In 1985, Donna Dubinsky, a middle manager at Apple, issued an ultimatum for greater authority over distribution decisions, highlighting miscommunication and leadership issues within the company. A PESTLE analysis outlines competing factors, while a recommended solution suggests forming a task force under Dubinsky to address distribution challenges and foster a more balanced decision-making structure. The outcome aims to align Apple's operations more closely with its core values by decreasing political bias and enhancing collaboration between management and staff.

1. APPLE
COMPUTER
APPLE
COMPUTER

2. The Snapshot:
Executive
Summary
▫ In 1985, Donna Dubinsky, one of Apple’s middle managers in the area distribution,
presented an ultimatum to leadership. Either she would be given the power to make
distribution decisions, or she would leave.
▫ Decision is affected by socio-cultural and economic PESTLE factors within industry,
external forces from buyers and rivals, as well as Apple’s own strategy, structure, and
style within the organization
▫ The suggested, best alternative is one in which Dubinsky is allowed to assemble a task
force in order to solve the distribution dilemma on her own terms, and leadership would
revise and reinstate decision-making procedures in a way that blends top-down and
bottom-up input.2
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3. Economic
During a recession,
consumers less willing to buy
computers
“Computer manufacturers
experience reduced revenue
when retail computer prices
fail”
Computers buy more when
economy does well
Socio-cultural
Increase in demand for
affordable products for
affordable products,
computers becoming an
essential
household/personal product
Individuals’ favored styles for
their electronic devices
3
SITUATIONAL
ANALYSIS
PESTLE

4. SITUATIONAL
ANALYSIS
Industry (Five
Forces)
Strength of Rivalry
Growing price competition
from online retailers for
computer stores.
Saturation of tablets and
mobile devices in the market
Companies from other
countries are able to produce
computers at a much lower
price
4
Power of Buyers
Households with computers
expected to grow from 75.6% in
2011 to 91.3% in 2021
Computers are necessary in
educational and occupational
settings
Potential for growth within
specific niches (ex.corporations,
videogaming, music producing,
personal use)

5. 7S
FRAMEWORK
Strategy
Apple makes
products with a high
level of quality,
performance, and
value to earn
customer loyalty
“Achievement/
Aggressiveness” and
“Innovation/Vision”
values drive strategy
Structure
More centralized but
still matrix structure
Mix of functional,
product, and
geographic
organizations
Style
Clearer authority
guidelines help
managers spend
time with people/
projects that they
are meant to
Going back to
participatory/
bottom-up
decision-making
5

6. 6
The Task
Donna Dubinsky has leveled an ultimatum toward upper management
at Apple. This has exposed a great deal of miscommunication,
inconsistencies in decision-making, and contradictions in management
structure within the organization, making it clear that fostering focused
leadership actions must be the primary task. Apple must decide how to
address this ultimatum, the distribution method, and subsequently the
underlying problems that provoked Dubinsky’s dissent.

7. Why this task
has priority over
the others
7
● Improve team development- will benefit the situation to a
degree, but there is an underlying problem causing the tension
and divide within the task force.
● Personal leadership development - Some members of the
Apple team could benefit from personal leadership
development. The problem at hand concerns Donna Dubinsky
already has a well-formed sense of personal leadership. This
internal sense of leadership is part of what has led to this time
of friction between Dubinsky and upper management.
● Negotiation effectiveness - Again, although negotiation
effectiveness can always improve, one’s negotiation will not be
heard if the leadership is not open to listening to one’s input
● Focused leadership actions - Unfocused leadership action is
the underlying problem that has caused the current issue.The
decision to either accept or reject the conditions of Dubinsky’s
ultimatum, as well as subsequent decisions dealing with the
fallout of the first, will signal a clear direction for the way Apple
functions as a company.

8. Situational
Factors
Strengthen the
Core Task
8
● PESTLE- Socio-cultural- meets needs of the predominant mindset of
American workplace culture of not having questioned authority
● Industry (O/T)- In order for a business to produce its maximum
efficiency and innovation, a company needs the internal affairs to be in
order and functioning smoothly
● 7S- Structure staff and style are affected-
○ Traditional structure has always been bottom up. Upper
management is encroaching on that structure. The task will bring
the structure back to the company’s values
■ Politics and decision-making bias surrounding Steve Jobs
are leading to role ambiguity for management
○ Open and flexible style of trust with responsibility between middle
managers and their staff will be reinforced
○ Workers’ innovation and productivity are being suppressed by
overbearing management. Addressing the task will rebuild the
freedom to have responsibility, drive, and achievement again,
enforcing Apple’s traditional style.

9. Alternative
Solution 1
9
Accept Dubinsky’s letter of resignation, hire
someone who is more willing to follow Steve
Jobs’s lead, and essentially embrace the
subtle changes in Apple’s culture, switching it
completely from a bottom-up organization to
a top-down one.

10. Alternative
Solution 2
10
Let Dubinsky stay for the 30 days she
requested, give Dubinsky authority to
assemble and lead her own task force. During
this month, leadership will form committee to
restructure authority and decision-making
guidelines by rebuilding a balance of the
bottom-up and top down approaches to the
business and creating a long-term plan for
structural harmony, particularly addressing
company politics, and the presence of
confirmation bias among leadership.

