Introduction
Mr X has served as the chief executive officer of a computer, phone and software manufacturing company. The organisation’s purpose is derived from the concept of building a digital hub.The purpose implies being the leading company in the technological advancement in computers, phones, tablets, mp3 players and TV products. From its inception, the company has had its share of profits and losses.It almost went into liquidation in 1980 when dealing with only personal computer manufacturing. With the appointment of Mr X, . However, the company saw tremendous improvement leading to its recognition as one of the best computer manufacturing companies. The company has a very ambitious vision which is ‘committed to offering the top personal computing experience to students, educators, creative experts and clients around the world through its inventive hardware, software and Internet services. The mission is in line with its long-term strategic plan ‘building a digital hub.’
Stakeholders
From its establishment in 1977, the company has had various stakeholders. These includes, suppliers, lenders, employees, software developers, customers, managers, the music industry, some organisations give out financing on the computer produced. This depends with someone's pockets prior to the making of the deal. Some of the organisations providing finance for the computers are the standard bank of America and city lender. For any person to be financed by these companies for the purchase of the computers made by this company, the credit worthiness of the applier must be ascertained. Loans are not only restricted to employees. Organisations may apply for the loans on behalf of its employees at relaxed interest rates. These financing companies guarantees individuals for the ownership of the computers once they finish paying their monthly installments. The company refers to its computers as MacBooks.
Employees
From the time of its formation in 1977, the company has had a very huge number of employees and its ranked among the best employing companies in the world. Currently, X computer Inc. has employed more than 75,000 workers in the whole world. X computer Inc. Is located in the United States of America where majority of its employees are located. The company however has operations all over the world including Tokyo and Paris. These are affiliate operational branches that deal with the engineering operations, sales, manufacturing and marketing. These operations have created many employment opportunities for people all over the world and in return has assisted in solving problems facing humanity.
Software Developers
X computers Inc. also has its software developers who form part of the stakeholders. The softwares developed are peculiar to the computers, phones, tablets and other electronics produced by the X Computers Inc. among the software is the Ios, the X and the Mac os platforms. The company invests a lot of its resources annually in software developing which is done in-house and under confidentiality. This assists the company in achieving originality of its softwares and also ensuring that it is not caught up in copyright infringement suits. X computer developers all members who enjoy some advantages. The members are accorded technical support from engineers that include coding. There is an established developer reference library meant to provide information to the members as well as providing software tools and kits. Members also benefit from the prerelease softwares before other people get access. These are softwares that are still under development. Workshop invitations are also sent to all developers to be taught about the latest technologies and also act as a platform for showcasing, t he current softwares done by the developers. The X computer company also has a program that provides a forum for testing the compatibility of the softwares and also the app store that enables developers to submit their softwares to check by the company.
Customers
The number of customers affiliated to X computers Inc. is estimated to be roughly 166 million throughout the world. The most peculiar thing about x computers Inc is the fact that its customers are lifetime. This is because of the security offered by the company. The company also has a chain of suppliers who are committed to ensuring a quality job for the company. The suppliers are people who understand the dynamic changes in the market and those who have high-quality skills.
Music Industry
The X computers Inc. has its music industry known as the cloud. The iCloud is a music download and streaming applications that allow phone users to get their favourite music direct on their phones. Phone users need to pay for the use of the iCloud. This is done through the iTunes application. The iCloud enables members to sync their calendar, email, contacts, photos and documents. The iCloud also allows other third party applications to run on the phone. It allows playing of games on the phones, tablets and the Mac computers. X computers Inc. has used a lot of money in paying for the rights of the songs played on the iTunes and the icloud.this is estimated at $100 million.
As part of its stakeholders, x computers Inc. has been running with a number of managers Mr X being the chief executive officer. Some of the rivalry companies include Samsung, google, Microsoft, Dell and hawlett Packard (HP). The company has made several partnerships with IBM computers. Despite this competition, X computers Inc. has over the years maintained a closed ecosystem by creating both hardware and software programs. These products range from chipsets, tablets, personal computers popularly known as Macintosh computers, iPhones, iPods, application software such as ITunes, iWeb and iPhoto. It has also invested in iCloud that is an internet storage media. About 89% of raw materials used by apple are imported from Asia, with china being the leading and only 10% from the motherland, North America. It is because of this reason that the company has been very competitive over the other computer companies.
