Apple Inc. Portfolio project

The organization of my choice is Apple Inc. It is a multinational technology company in America. The headquarters of the organization are located in Cupertino, California. The institution is involved in selling, developing, and designing computer software, electronics, and many other services offered online. Additionally, it sells and designs hardware such as; the HomePod smart speaker, the Apple TV, the Apple smartwatch, the iPod media player, the Mac PC, the iPad tablet, and the iPhone Smartphone. The online services provided by the organization are as follows; iCloud, Apple Music, Mac App Store, the iOS App Store, and the iTunes Store.

The innovative strategies of Apple Inc

This company has been regarded as the most innovative in the globe. Its policy of innovation majorly comprises of great new products and the utilization of innovative models of business. The organization does not only involve itself in the designing of beautiful, attractive, and innovative products but also the founding of innovative models of business. Under the strategies that are stated, the following factors are well-thought-out; digital customer opportunity; this enables us to determine what can be done to fulfill individuals’ requirements. Besides, the organization aims at simplifying the experience of a consumer when utilizing their services and products.

Furthermore, the organization aspires to design the beautiful and the best products, which will contribute to attracting more consumers. Apple Inc utilizes an amalgamation of cloud, software, and hardware in its plan of lastly and products; the company intends to invent the next beautiful products in the world. Products such as; the Apple Watch series, iPad, and iPhone have been discovered through the utilization of marvelous new goods and innovative models of business.

Apple Inc. Company’s culture

The success of this organization can be accredited to its exceptional company’s culture. In the company, employees are initiated in the innovative culture and how to take action hastily to changes in the environment. The characteristic of the company’s culture is;

Top-notch superiority; here, the organization employs only the best and professionals employees. Employees who fall short of meeting the organization’s expectations are fired straight away. Steve Jobs initiated this culture, and up to date, it is still adhered to by the successor of the institution, Tim Crook. Superiority is the chief requirement of the organization.

Creativity; this is amongst the key factors to consider in the process of employee hiring in Apple Inc. the employee creativity is conducted by examining the creativity, knowledge, and skills abilities. The culture of the company clearly states the merits of creativity. The creativity culture has resulted in the excellent performance of the organization in responding to consumers’ requirements and environmental changes.

Innovation; the company’s culture is innovative, thus making the firm the leading innovative organization in the world. Employees are encouraged and trained to be creative in conducting the responsibilities within the organization. The company values the innovation culture to a greater extent.

Secrecy; the culture of secrecy was initiated in the organization by Steve Jobs. The culture of secrecy is highly honored for safeguarding the intellectual property of the organization and other vital information. All new employees in the firm are required to comply with this culture; failure to do so may result in your termination. The culture is inclusive in the rules, policies, and the employment agreement form, which is mandatory for a new employee to sign. This culture makes sure that the employees do not poach the organization.

General combativeness; the former C.E.O Steve Jobs utilized the combative approach as his style of leadership. He persistently heartened employees to possess what it takes to be a member of Apple Inc. conversely; under Tim Crook’s command, the culture of combative has been changing to a less combative one, which is more social. The present civilization is now portrayed by a reasonable degree of combativeness.

Secrecy, creativity, innovation, and top-notch superiority culture are vital in the organization’s leadership. These cultures have directly contributed to the success of the organization. Additionally, they have played a crucial role in the innovation of the organization.

Communication of creativity and innovation to employees

The company utilizes a variety of techniques to pass information regarding creativity and innovation to its employees. The information runs from the senior staff to the employees (engineers and designers). The report comprises of their intended product that they would wish to achieve next. The employees then select, evaluate, and recommend the excellent product to plan, based on the given information, and offer feedback to the senior staff. The communication process follows diverse channels, depending on the selected original mode. These channels comprise; handwritten communication, text messaging, electronic messaging, and facial communication in meetings. Additionally, any employee with a charming creative idea is encouraged to direct the information to the senior staff for consideration and analysis.

