How Apple Incorporation Can Improve Its Knowledge Management - Case Study Example

Knowledge Management Assignment Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutot’s Name 01st April 2013 Executive Summary Knowledge management is the ability to coordinate the way an organization’s resources are used. Resources can be in the form of people, technology, capital, processes, framework/ structure, globalization and leadership. Apple Incorporation was incorporated in 1977. It is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of personal computers, softwares and digital music players. Some of its products are iPhone, iPod and IPad. Apple is the leading manufacturer of revolutionary iPhone and App Store. The company also sells personal computers, networking solutions and digital contents. Apple sells its products through retail stores, retailers, wholesalers and online stores. One of the applications that it has acquired is WiFiSlam, a startup of Silicon Valley. Apple uses this application to map smart phone applications. Some of Apple’s board of directors are Arthur D. Levinson and the late Steve Jobs. By engaging in computer appliances and softwares, Apple has managed to remain on top of its competitors such as IBM and Samsung. The company has managed to remain this level of competitiveness by implementing strong leadership skills and company culture. The aim of this paper is to identify how Apple Incorporation can improve its knowledge management. In order to achieve this goal, first, the paper has identified the cultural aspect of knowledge management that needs improvement. Secondly, the paper has also identified and explained the technological gap that needs to be repaired. Thirdly, the paper has identified the organizational structure and design that needs to be changed in order to improve knowledge management. Fourth, the paper has identified the lapses that Apple has in motivating the human resource factor. By implementing these factors, Apple plans to achieve improved production of unique product designs. Lastly, the paper has come up with policies to govern knowledge in Apple Incorporation. These are based on the knowledge management issues that have been raised in the paper. Information necessary to achieve these objectives was obtained from internet sites including the company’s website. Knowledge Management Strategy The first element of knowledge management strategies that Apple needs to adopt is improved corporate culture. The company needs to improve its corporate culture by adopting a bottom-up model of product innovation. Currently, ideas meant to promote its unique designs are generated from top to bottom. For example, Steve Jobs, the former CEO was very interested in managing innovations. Therefore, he reviewed daily progress of Apple’s leading innovations in no less than six markets. Additionally, he personally directed some of the major markets that the firm should pursue. This has made some people to resign because they feel that their ideas are not being appreciated. For example, Mark Papermaster, the former Senior Vice President of Apple was very innovative but it is claimed that he resigned after the company failed to appreciate his contribution to product innovation. Failure to appreciate contribution by junior level employees can reduce employees’ motivation and some of the company can end up losing very influential and productive staff. As a result, a company can lose very innovative employees to competitors. In order to manage and retain innovative employees like Mark Papermaster, Apple needs to adopt a culture that appreciates contribution from both senior and junior employees. Therefore, innovative ideas should not only come from the CEO but also from other employees at the lower levels. This kind of approach brings richer and more stable results in the long-run. When authority is coming from one person, many errors can be made. For example, Steve Jobs had various shortfalls which led to ejection of people like Lisa and Newton from the company. It is also important to accommodate internal as well as external ideas during innovation. Therefore, Apple should encourage its employees to contribute their ideas towards innovation of its products. This would reduce cases of employees selling their ideas and knowledge to the company’s competitors (Case Analysis of Apple Incorporation, 2013). The second element of knowledge management strategies that Apple needs to improve is technology. The company has narrowed its goals and projects too much such that it does not know much about other innovations. For example, the company has been specializing in production of personal computers and mobile phone handsets. Majority of the mobile handsets are in the category of Iphone and Ipads. This has made their innovation very predictable. Therefore, companies such as Samsung have been copying Samsung’s old technology and they have used it to develop cheaper handsets. In order for Apple to resolve issues of theft of patent rights, it needs to diversify its technological approach. Therefore, the company needs to develop more diverse and unique products. This will make it more difficult for other companies to copy Apple’s products. Additionally, the company should compensate the most innovative employees well. This would reduce the chances of the company’s technological power being sold to the company’s competitors. For example, the company should have made more efforts to retain the former Vice President, Mark Papermaster. He was known to be very innovative and his technological contribution was well recognized. The loss of such talent is a major challenge to Apple. Additionally, Apple needs to develop a more advanced artificial intelligence platform that