Suppliers
X computers Inc. relies on external suppliers because there is cheap labor especially in china with the raw materials going at a cheap price. It has about 748 suppliers. These materials are then assembled to make the products. Apple uses several distribution strategies. This includes using of the App stores on the iPhones that links consumers to Macintosh computers and big cities that host the selling malls. They also use websites for advertisement.
X computers inc. Has moved away from smaller outlets to national outlets in the sale of its products. The products are placed where they are fully displayed. To achieve this, the company usually contracts with major suppliers on the market i.e. Microsoft and Intel. They also support education by offering free computers to schools and also making network connections. This is used as a marketing strategy.
Some of the strengths depicted by X computers Inc is its large network of loyal customers. These depict the company as producing high-quality products, its innovative skills which are usually done in-house and with a lot of confidentiality, having large profits, many retail outlets and a good marketing team. All this factors have kept X computers Inc. abreast of other competitors. A key factor however is its ability to produce both hardware and software parts for its products. This includes the IOS, Os X and iTunes to run on its iPad, iPhone and iPod. This uses UNIX that has a reputation of being stronger than windows.
Mr X leadership profile
Through the assistance of his parents, Mr X joined X computers Inc 1976; he was however dismissed in 1985, he came back to save the company from being bankrupt in 1997. Mr x died of cancer in 2011 having made the company the best in the production of computers, mp3 players, phones and tablets. His great innovative skills assisted him to transform several industries; computing, animations, music, phones, tablet computing, retail stores and digital publishing. Mr X is only compared to the great innovators of America like Henry Ford and Walt Disney.
Mr x has always remained instrumental the stakeholders. Through his leadership, several constituents were opened simply to create job opportunities for the people in the world. This was an incentive of motivation to his followers and customers in giving them an opportunity to be part of the company. He has opened outlets all over the world in which several suppliers are playing a key role in the marketing of the X computers Inc. Mr X has also assisted the community and society at large through the building of schools, hospitals and ensuring that his followers are kept abreast with the changing technologies. The company has a renown reputation of the making of quality products making it one of the most renown companies. Its products are durable and of high quality. This gives X computers Inc. an edge over the other companies.
Mr X has also assisted those who wish to join the x computers developers program which is aimed at coming up with softwares and allowing members to develop their software and subject them for approval. Through this forum, workshops are convened to assist the members keep up to date with the recent technological advancements and therefore learning the needs of his supporters.This is instrumental in getting more customers as through such forums; the company can learn the needs of the people and thus coming up with products that are up to date and which work more efficiently.
Mr. X Management Abilities
Mr X demonstrated his management abilities at a time when X computers Inc was at the verge of being declared bankrupt. The company was initially manufacturing and developing computers and computer softwares but through the management abilities of Mr. X, the company was transformed from a computer manufacturing company to the phone, tablet and mp3 players company. Mr. X had a more socialized power in which he was pushing for a higher goals and creating an empowerment arena to his workers, customers and followers. He transformed the company from being a personal computer manufacturing company to a noncomputer manufacturing company. From this time onwards, apple came to be known more like a mobile device manufacturing company. Its name was changed from X computers to X Inc. this changed the whole perception about the company. Despite leading giants in the mobile sector like Nokia, Blackberry and Samsung posing a threat to the company, through the management skills of Mr. x the company was revived and transformed.
The switch from a computer manufacturing company to a mobile and computer manufacturing company saw a tremendous improvement in the number of workers being hired to the company across the world. Today, the iPhone, the iPod and the iPad have continued to dominate the market. There has been a high preference of this commodities because of their quality and the marketing skills employed by the company. The organization has founded an extensive distribution network across the world. Mr. X also ensured that this product could run on the operating systems which are only identical to this product. Unlike their opponents like Samsung, who use the android OS which is free, the X Inc products run on the platforms like the x, the Ios and the mac os. This platforms are established and can only run programs and softwares which are only established by the x computer company. Mr x grew up in san Fransisco in the 1960’s, and he used this experience. He had travelled widely, and he used this experience in designing of the x computer products that make them unique and successful. Mr x used to criticize other computer companies for lack of experience and innovation used. He used to refer to them oftenly as lacking the necessary solutions to the problems that face the computer industry today.
Mr x was pronounced to be cancer infected which was a real test of his career as the Chief executive officer of the x computers Inc..This however did not make him lose his focus on developing this product. Mr. x feared death so much, but what he was worried the most is dying with shame and embarrassment because of failure. It is this time that indeed the X computers Inc. made the biggest achievements in the mobile and computer sectors by launching what was referred to as the biggest products ever of the 21st century. Mr x believed that a little energy he was remaining with could only be put to good use by developing products. It was at this time around the early 2000’s that the launch of the iTunes was done which came the most popular and successful music trailer in America and the world at large.
