MC2-Apple what-what does it do? ( deadline Feb 25)
This Mini Case consists of several articles concerning what happened at Apple
Please take a look at example ( pages 4) Article #1 for RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FIRST CASE “ what the hell happen to GE?” and then try do for same as the second one Article #2 ( Apple Case). Realated to article.
· Recommendations-Give FIVE recommendations for the Apple management team ( 2 line bullet for each).
· Personal take away-each will give a five line bullet as to their personal takeaway or lesson learned from these articles.
Article #2 Apple’s Executive Shake-Up Readies Company for Life After iPhone
Apple Inc. AAPL +0.45% is shaking up leadership and reordering priorities across its services, artificial intelligence, hardware and retail divisions as it works to reduce the company’s reliance on iPhone sales.
The changes, which can be traced back to last year, have included high-profile hires, noteworthy departures, meaningful promotions and consequential restructurings. They have rattled rank-and-file employees unaccustomed to frequent leadership changes and led Apple to put several projects on hold while new managers are given a chance to reassess priorities, according to people familiar with the matter.
The primary reasons for the shifts vary by division. But collectively, they reflect Apple’s efforts to transition from an iPhone-driven company into one where growth flows from services and potentially transformative technologies.
Leadership moves of the past few months include promoting artificial intelligence chief John Giannandrea to the executive team; replacing departing retail chief Angela Ahrendts with head of human resources Deirdre O’Brien; and pushing out top Siri voice-assistant executive Bill Stasior.
Apple has also trimmed 200 staffers from its autonomous-vehicle project, and is redirecting much of the engineering resources in its services business, led by Eddy Cue, into efforts around Hollywood programming.
“This is a sign the company is trying to get the formula right for the next decade,” said Gene Munster, a longtime Apple analyst and managing partner at venture-capital firm Loup Ventures. “Technology is evolving, and they need to continue to tweak their structure to be sure they’re on the right curve.”
The changes, along with Apple’s recent sales woes, have become conversation fodder for cu
ent and ex-Apple employees, partly because they are among the most pronounced since Tim Cook’s early years as chief executive. Retail chief Ron Johnson left shortly before Mr. Cook took over in 2011, and mobile software executive Scott Forstall was dismissed a year later. Their departures led to the hiring of Ms. Ahrendts, the elevation of Craig Federighi to the top software job and Mr. Cue’s assumption of responsibility for several services, creating an 11-person executive team that remained largely unchanged for five years.
The competitive landscape could complicate Apple’s efforts to diversify beyond the iPhone. Media services like Netflix Inc. and Spotify Technology SA have a head start and more subscribers; Google’s autonomous-vehicle initiative has logged more miles on the road; andAmazon.com Inc.’s Echo speakers have put Alexa into millions of homes.
Apple spent $14.24 billion on research and development last year, a 23% increase from the year prior. Though it continues to work on projects in the augmented reality, autonomous vehicle and health sectors, it hasn’t yet released a major new product in those areas. Sales of its latest gadgets—Apple Watch, AirPods and HomePod—have been mixed, and none has offered the pricing power or volumes of the iPhone, one of the best-selling products in history.
Mr. Cook, who prides himself on his long-term management focus, has been anticipating the maturation of the smartphone industry since as early as 2010 and planning for how to grow as phone sales slow, former employees say. Apple this year stopped reporting the number of iPhones it sells, a move many observers interpreted as an end of the smartphone salad days.
Though the iPhone still contributes about two-thirds of Apple sales, the company has encouraged investors to focus on a growing services business, which includes streaming-music subscriptions, app-store sales and mobile payments. Services are expected to top $50 billion in sales by fiscal 2020 and contribute more than about 60% of Apple’s total revenue growth over five years, according to Morgan Stanley , which estimates the iPhone fueled 85% of growth during the prior five years.
The services business also is key to preserving iPhone loyalty. Just as Amazon has used media and music offerings to increase the value of Prime membership, Apple executives view its mobile payments, music service and coming video offering as ways to encourage cu
ent iPhone owners to buy future Apple handsets.