is beyond its Siri interface. This is because Siri interface is believed to be obtaining its technology from Nuance Communications. Therefore, Siri is not giving Apple any competitive advantage. Use of Siri has limited Apple’s innovation because it currently produces interfaces and devices only. On the other hand, competing companies such as Facebook and IBM are mainly investing in systems that integrate language with Big Data. In order to develop high quality products and to continue meeting consumer needs Apple needs to employ an artificial intelligence platform. Such a move is important to keep the company competitive for the next 3 to 5 years without getting faced out of the market. Nuance Communications provides Siri with technology. However, the founder of Nuance, Ray Kurzwell currently became Director of Engineering in Google. This means that Google is in a position to acquire the same technology that Apple is receiving. In order to rectify the situation, Apple, should look for an alternative communications technology provider in order to reduce breach of information that Apple tries to keep as a secret (Satell 2013). Apple also needs to become more globalised in its operations. At the moment, Apple has a narrow definition of its technological development which has made it hard to use majority of its cash flow to develop more innovative products. The company has been hoarding a lot of cash because it has little technological innovations. Unlike Microsoft which has expanded its operations in Asia, and Nokia which has many of its operations based in Africa, Apple’s operations are still narrow. Therefore, the company needs to increase its technological operations and innovations and make them more global. Apple needs to develop a new approach which will enable it to take advantage of the numerous opportunities in the rest of the world. For example, the company needs a 20-year vision showing how it will solve its globalization problems and make more money. Additionally, the company needs to have balanced development by developing10-30 year goals. This move would increase its production capacity given that the company still has $1 trillion of unutilized funds. Apple also needs to innovate more diversified products than what it produces currently. Such a move is essential for it to become globalised. The market has been growing and there has been growing need for unique and differentiated products (Shaughnessy 2013). Apple’s leadership has also come under scrutiny. Majority of the people feel that the company has top-down leadership methodology. This has made the company to develop and launch failed projects. For example, Steve Jobs, the former CEO had overseen the development of the Cube in 2000 and iMovie in 2008. These two products failed and consumers blamed the leadership on the failure. The top to bottom kind of leadership means that little market research was done before launching the products. Additionally, iPad 4 was launched only six months after iPad 3 was launched. However, only a few changes had been made to iPad 4. This move annoyed the consumers of iPad 3 which made them to undermine the company’s reputation. This means that there is little consultation in Apple between the senior and the junior employees. For the company to continue enjoying the trust that people have placed in it, it needs to incorporate integration in its leadership. This would enable criticisms to arise from within and to produce more user-friendly products. Additionally, consultations between the company’s leaders and the junior staff can reduce rivalry. Steve Jobs, the company’s former CEO was known to have a temperamental management style. Therefore, he would be strict on the employees while at the same time he would praise them. He was a perfectionist that paid close attention to details. This leadership style made some of the subordinates crazy due to Jobs’ constant demands and uncompromising attitude. Apple can rectify this kind of leadership by offering the employees a chance to bring in their own development ideas. This would be in line with McGregor’s Theory Y which encourages employees to take part in the design process. Such a move would improve the employees’ creativity. When employees are given the opportunity to take part in the design process, then Apple can develop more user friendly and unique products. Additionally, Steve Jobs should drop his Theory X attitude of screaming and shouting at workers. This is because the company has one of the most learned and motivated employees in the world. If this kind of attitude is dropped employees would be less fearful when they attempt to develop new designs. Additionally, such a move would increase the level of innovation in the company (Apple Incorporated, 2013). Apple Incorporation also needs to improve its relationship with the human resource. This means that it needs to come up with better ways of developing and training its employees. For example, Steve Jobs was known for being very strict on the employees as well as his demands for high quality products. This kind of pressure can demotivate employees especially if they are not rewarded accordingly. Therefore, he was known to be very temperamental which made him to scream and shout at the employees. Therefore, Apple should develop and implement McGregor’sTheory Y in the human resource department. This would help to improve the company’s level of motivation. On the other hand, the company leaders should come up with employee motivation factors. These can be design competition events which can encourage employees to be more creative (Apple Inc: Areas Where Improvement Could Be Made, 2013). Apple Incorporation allows its employees to wear casual wear to the office. This