The iPod that is a music player and the iPhone which are very known gadgets from x computers Inc ware also launched at this period when Mr x was ailing. This electronics still remain instrumental today. At the time of the launch of this products, the X computers Inc made the highest profits at a time when people expected that the company was dying. This was also a period when Microsoft was planning to launch window eight which was deemed as a threat to the company. Windows 8 was to run on both phones and computers. Some companies like Nokia had already made a partnership with Microsoft to use the operating system on their phones. X computers Inc. would only retain its inhouse made Ios on its phones. The marketing strategy by Mr x saved the company from collapse as the company intensified its outlets all over the world. The way in which the iPhone was made gave an upper hand to the corporation over the others in the industry as it was deemed the best in terms of security and streaming of music. Some other features include the iTunes was unique and the iCloud. Other companies like google and Samsung were later to copy this features that led to a series of court battles between Samsung and x computers Inc.
Mr. X Leadership Abilities
Focus
Mr X was a focused leader. His leadership is depicted from his ability of producing different versions of the computers they were producing known as the Macintosh. He always had the ambition of making the products better than before and making people want to buy more and more of this products. Mr X always told his workers that he only needed to concentrate on making four great ‘products. He always believed that deciding not to do something was as good as doing something. And he was right, all the products made by the company ended up being great. He always divided the products into two columns; the desktop and the portable devices. Mr X always consulted his workers and developers before engaging in the design of any product. At the end of every year, he would motivate his to 100 workers by taking them on a picnic. After that, Mr x would then as usual stand in front of a white board and call for the suggestion from his workers as to what should be done next.After consideration of all suggestions, Mr x would only remain with three products that he deemed fit to pursue and abandoned the rest. The greatest ability he had as a leader was the power to settle on few priorities and pursue then to the best leading to making of great products. Mr. Page, the director of google which was a rivaled company of the x computers Inc and which Mr x had always cofounded came for advise from. Mr x would put aside his business interests and advise accordingly. He always told me page that he needed not produce many adequate products like Microsoft inorder to be successful, but rather to focus on few priorities and pursue them to the greatest level possible. His belief was that if products are of excellent quality, then customers would be much attracted to purchasing it unlike if int is available in large quantities but of poor quality. Page, therefore, chose to concentrate on Google + and android which have been very competitive on the market.
Simplicity
Another character that makes Mr. X a successful leader is his demeanor of simplicity.he always made hard tasks simple by doing away with the unnecessary things. He always referred to Microsoft products as being too complex and therefore had a desire of coming up with applications which are easier to handle and which are user-friendly. He learnt this art of simplicity at Atari college. This was further nurtured through the many conferences he attended all over the world. Mr x wanted a simple user interface for his products he demonstrated this when he landed on making a one button mouse. He wanted a design from Dean Hovey; that will only cost him $ 15. This is unlike the three button mouse at Xerox, which would have costed him $30. He always admired making products that would seem too simple, but provide elegant solutions. Mr x however understood that coming up with something simple needed a lot of input in terms of going deeper into assessing the use of each part. This is expensive especially when the research is conducted, but the end product would end being saleable because it is user-friendly. During the making of the iPod and the iDvd, Mr. X insisted that he only needed a product with three buttons. He even never saw the importance of the power button as it was irrelevant. With the IDvd, Mr x only wanted one box for dragging of all items necessary for burning of a disk that would make it more simple than any other product. Through his efforts of achieving simplicity, he came up with a portable music player known as the iPod and a portable computer known as the iPad. At this time, the making of a simple smartphone known as the iPhone was to be his next project.
Ability to integrate software and hardware
The other aspect that makes Mr. X a more great leader is his ability to integrate both the hardware and software into one station. Mr X through his art of simplicity, wanted a product that would have all components, both hardware and software made from the same company and run on the same products alone. He achieved this by coming up with the Ios which would then be the operating system that would run on the iPhone, the Mac os that would run on the Macintosh computers and the iTunes that would run on the iPod. All these products composing of both hardware and software are made from the same place. To this end Mr x achieved as a leader.
