I chose a different company this time because I spent a very long time looking for one for Adidas but nothing substantial was coming up.

1. APPLE AND DECISION
MAKING
BY: PAIGE HAMBURGER

2. ARTICLE OVERVIEW
➤ I picked a New York Times
article that focused on Tim
Cook and his management
style (specifically decision
making) since he took over
the late Steve Jobs’ position.
➤ THERE ARE LOTS OF
DECISIONS APPLE/TIM
COOK HAS TO MAKE.
THROUGHOUT THIS SLIDE
SHARE IM GOING TO BE
EVALUATING SOME OF THE
DECISIONS APPLE IS MAKIG
RIGHT NOW

3. ➤ OVERVIEW CONTINUED:
➤ SINCE COOK HAS TAKEN OVER, APPLE HAS A VALUE AND ARE
ENFORCING “ADVANCING HUMANITY” AND EXPANDING THE
BRAND.
➤ NOT EVERYONE IS CONVINCED THAT COOK IS BRINGING
FULL FORCE TO THE COMPANY IN REGARDS TO GROWTH.
THE ARTICLE MENTIONED THAT INVESTORS ARE NERVOUS
WHEN IT COMES TO APPLE AND ITS GROWTH IN THE
FUTURE.
➤ COOK IS UNDER A MICROSCOPE BECAUSE PEOPLE EXPECT
GREATNESS FROM APPLE. THERE IS A LOT OF PRESSURE AND
BIG SHOES FOR COOK TO FILL CONSIDERING STEVE JOBS
WAS THE GENIUS AND FACE BEHIND APPLE.

4. CONCEPTS
➤ Decision Making Process.
➤ Rational Decision making- One
thing Tim Cook is doing is
expanding into the Chinese
marketplace. This would be rational
as opposed to intuitive because
China is a huge marketplace so it
only makes perfect sense to sell
products and expand to a country
that has such a large population that
can afford to pay for these products.
Tim is also taking matters to the
Apple twitter account to help expand
the brand by openly supporting the
LGBTQ community,
environmentalism, and focusing on
sustainability within the company.

5. ➤ For these recent changes in apple the article implies that Tim
Cook is making a lot of these decisions considering it mentioned
that these changes are correlated to Cook’s personal views.
➤ One of the reasons I picked Apple to look at their decision
making process was because of the change in management. It is
always interesting to see how a company functions and makes
decisions after the biggest icon and influencer of that company
dies.
➤ Jonathan Ive, well known head of design at apple stated that
even though Cook has came into power he has not steered away
from the mission of the company which is innovation. Ive has
said that he doesn't feel like anything has changed.

6. “Mr. Jobs was Apple and Apple was
Jobs.
-Matt Richtel and Brian X. Chen

7. ➤ The fact that Jobs’ presence was so predominant in the Apple
brand brings a lot of challenges for Tim Cook. Anyone who
would have taken over for Jobs would face the same challenge.
➤ When it comes to decision making, Jobs had all these ideas
and visions and now it is in Cook’s hands to try and make
decisions that maybe Steve wouldn't have made to help keep
Apple one of the leaders of the industry.
➤ Even though Jobs was a genius there are some things he
necessarily wouldn't have done for the company that Cook
decided to do which greatly helped the corporation. (ex.
expanding their market to China)

8. ➤ It’s rare to see one person to be
associated with a company. Like
Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg
these icons are directly linked to
their companies/products.
➤ When it came to Jobs and decision
making, he was very involved. A
former engineer for apple said
when the iPhone was being
created, Jobs would check in with
the engineers weekly to make sure
his visions are coming to life.
➤ It is interesting to see the head
CEO of a company so involved on
a daily basis.

9. ➤ ''Steve established a set of values and he established
preoccupations and tones that are completely enduring,'' Mr.
Ive said.
➤ It’s great that Tim can take what Steve left behind and really
follow through with his vision.
➤ As for the lower level employees and their comments about
Cook, some said that he is a little bit less involved in the
developing process compared to Jobs.

10. SMALL GROUP AND THE APPLE WATCH
➤ One of Cook’s less hands on
projects was the Apple Watch.
➤ According to the New York
Times article Cook has handed
off a lot of the product
engineering duties to executive
member which includes
Jonathan Ive, the head designer
who I mentioned before.
➤ Clearly one person cannot make
all the decisions when it comes
to a product so referring to a
small group seems to be an
option that works well for Apple

11. SMALL GROUP AND OVERALL BRAND DEVELOPMENT
➤ Bono, lead singer of U2 became
very close with Jobs when they
partnered up for a couple different
projects.
➤ Mr. Cook is not saying ''I'm here to
replace him,'' said Bono, who is a
managing director and co-founder
of the venture capital firm
Elevation Partners. ''He's saying, 'I'll
try to replace him with five people.'
➤ This stuck out because it seems
that Cook is channeling outside
groups and influencers to help him
make decisions that are going to
benefit Apple to the fullest.