means that the company respects people’s cultural identity. However, if some clothes are too casual for the office then they can create conflict between employees and the management. Additionally, some forms of dressing can be too informal for the customers. Therefore, the company’s management should come up with less formal and more official dressing codes. This can increase the level of respect among the employees as well as the customers. Apple also needs to improve its training and development aspect. Training Needs Analysis are already found within the organization. However, the company needs to design more effective and simpler methods of employee training and development. The Training and Development Program should also be dependent on the training issues that are affecting the company. Before recruiting new employees, Apple Incorporation needs to employ task, organizations and personal analysis. Task analysis involves identification of important skills that need to be emphasized as employees complete their tasks. Organizational analysis refers to determination of the correct training given the company’s business strategy and the resources available. Personal analysis involves identification of employee training needs and skill deficiencies. These analyses can help Apple Incorporation to develop more effective recruitment drives (Crow 2012). Apple Incorporation also needs to improve its framework or organizational structure. Currently, the organizational structure is divisional in nature. This means that people that work on the same products attend to similar customers and they are also located in the same region. Some of the company’s operating segments are the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and Japan. Although this type of design and approach to management enables the organization to achieve its mission and goals, it still needs improvement. For example, Apple can re-strategize its processes in order to develop new methods of carrying out organizational roles. If the company changes its organizational framework it would benefit from increased economies of scale and reduced costs due to reduced duplication of resources and efforts (Apple Inc: Areas Where Improvement Could Be Made 2013). Policy on Knowledge Leakage One of the current and topical issues facing all organisations is “knowledge leakage. There are a number of ways that information can be leaked: One of them is through accidental disclosures through local copies of documents being lost on storage devices or when staff members accidently disclose information via social media. In order to reduce such incidences, companies should establish neat means of transporting documents for archiving purposes. Additionally, companies should have records of the persons that are responsible for storing the documents. This would increase accountability and employees would become more carefully with such information. Additionally, companies can introduce trade secrets. This refers to information that is exempt from being published or revealed to the public under the federal freedom of information statutes. Trade secrets such as the formula used by CocaCola are prohibited by the court from getting revealed. However, even though some former employees may try to sell the formula, they are bound by the trade secret that has been established by the court. A company’s information can also be protected from disclosure through a government agency. This channel is used if the information is considered to be confidential to the company. Although it might not be easy to determine if the information that has been leaked is confidential, the state and federal courts have records of addressing such issues. For example, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has provisions against disclosure of information that companies consider as confidential. Knowledge leakage can also occur when companies are acquiring contractual services. For example, pricing information can be considered as confidential. Therefore, companies that do not want to reveal their pricing information when they are bidding for contracts should not be penalized. For example, in January 2002 the Canadian Commercial Corporation failed to disclose its pricing when it was bidding for a contract with the Department of the Air Force. The corporation considered pricing information as confidential despite a court case that was filed by Sabreliner Corporation whose bid was rejected. Company employees should also be responsible for the confidential information they reveal. For example, companies can establish policies that prohibit employees from publishing information to unauthorized parties. This would reduce information leakage over social media (David & Scott 2013). Human related disclosure e g. when an individual leaves an organisation and works for a competitor Companies can protect former employees from disclosing information by categorizing the information as confidential under the federal or state courts. Additionally, the company can also categorize the information as secret in its policies. This means that every employee is prohibited from informing other companies about a particular product or manufacturing process. For example, IBM faces this challenge when employees like Mark Papermaster leave the company. The former Vice President was known to be very innovative. However, Apple expected him to bring knowledge from his former employer. In order for IBM to protect some of its information being accessed by its competitors it can establish the information as confidential or secretive under the state or federal court. The company can register its operations under FOI. This would reduce the privilege or authority that former employees