Focus on quality of products and not profits
Mr x also learnt that in order to have a successful career in business, one needed to focus on the products and not the profits. This is evident from the quality of the products he made and which he has always been in control of the prices because the products are marketable by themselves. When Mr x first made the first computer known as the Macintosh in 1980 his focus was making it of great value than just getting quick money. Upon the exit of Mr x from the company, john sculley the former director took over the x computers Inc. He had the mentality of profit maximization that ended up in the decline of the sales threatening the collapse of the company. The company was later cured upon reinstating of Mr x as the CEO of the x computers Inc. when he was reinstated he developed the iPhone, the iPod and the PowerBook. Mr x referred always to john sculley as a person who represented the ‘sales guys’ and who never cared about the quality of the products but how much money they were to earn from the products. He always believed that no matter the position one is, he must deliberate with his workers before making decisions as several people have varied opinions that are to the interest of the company. It is indeed because of this reason that Mr x would always prefer getting suggestions from his workers before developing any products and making sales of the product.
Mr X would have developed his leadership ability well if he were able to develop his processor. This has been the hardest problem Mr. X had to fight. The company still relies on processors made by other companies despite their intention of having both the hardware and software made from the same place.
Some of the behaviours that made Mr x successful as the chief executive officer of x computers Inc. is his ability to preserve secrecy during the development of the softwares.The softwares were to run on his products. The engineering was being done under great secrecy so that other computer companies would not copy the product before the company releases it. The secrecy has always worked to the benefit of the company except a few cases of copyright infringement witnessed with some companies like Samsung.
Another behavior that makes Mr. X more successful is his ability to simplify tasks and stay focused on the few he has chosen to pursue. He is also a team leader and before indulging in any decision, he always consulted all his workers and developers. The consultation depicts him as a leader who believes in all his workers and gives them a chance to participate in his leadership. The workers feel motivated, and the results are evident. Every time Mr. X Embarked on a journey of coming up with a product it turned out to be great. The above skills also imply that Mr. X is a very good listener. Instead of orders coming vertically from the management, he believed in the horizontal structure of leadership whereby everyone's view counts so long as its ambitious and likely to give rise to a great product. Mr x is also a man who believes in quality and money. For him, any quality product would market itself and in return maximization of profits would com on the way.
Leadership Theories applicable to Mr. X
Transactional theory
Some of the leadership theories that apply to Mr. X is the transactional and transformative theories of leadership. Under transactional leadership, contact with other persons and stakeholders is made in order to get an exchange of something valued. Under this leadership, norms are specified so that in the event that they are broken by employees, then there are consequences to follow in terms of punishment. These norms ensure that all workers participate in the management of the organization. Under this leadership, a leader is not supposed to motivate beyond that which is specified in the norms. The leadership style seems to be employed by Mr. X because he gives a free audience to his workers and followers. Those who go against the secrecy policies and those who do not want to work hard do no have any role in the organization.
Transformational theory
Another type of leadership style depicted from Mr x’s leadership is the transformational leadership. Under this kind of leadership, the transformational leaders, create an avenue for the creation of knowledge, sharing, etc. they intimidate the workers by the use of their strength and mental abilities. Mr x seems to depict some aspects of this kind of leadership. Mr x was a person with charisma. He was being described as the heart and soul of the x computers Inc. he always ensured that all the operations went according to his wishes. Whatever he deemed right. He had a strong vision and always saw a future in every product he made, and that’s why he always aimed at nothing but greatness. He always inspired and motivated his workers by taking the best performers on a picnic. Mr x was very temperamental and transferred this temper to his workers unnecessarily. Having considered the above. Therefore, we find that indeed m r x was a transformational leader.
Mr. X leadership style
The kind of leadership style being advocated by Mr x was on of a revolutionist. He always believed in changing the computer industry in a way that other companies have never done before. Mr x ran the x computers Inc without compromising.He never believed in consensus. He always threatened his employees and would even sometimes end up crying in the public. Mr x would not compromise with the quality of the products made by the company. It, therefore, made him to be too strict on his employees.
As part of his strengths, Mr. x was too visionary as he always believed in the future of the products made. He believed in confidentiality and more particularly he was very focused. This adds up to him as his strengths. His weaknesses are; he has a lot of tempers that affect his employees, he was too much egocentric and he believed in perfection something that other employees woul.d not withstand.
Legal Issues engaged by Mr. X
M r x was engaged in several court battles with Samsung on what he termed as a breach of his copyright. It has also been engaged in court battles for patent infringement against Microsoft. X computers Inc. claimed that use of a visual graphic interface by Microsoft and Hawlett Packard (hp) similar to that used by the macintosh was an infringement of the companies copyright. The court however declined to give the orders. X computers also sued Samsung electronics over the copying of its smartphone and tablet designs. There have been more than 50 lawsuits between the two companies. X computers Inc won the cases in the united states, but the courts in south Korea ruled in favor of Samsung. Mr X has stayed focused on pursuing this cases by what he terms as the preservation of originality and innovation.