Apple has said it aims to pass 500 million paid subscriptions across its platform by 2020, up from 360 million now.
To help reach the goal, Apple is spending more than $1 billion to create original shows this year sta
ing Hollywood A-listers such as Reese Witherspoon. It has considered bundling video into a monthly subscription offering that would also include cloud storage, according to people familiar with the plans. The company also is in talks with major newspapers about offering a news service that would cost $10 a month. It has discussed bundling those services together into a single subscription along with iCloud storage for photos and files, a person familiar with the plan said.
Mr. Cue, who poached two top executives from Sony Pictures Television in 2017, has focused most of his engineers on the coming video offering, two of these people said. The company is pushing to announce the new offering at a media event scheduled for March 25 on its Apple Park campus, people familiar with the event said.
Apple is also expected to lean on its artificial-intelligence team to personalize the services on people’s devices. The company last year hired Mr. Giannandrea away from Alphabet Inc.’s Google, where he held a similar role incorporating AI into products like Gmail’s inbox app.
In December, shortly after presenting to Apple’s board, Mr. Giannandrea was promoted to the company’s executive team and quickly took over the AI division. He relieved Mr. Stasior from his responsibility overseeing Siri, Apple’s flagship AI product, according to people familiar with the change. Mr. Giannandrea has assumed that responsibility and is looking to improve Siri’s accuracy and performance, the people said. The Information earlier reported on Mr. Stasior’s status.
In August, Apple hired Tesla Inc.’s engineering chief Doug Field and gave him day-to-day responsibility for the company’s roughly 1,400-person autonomous-vehicle project, known as Project Titan. Last month, he cut the team by about 200 people, according to people familiar with the change, which was previously reported by CNBC.
Apple announced in early Fe
uary that Ms. Ahrendts would leave the company in April, ending a five-year stint overseeing its 500-plus stores world-wide. Mr. Cook promoted Ms. O’Brien, a longtime operations executive, into a role of completing Ms. Ahrendts’s store remodelings and determining how Apple promotes services in stores. One planned initiative: Apple has promised production partners in Hollywood that it will install TVs in stores to showcase its slate of forthcoming shows, people familiar with those plans said.
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Co
ections & Amplifications
Eddy Cue poached two top executives from Sony Pictures Television in 2017. An earlier version of this article inco
ectly said the poaching took place last year. (Feb. 18, 2019)
EXAMPLE CASE#1 : What the hell happend GE?
Recommendation
· Divestiture; Immelt strayed away from his core businesses and invested to often in industries they did not specialize in. We recommend that GE divests these auxiliary businesses to strong
· Restructure top management so that core businesses are represented (GE Power, Healthcare, Aviation) and lean out other arms in upper management to recuperate from downturn in the short term. The core business needs to be fortified to ensure the longevity of the company. (Google’s XXXXXXXXXXStrategy)
· GE Power needs to refocus on green renewable energies and move away from their fossil fuel based technologies of the past. Shareholders need to regain confidence that the company is moving towards the future and not holding onto the past.
· The company culture needs to be completely replaced with one that stresses criticism and respect at every level of the company. Adopting the model Pixar has created would do GE wonders.
· Re
anding or refreshing the company’s image in a way to announce to shareholders the new direction that GE is taking will help mask and indirectly address the recent bad press by showing the public that GE is not dying but moving forward with a new strategy.
PERSONAL TAKE_AWAY
· Executives should thoroughly understand their firm’s resources and capabilities to do the right thing XXXXXXXXXXprofit goal of $2 a share wasn’t realistic)
· An open line of honest communication between all levels of management is essential for the flow of accurate information and the ability to make the best decisions possible. (CEO with a large ego = bad)
· Don’t be over diversified. Is complicated to manage big companies at the same time that need a lot of work to put in. Especially if those companies are not from the same area. Invest rationally.
· To be forward-looking is ideal, but judging the development trend, and making ideal strategy to implement is a key. (eg: make GE digital but failed)
· Don't be overconfident. There is no guarantee of future success. Even it’s a small or big deal, either CEO or shareholders should have a plan B. (GE Power's profit plunged 45%)