The innovation process of the company

Matching top-down and Bottom-up Strategies

The process commences with the senior management of the organization, giving an illustration of what type of product they need. In reaction to their point of view, the team responsible for designing select, evaluate, and present the senior officer with relevant aspects concerning the dream product/s. As soon as the process of design commences, the senior staff participates in making sure that the design group does not involve themselves in mistakes in the process.

Paired Design Meetings

The group responsible for designing the organization meets twice a week. One meeting is referred to as the right-brain, meaning the creative meeting, while the second meeting is referred to as the left-brain meeting involving the production meeting. In the creative session, the members present are required to participate fully and feel free to raise any idea that they might have to assume that the concept does not exist.  In the second meeting, also known as the left-brain, the engineers and designers of the organization are needed to put into action the ideas raised in the right-brain meeting. The process goes on until new product/s are/is released in the market.

Developing Perfect Mock-ups

The grown mock-ups require being excellent, depending on the fact that significant resources such as finance, labor, human, and time are utilized appropriately. Also, it is essential to eliminate corrections that may occur in the future, which may result in additional resources.

Annual events for collecting and generating ideas

Currently, the company does not have a yearly event that intends to collect and make ideas. The company only depends on meetings that are conducted twice a week to manage and create designs. I would propose the following as some of the events to be held annually to collect and generate ideas for the organizational benefit.

Annual exhibitions and shows: the company should at least give engineers and designers some good time once a year to visit exhibitions and shows to examine the ideas that have been collected and generated by other persons and organizations. In attending such events, the employees will be able to gather various ideas connected to creativity and innovation that can be of assistance to the company innovation strategies. The gained knowledge will further be crucial in enabling the workers to give out ideas for improving the organization.

The annual contest and brainstorming sessions: moreover, as a technique of collecting and generating ideas, it will be relevant to organize a yearly competition for the employees of the company. Whereby the employees will behave either as consumers or divide themselves at most three folks, and present innovative ideas they have managed to generate. Such approaches can be utilized by senior management once they identify opportunities for improvement. It will also be vital to perform brainstorming, as persons will be needed to answer several questions per how they were capable of generating such ideas, and expected results as soon as the actualization of the concept takes place.

Annual training and seminar sessions: employees could be trained on techniques of generating ideas at training sessions and seminars that should be conducted at least once annually. Through such workshops and meetings, employees will be able to identify techniques of generating new ideas at their workplace. Furthermore, employees will be in a position to be able to gather ideas from what they are obtaining from the trainers.

Voice of Customer Research Plan to support the first three stages of the innovation plan and importance of each

Voice of the Customer (VOC) is significant in the innovation plan of an organization, as it provides consumers insight of expectations, preferences, and aversions. Here are the possible techniques of research to utilize and their importance.

Focus groups: this technique of research comprises selecting a specific team of consumers that have high chances of utilizing the product under innovation. The process is essential to the organization in that it will acquire enough information concerning the product from the persons’ contribution in the groups and attempt to contrast the gained knowledge.

Contextual inquiry: involve searching for information based on the circumstances that are prevailing. Presenting the facts concerning the steps where plans of innovation have reached, consumers can offer information that will enable the organization to decide as to whether progress with other stages of innovation to make a correction or quit the whole process thoroughly.

Personal interviews: interviewing every individual at a time is very important because other individuals’ ideas will not impact such folks. Such kind of individual provides excellent, concerning his/her thoughts. The collected information can be contrasted across different individuals.

Business case components to be used by Apple Inc. in the evaluation of new product ideas

Objectives: by taking into consideration the objective element, it is possible to develop potential new product ideas. This element offers an organization with opportunities for improving products that will lower the cost and create revenues. Moreover, this component provides techniques for making corrections and generating changes, hence resulting in the introduction of new products.  New products to be introduced are analyzed based on the objectives mentioned above, such as; whether the products will meet the needed change in the organization, reduce the organization cost, and create revenues.