11. Alternative
Solution 3
11
Accept Dubinsky’s letter of resignation,
embrace an outside hire who has no
experience with Apple politics, and form a
committee to rebuild Apple’s organizational
structure so as to bring the organization
closer to its original bottom-up approach.

12. Retain
employee
expert in
distribution
and sales
Subsidiarity
Adherence to
Apple’s stated
values
Addresses
structural
change
Steve Jobs
satisfaction
Alt. Solution 1:
Accept resignation,
embrace subtle changes in
culture
- - - - - + + + +
Alt. Solution 2:
Accept ultimatum, focused
leadership committee
implemented
+ + + + + + + - -
Alt. Solution 3:
Accept resignation, focused
leadership committee
implemented
- + + + + -
12

13. 13
The Recommendation | Alternative Two
Action: Give Donna and task force 30 days, form a committee of
both leadership figureheads (especially important to include
Steve Jobs) and regular employees and address these specific
topics working with Apple’s existing values to reconstruct them
Outcome: The committee puts a concrete plan for leadership
decision-making in place in order to return more fully to the
healthy balance of a bottom-up and top-down structure
consistent with Apple’s values along with decreasing politics and
decision making bias.

14. 14
The Recommendation | Alternative Two
30 days: Dubinsky
establishes task
force
Within 30 days:
Establish procedures
for company
decision-making
1 year: Implement first
few steps of procedural
changes, see progress
within the plan set in
place
2 months: Final contract
for procedural changes
written

15. 15
THANK YOU We are now
open for
questions

16. Appendix
PESTLE
▫ Political- The computer manufacturing company is importing more globally, however
politics can bring greater risk to the companies
▫ Economic
▫ In a recession, people are less willing to buy computers
▫ “Computer manufacturers experience reduced revenue when retail computer
prices fall”
▫ Corporations buy much more computing infrastructure when their profits and
the economy are doing well
▫ Socio-cultural
▫ Increase in demand for affordable products since computers are becoming an
essential household and personal product
▫ Individuals’ favored styles for their electronic devices
▫ Technological - constantly have to be innovative in the highly technological world
▫ Legal
▫ Government has a strong grip on computer industry due to laws and regulations
set in place concerning safety, namely privacy and data security and potential for
terrorist attacks
▫ If a crime is committed through the use of a computer device, potential for
computer company to be held liable for the crime
▫ Environmental - Regulations on pollution emissions from factories limit production
possibilities
16

17. Appendix
Industry Analysis
▫ Opportunities
▫ Households with computers expected to grow from
75.6% in 2011 to 91.3% in 2021
▫ Computers are necessary in educational and
occupational settings
▫ Potential for growth within specific niches
(ex.corporations, videogaming, music producing,
personal use)
▫ Threats
▫ Growing price competition from online retailers for
computer stores.
▫ Saturation of tablets and mobile devices in the market
▫ Companies from other countries are able to produce
computers at a much lower price
17

18. Appendix
7S Framework
▫ Strategy
▫ Apple makes its products with a level of quality, performance,
and value for its customers to earn respect and loyalty.
▫ Apple’s “Achievement/Aggressiveness” and
“Innovation/Vision” values drive their strategy. Apple is
committed to creating new and visionary products, while
holding itself as an organization to a standard of achievement
and continually setting high goals
▫ Structure
▫ Becoming more centralized but still a matrix
▫ “Mix of functional, product, and geographic
organizations”
▫ Functional: U.S. sales and marketing services,
Finance, Accessory Products
▫ Product: Apple II and the Macintosh (both include
product development and product marketing)
▫ Geographic: Europe and Rest of the World18

19. Appendix
7S Framework
(continued)
▫ Systems
▫ Constantly push for innovation and efficiency, do whatever it
takes such as changing the system in order to bring out the
most efficiency and innovation possible
▫ Teamwork is essential to Apple’s success.
▫ Staff
▫ Workers are empathetic and genuinely interested in solving
customer problems.
▫ Style
▫ Clearer authority guidelines helps the managers spend time
with people and projects that they are meant to
▫ Going back to participatory or bottom-up decision making
that has already been one of Apple’s values
▫ Achievement and aggressiveness- employees
▫ Skills
▫ Workers are innovative and provide new products that are
needed that is driven by a unique vision.
19

20. Appendix
Five forces
▫ Power of suppliers
▫ Apple is basically vertically integrated, minimizing the power of
suppliers
▫ Raw goods are probably the only powerful supplier
▫ Power of buyers
▫ Seasonal buying habits
▫ Price and quality sensitive, fluctuates with economy
▫ Threat of entry
▫ Low barriers to entry
▫ Standardized assembly
▫ Hard to be recognized--this makes threat of entry a weaker force on
Apple
▫ Threat of substitutes
▫ Not a super high threat of substitutes
▫ Substitute is to not own technology, which is becoming less and less
practical
▫ Intensity of rivalry
▫ High competition to the point that it impedes growth, especially from
foreign firms.
▫ Foreign firms can produces less expensively than American firms
20