12. ➤ Cook is doing something that I find to be incredible. He is taking the most
experienced people from multiple different fields and bringing them all together to
make a powerful team. From a former head of Burberry to the former chief executive
at YSL to the former chief technology officer at Adobe. All of these different outlets
end up having an impact on the Apple brand.
➤ Collaboration is a big part of decision making. Bringing in these people add new and
fresh ideas to the company. Having someone from Burberry to focus on the
appearance of the stores and online presence is the perfect example of successful
collaboration.
➤ Even though these high up people come from fields that don't necessarily relate to
technology, their role is just as crucial as the engineers who produce the products
➤ Coming up with a design for a store or online website is more than just making it
pretty. There is a bunch of research that goes along with consumer buyer behaviors
and more. The need for collaboration is highly important considering an engineer
who works on the phone systems probably doesn't have the knowledge that the YSL
executive has.

13. WORKPLACE DEMOCRACY
➤ The meaning behind workplace
democracy is; based on humanistic
ideals about how individuals should be
treated and involved in society
➤ One of the first things mentioned in this
article was connecting to an experience that
Cook had when he was biking as a young
child.
➤ In his small town during the 70’s Cook
witnessed men in white cloaks and hoods
chanting racial profanities and burning
crosses.
➤ Ever since that day Cook’s outlook on life
was changed forever. Cook said “his new
awareness made him feel that no matter what
you do in life, human rights and dignity are
values that need to be acted upon. And then
came the segue: His company, Apple, is one
that believed deeply in ''advancing humanity.''

14. WORKPLACE DEMOCRACY CONTINUED
➤ Cook’s quote showed through when lower level employees
were asked about his new position.
➤ Although they said Cook’s involvement was less than Jobs’
they acknowledged and complimented Cook’s approachable
personality.
➤ In some companies having a relationship or even feeling
comfortable enough to speak to the head leader is
nonexistent. It speaks a lot about company as a whole when
employees are not scared to speak and pitch ideas higher level
management.

15. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
➤ Iverson and McPhee state two of these processed which are
Information-based knowledge management; concerned with tracking data
Interaction-based knowledge management; concerned with unspoken
knowledge and how interaction patterns facilitate the sharing of that information
➤ Apple uses both of these processes for two different reasons.
➤ Its critical that they use the information based management when
it comes to sales and future projections. Analyzing sales data helps
the company evaluate which products are thriving and what
could possibly be next
➤ If Apple didn’t use information based management they would be
missing out on a bunch of information that isn't expressed via
numbers. Getting customer feed back is an important example.
Apple has to focus on what customers are saying about their
products so then they can make decisions on how to adapt to
consumer needs.

16. POLITICS AND DECISIONS
➤ When it comes to any company
there are politics involved. The
companies values can push
reasons why a company picks to
do or not to do something.
➤ After reading multiple reviews
on glassdoor.com I discovered
that the only issue with Apple
and its decision making process
was it sometimes turned
political. Former and current
employees stated that
sometimes the decision making
process was slow because of the
political factors

17. NORMATIVE 5 STAGE MODEL
➤ From all of the information I have acquired from this New
York Times article, I can put two and two together that Apple
has a strong use for the Normative Model.
➤ I saw examples of each of the 5 steps.
➤ Apple is successful because of how cohesive it is. There are so
many moving parts to company from the engineers to the
product designers to the coders. Each section of Apple uses
this model when making decisions that range from choosing
the material for the next iPhone to designing the next store
front.

18. ➤ In the powerpoint I noticed it said this model isn't ideal but I disagree
for Apple.
➤ For this company specifically, it’s important this is implemented.
➤ A formulation stage is necessary to evaluate the consumers needs
➤ Concept development is important for the companies image
➤ Detailing process is necessary for Apple so they can find out how to
reach and appeal to as many people as possible.
➤ The evaluation process is super important not only to make sure Apple
is being cost effective but also to ensure that people are going to want
to buy whatever the product may be
➤ The implementation phase is important because campaigning plays a
large factor in the consumer decision making process.

19. QUESTIONS:
I’m curious as to how many people are specially in each section
of apple that makes decisions
How many people are on the design team (product design
and store design), how many are on the tech part?
I’m also curious as to how many decisions Tim Cook makes just
because he can?
Does he ever take advantage of his decision making power even
if people advise him to do otherwise?

20. RICHTEL, M., & CHEN, B. X. (2014, JUNE 15). MAKING APPLE
HIS OWN. NEW YORK TIMES, P. 1(L). RETRIEVED FROM
HTTP://GO.GALEGROUP.COM.EZPROXY.EMICH.EDU/PS/I.DO?
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