have over disclosure of company information. This would mean that Mark Papermaster would not in a position to use the knowledge acquired from IBM in Apple (Web Security, Usability and Design.2013). Company policies can also restrict and govern information that is disclosed to outsiders. Professionals such as accountants are bound by the oth of office whereby they are expected to behave with utmost honesty and integrity. Knowledge of such principles can reduce the chances of employees revealing company information to competitors. This means that companies can use professional ethics as a means of restricting former employees from revealing confidential company information. Companies in the same sector such as insurance can also establish policies that protect them from damages caused information leakage (Keing 2008). Deliberate disclosure of information e.g. corporate information being disclosed on third party sites, such as Wikileaks Wikileaks is one of the platforms used to reveal corporate information that is considered as confidential. In order to reduce cases of bloggers and hackers accessing and publishing confidential company information legal steps can be taken, For example, Apple did not disclose the reason why Mark Papermaster left the organization. Being the former Vice President, his reasons were kept secret and the only information available is speculation and rumors. In order to protect this information from spreading to the public, Apple needs to establish strong technology that is free from hackers. This is because some of the information available to Wikileaks is acquired by hacking company’s websites. Although such information may not be considered as legally confidential, the company has the right to establish policies prohibiting its publication. Companies can also block employees from accessing some social sites during official working hours. This would reduce temptation to reveal unnecessary information to the public. For example, when employees get frustrated, they tend to share their frustration with their friends. This can happen over face book or twitter among other social sites. However, if companies have provided restricted access rights, employees would have minimum channels to use to reveal company information. Companies can also come up with laws restricting any information from being published over Wikileaks. Such a move would reduce instances of company information being published unknowingly. Alternatively, state and federal courts can issue a ruling on the kind of information that Wikileaks can publish. This would mean that the government assigns information regulators to determine the kind of information that can be published over Wikileaks. This kind of regulation can reduce the amount and details of company information that is revealed to the public. Additionally, companies that belong to the same sector can be able to monitor information leakage and information their counterparts in order to reduce unnecessary damages (Avoiding Information Leakage in Security-Policy-Aware Planning 2008). Summary The paper has identified and analysed factors of knowledge management that Apple needs to make improvements on. One of the factors is the cultural aspect. The company needs to adopt a bottom-up corporate culture. This would help to encourage junior employees to take part in the design and production process. Such a move would also help the company to know the consumer needs because majority of the junior employees are able to liase and interact with the customers and they get to know market demands much easily. Additionally, the paper has analyzed the technological factor. Under this section Apple should take up more effective factors to protect the rights it has towards its designs. This would reduce the cases of theft of patent rights by companies such Samsung. Additionally, the paper has analyzed the people or human resource factor in Apple. Under this section, the company should appreciate and motivate its employees more frequently. Therefore, the company’s management should adopt McGregor’s Theory X which encourages employee invention and creativity. This should be contrary to the current Theory Y which discourages employee motivation. The company’s divisional design should be changed in order to achieve increased economies of scale as well as reduced operational costs. Therefore, Apple should adopt and implement a better organizational structure. Finally, the paper has outlined the policies that should be put in place in order to reduce knowledge leakage. The policies are determined by the knowledge management gaps that are currently in place. Therefore, the people, technological, cultural and organizational factors affecting Apple should form part of the policy. This would prohibit the employees from accessing and revealing confidential company information to the public and the competitors. References Apple Inc: Areas Where Improvement Could Be Made 2013, viewed 03 April 2013, . Apple Incorporated, viewed 05 April 2013, . Avoiding Information Leakage in Security-Policy-Aware Planning, viewed 05 April 2013, . Case Analysis of Apple Incorporation, viewed 05 April 2013, . Crow, D 2012, We've passed peak Apple: it's all downhill from here, viewed 05 April 2013, . David, C & Scott, V 2013, Protecting Your Company’s Trade Secrets and Confidential Information in Government Contracting, viewed 03 April 2013, . Keing, C 2008, Tips In Preventing Information Leakage, viewed 05 April 2013, . Satell, G 2013, The Rise of Artificial Intelligence Could Lead to Apple’s Downfall, viewed 03 April 2013, . Shaughnessy, H 2013, Solving Apple’s Innovation Problem, viewed 03 April 2013, . Web Security, Usability and Design, viewed 05 April 2013, . Read More