7,iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, 4K Apple TV which is also added Apple Watch Series 3 as a cellular connection and HomePod speaker. Apple is a good company which is known to understand and identify the value of the consumers and products. Moreover, Apple has to survive and compete in high level because there are many companies in computer and phone industry which will take part in this same business.
TYPES OF DECISION MAKING ENVIRONMENT
A good decision is not only influenced by the experience, efficiency, and skills of the decision maker but also the adequacy and validity of the information obtained that are related to the business environment. There are three types of environment in which decisions are made which is called as decision making in certain conditions, decision making in uncertain conditions and decision making in risky conditions.
First of all, is decision making in certain conditions. This means that a situation occurs when the decision maker knows with reasonable certainty about the choices, situations, alternatives and the result to solve the situation. The cause and effect relationships are known well known and the future is highly predictable under conditions of certainty. This types of conditions will exist in situations that require daily routine and repetitive decisions concerning the day-to-day operations of the business. For instance, Steve Jobs was set up the NeXT computer after produce the Apple Computer in 1996.
After that, in 1997, Gil Amelio, the head of the Apple at that time decided to buy NeXT computer and consequently, bring Jobs back to his company as a special advisor in January 1997. Then, Jobs could have been content to simply provide advice and stay out of the way. Of course, that was not in his nature. Jobs nominated himself as a potential replacement after he convinced the Apple’s board of directors to oust Amelio. Then, Jobs was back to his control after the board agreed. At last, Steve Jobs appointed Tim Cook to improve the company’s distribution and supply system and launched and online system. The most important decision Steve Jobs made was to take control of Apple.
Secondly, is decision making in uncertain conditions. This conditions will happen when the future environment is unpredictable and everything will be happen suddenly without any symptoms. It will occur when the decision maker will not aware of all available alternatives and the risks are linked to each alternative. This means that when the uncertainties situation occur, the company manager will do certain assumptions about the situation in order to deliver a practical framework for decision making. They have to depend on their intuitive and past experience when making decisions under such conditions. For an example, its own size is the result is an ability to move nimbly, for the Apple products. “Constant course correction” is how one former executive refers to the approach. “If the executive team decides to change direction, it’s instantaneous,” this ex-Apple honcho says. Everybody thinks it is a grand strategy but in reality it is not.” For an instance, we all well-known that, the Apple’s management has a great ability to change its pricing strategy which can change a price of product before 48 hours when it is going to launch. It means that if it is miss any ideas such as not anticipating the need for an App Store to satisfy the third-party developers who wanted to create programs for the iPhone, it will shifts gears quickly to grab the opportunity in the market share.
Thirdly, decision making in risky conditions. The risk conditions will emerges when the manager lacks of the perfect information or whenever the information irregularity exist. The decision maker has inadequate information about current alternatives but he has a good idea of the probability of the outcome for each alternative. While making decisions under a state of risk, managers must determine the percentage of probability associated with each alternative on the basis of the available information and his experience. For an example, when Steve Jobs took over Apple for the second time at the start of 1997, the company was going nowhere fast. Business week reported that Apple had a declining 4% share of the PC market, was losing over $1 billion annually, and lacked a strong investment strategy and that was being kind. Apple’s investment focus had little, well, actual focus.
Forbes ran an article, “Steve Jobs: Get Rid of the Crappy Stuff,” in which Jobs said, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you have got to focus on. You have to pick careful. Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things.” By the end of 1998, he had killed off 97% of Apple’s offerings which is reducing its product menu from 350 to 10. By scrapping the “crappy stuff” Apple was able to concentrate on making long-term investments to jump-start growth. In four years, despite selling fewer products, the company’s market capitalization grew six times over and set the stage for long-term bets that turned Apple into the world’s largest company. In contrast, Microsoft’s market capitalization in following years of scattered decision making and it is dropped by two-thirds during that same period.
STEPS OF MAKING RATIONAL DECISION MAKING
Decision making looks like a simple process but the decision made should be a rational decision. The process of rational decision-making favours logic and objective analyses over subjective insights. Making a rational decision by a company is a very important role in an organization. This is a systematic process of defining problems, evaluating decision alternatives and selecting the best alternative decision available in making a rational decision steps and processes. There are six steps and processes need to be followed by the organization when making the rational decisions. Defining the problem, identifying the decision criteria, allocating weights to each criterion, generating alternative solutions, evaluating alternatives and selecting the optimal decision are the six steps and processes when making the rational decisions.
The first and foremost step in the decision-making process is to define the real problem that occurred in an organization. The manager responsibility and needs is to identify the real problem that occurred in an organization, the source of the problem and find out the way and proper solution to resolve the problem. For example, consumers stopped getting excited about new laptops years ago, and that same phenomenon is now happening in the smartphone market. Smartphones are still improving each year, but the relative change is getting smaller. Just like how each new generation of PC is only modestly better than the last, smartphones launched today are no longer dramatically better than those launched a year ago.
The second step is identifying the decision criteria. Then, we should establish the decision criteria. The decision criteria should be refer to the standards or features that will be considered when making a decision. Since, the company has decided to produce new smartphones, what are the criteria that will be taken into consideration when producing the smartphone features. While one of the best smartphones available, offered little in the way of compelling new features. A faster processor, better graphics, and an improved camera are the factors that have become table stakes in the smartphone business, and features like water resistance are far from revolutionary are the decision criteria.