Conclusion
From the above discourse, it is plausible to conclude that Some of the strengths depicted by X computers Inc are attributed to its large network of loyal customers. This depicts the company as producing high-quality products, its innovative skills which are usually done in house and with a lot of confidentiality, having large profits, many retail outlets and a good marketing team. All this factors have kept x computers Inc. abreast of other competitors. A key factor however is its ability to produce both hardware and software parts for its products. This includes the IOS, Os X and iTunes to run on its iPad, iPhone and iPod. This uses UNIX that has a reputation of being stronger than windows.
The weaknesses shown by Apple products is their inability to run on operating systems made by other manufacturers such as Android that is used by majority of smartphones. The prices are stringent, less patent protection of its products, changes in leadership and the defective nature of its new brands such as IT and Mac Mini.
In general, however, the strengths outweigh the weaknesses as there is a strong market for apple products due to its good reputation. Further, their research skills, innovation and partnership with other firms has made it more competitive.
To address this weakness, Apple Inc. Should look for other processor manufacturers apart from Samsung, which is its direct competitor, due to the booming business of smartphones and tablets. It should increase its outlets, maximize on filing suits for patent infringement so as to spoil the reputation of its customers and earn revenue from the same. Mr x would however stand as a strong instrument in solving these weaknesses. I will, therefore, analyse each of the following weaknesses with the possible solution that will enable the company to move to greater heights in terms of profit maximization and quality of products.
Recommendations
Even though Mr x was a very visionary person, he was too rough on his workers. For his leadership to be termed as being excellent. Therefore, he must try and improve on this because its likely to be a source of conflict within the organization.
Mr x always felt happy and rejoiced about ideas that were not his. He would dismiss those ideas he deemed not to suit him and boast about those that were great when in actual sense they were not his ideas. For his leadership to be good therefore, he should learn how to appreciate his employees when they have done something great and also learn how to deal with them in a smooth way even when he feels their ideas are not satisfactory. Such kind of behavior makes the employees feel so much undermined, and it, therefore, affects their working relations with the leader.
Mr x is too much impatient and always after perfection and fame. He likes domineering and instilling a culture of fear amongst the employees. He does not care about the dignity of his workers. He is also too much manipulative .Arrogant and too bright leaders are usually manipulative of their workers as they can beat them in terms of the reasoning and pursue their agenda. Doing something with a bit of perfection is not but doing something in extreme perctionism is likely to indimidate the staff. Impatience also takes away good ideas. Good ideas will get lost simply because the workers, and the software developers were never given an audience to channel their views to their leader. If Mr x would have been so much listening then x computers would have been the best company in computers forever. The leader should, therefore, cut on his impatience and arrogance and be more accommodative to his employee's views.
Mr x should not display himself as a model of a boss.He should neither think that he is a tool of emulation by all workers .he should not treat those around him with fury as a sign of intimidating them but should rather be more accommodative and listen to what his employees tell him as being right or wrong. Mr. x is fond of firing employees because of petty reasons. This reasons then end up ruining the good business relationship already established. This even leads to the resignation of very influential people within the company. Mr x should, therefore, be accommodative and listen to his employees before terminating their jobs as he is not a model of perfection.
As a leader, Mr x produced Apple iPod Nano, which was later on to be identified as having a faulty scree. The company however said that some of the screens of these products break under impact and that the company was taking the initiative to replace all those people who fell victims. This shows some negligence on behalf of the company that should be avoided by all means. There were already some reported cases of faulty batteries. The company had to incur expenses replacing the batteries. The company under the leadership of Mr. X should try as much as possible to avoid cases of negligence that affect their clients negatively.
Apple had also declared its move from eradicating the IBM chipsets and in return use the intel processors. This is likely to jeopardize the customers as they will be confused about the Products. Most consumers are used to the IBM chipsets and there need to be a sufficient communication and reasons as why they should move from IBM to intel. Mr x should, therefore, try as much as possible to include all stakeholders in making such decision.
Despite this challenges, the x computers Inc. has done excellently under the leadership of Mr x. He needs to put into consideration the above recommendations to make the products of good quality inorder to maintain the market dominance.