Project alternatives: this is another essential component of the business case that is crucial in the evaluation of a new product. Based on the present number of other options and their respective advantages, a company ends its decision on the best alternative. In the process of making a decision on which choice is the best, and evaluation is performed, to identify the suitable product design that matches well with the present alternatives.

Metrics for monitoring and evaluating financials, processes, and success, reasons for their choice and how they will be used

Consumer Satisfaction Score: under this significant metric, various sub-metrics should be put into consideration, such as Net Promoter Score, Consumer satisfaction, and Voice Of Consumer (VOC). Consumer satisfaction on the offered services and products is essential in every company. This metric was given a priority based on the fact that the company (Apple Inc) is centered on a variety of services and products, which are generated through innovative techniques. Therefore, to put innovation’s success in association with consumers’ satisfaction into a test, this is the preferred metric. This metric will also be utilized in determining the degree at which consumers are satisfied with the services and products provided by Apple Inc.

Employee Satisfaction metric: when the satisfaction of an employee is achieved in an organization, it merely means that the employees are going to perform their responsibilities to their best. The key reason why this metric was chosen is because of the success of a company and other various processes depending on the degree of employee satisfaction. This metric will be utilized to determine the achievement of the employee, what can be conducted, and predicting the organization’s future success, based on the contribution of the employees.

Productivity metrics: this metric is utilized in the process of finding out the denominators and numerators for the output per given unit, also known as productivity. When initiating a new product in the market, it is necessary to determine its return rate, as a technique of evaluating the product’s success in the market. That is the chief reason as to why the metric was selected and utilized. The parameter will also be used in measuring Return On Investment (ROI), which is the return of services and products, hence ensuring their marketplace success. When sales surpass the incurred costs or expenses, it shows that the company is profitable and following the success track.

Cash flow metric: this metric serves as the blood flow of any company. It is vital in the determination of the performance success of an organization. Under this metric, the company should concentrate more on metrics like Days Payable inventory (shows several days an organization needs to handle creditors or vendors amount due). And Days Sales Outstanding (provide the number of days intended for the organization account’s payment or receivable outstanding). In this metric still, making payments rapidly than the rate at which the organization is receiving its receivables accounts is very critical. It indicates that the organization is likely to experience liquidity issues.

Gross margin: this is the metric that determines the performance of any organization. It is referred to as the mother of all metrics that an organization can utilize. It is also responsible for assessing the health of finance in an organization. The gross margin level measures the organization’s success; it is directly proportional; the higher the margin, the better the company’s performance.

The metrics applied to require to be analyzed frequently to ensure their relevancy and effectiveness in the evaluation of organizational performance.

Tools for implementing innovation plan

For Apple Inc to implement their ideas of innovation, they should utilize the following devices:

Content and Rich media: this will offer the organization with websites for advertising its products. This form of media may include; Tube Mogul, YouTube, Joomla, Word Press, etc.

SEO Optimized: this involves the use of tools such as SEO optimization plug such as HeadSpace2, One SEO pack, Search Engine Keywords Plugin, and keyword plug like Quick META Keywords.

References

Apple Inc. https://www.apple.com/

Is Apple The World’s Most Innovative Company? Retrieved from; https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2015/12/08/is-apple-the-worlds-most-innovative-company/#82fd72638262

Why Apple Is One Of The Most Innovative Companies Of 2017, retrieved from; https://www.fastcompany.com/3067459/why-apple-is-one-of-the-most-innovative-companies-of-2017

Apple’s Product Development Process – Inside the World’s Greatest Design Organization, recovered from;https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/apple-s-product-development-process-inside-the-world-s-greatest-design-organization

Creativity and Innovation in Business | Social Media, retrieved from; http://creativityandinnovation.blogspot.co.ke/

Apple Inc. Organizational Culture: Features & Implications, retrieved from; http://panmore.com/apple-inc-organizational-culture-features-implications