The third step is allocating weights to each criterion. Make the relative comparisons is the one of the method that is normally used for this step which is when allocating weights to each criterion. The way to proceed this step is by do the ranking of the criteria from the most important to the least important criterion for the decision maker in an organization. Based on the example given earlier, we might place the faster processor factor as the most important, followed by an improved camera factor, water resistance factor and lastly, the better graphics factor.
The fourth step is generating the alternative solutions to solve the problem. After that, develop the alternative solutions whereby potential solutions need to be considered is the next step in this process. The more alternatives generated, the better it is. Based on the example, in order to produce a new smartphone, the alternatives that can be taken into consideration will be iPhone 7, iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
Then, the fifth step is evaluating the alternatives. In this step, we should compared all of the alternative will be compared to each decision criterion. This will helps to identify the best alternatives solution which will helps to fulfil the decision criteria that has been set. Moreover, this is the step which will takes the longest time because we have to collect a lot of informations before do the comparisons. This means that all the alternative solutions iPhone 7, iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will be evaluated from the aspects of the faster processor, better graphics, and an improved camera have become table stakes in the smartphone business, and features like water resistance are far from revolutionary which are stated as decision criteria.
Moreover, the last step in this decision making process is selecting the optimal decision.
Select the best alternative solution available is the last step in this process. The best alternative is the alternative that fulfils all the decision criteria according to the ranked importance. The iPhone 7, while one of the best smartphones available, offered little in the way of compelling new features. A faster processor, better graphics, and an improved camera have become table stakes in the smartphone business, and features like water resistance are far from revolutionary. The iPhone 7 was another refinement to Apple's successful iPhone formula, but refinements aren't moving units like they used to.
DISCUSSION ON HOW TO IMPROVE DECISION MADE
Now, I am going to discuss about how to improve decision made by the Apple. Inc company. There are some of the ways which will improve the decision made by the Apple. Inc which will be helpful to increase the growth of their sales. It also will enhances to increase the reputation of the company among their competitors.
First of all, Apple Company should be calm when create a good framework during the decision making. For instances, most decision-making processes resemble a congressional debate with personal biases, fear, and “power plays” dictating outcomes. Leave these emotions at the door, and inspire executives to thoroughly and objectively assess options at each stage. Companies that spend more time creating a rational process ultimately save time with less debate, quicker consensus, and more progress. Make every decision in the context of the ultimate goal, and stress the cost of delayed decision making.
Secondly, Apple Company should not throw the good after bad. For example, most executives believe that on average of projects in their growth plan should be shut down and that the money would be better spent on other ventures but companies fail to adjust resources mid-stream leading to sunk cost and missed opportunities. The best companies regularly report the trade-offs between money spent on current initiatives and other possible growth opportunities to encourage rational, growth-focused decision making. Establish and document signals that indicate when to increase or decrease spending at each stage of the project. These triggers will help executives make rational decisions about the project’s future. CEB found that the best companies value quick changes in investment throughout the project just as much as initial investment decisions.
Thirdly, Apple Company should use the knowledge because it is the power. For instances, track project costs, progress, strategic assumptions, and financial assumptions on an ongoing basis. This review process will keep decision making relevant to current environmental changes, which has changed considerably in the past five years. Be clear about the assumptions that support the growth bets, including financial returns, potential risks, and economic factors that are necessary for each project. This approach will give greater knowledge on when to adjust, kill or escalate investment dollars and more importantly the power to obtain executive buy-in on those decisions.
Fourthly, Apple Inc. should pressure-test and prioritize assumptions to improve the quality of proposals. Test assumptions at each stage in the process as new information supports or goes against original assumptions, and then revise plans. For example, CEB research shows that high-performing finance groups are not afraid to challenge underlying assumptions, which enables their business partners to make better decisions. Give credit where credit’s due to the people who work with HR to reward good decisions rather than just good outcomes, and reduce the threat of failure for executives if projects are killed due to negative results.
Conclusion
After completed this assignment, I had known that as a student, we should be independent to involve in the business society. The organization that I have choosen and familiar with or able to access the information is Apple Inc. Company.
Apple Inc. Company is a well known multinational company which has producing its products and services through the world wide level since 1976. It has produces the personal computers, computer software, portable digital players and networking solutions. Apple’s product family also manufactures Macintosh desktops, notebooks and iTunes Music Stores. The major products that Apple Company manufactures are iPod Portable Media Players, Pod Tablet Computer and iPod Smart Phone. Apple has the good image of the reputation in this consumer electronics gadgets industry. Apple has a very strong customer base because they are producing the good quality of the products which is also gives a fully good satisfaction for the buyers and to the consumers. The CEO of Apple. Inc company is Mr Steve Jobs.
Even though, Apple. Inc is a popular company, but it also have to choose some of the types of decision making environment in certain time when it is available. I also has identify the types of decision making environment in Apple. Inc company such as decision making in certain conditions, decision making in uncertain conditions and decision making in risky conditions. I also got do the analysis on the steps of making rational decision making in its own organization. The first step is defining the problem. The second step is identifying the decision criteria. The third step is allocating weights to each criterion. The fourth step is generating the alternative solutions to solve the problem. Then, the fifth step is evaluating the alternatives. Last but not least, the last step in this decision making process is selecting the optimal decision.
Then, I also had do discussion on how to improve decision made by the Apple Inc. company. First of all, Apple Company should be calm when create a good framework during the decision making. Secondly, Apple Company should not throw the good after bad. Thirdly, Apple Company should use the knowledge because it is the power. Fourthly, Apple Inc. should pressure-test and prioritize assumptions to improve the quality of proposals.