Organisation of Apple and Dell

Apple after Organizational Change

• In 1997, Apple’s profit continues to decline, the Board of Directors suggested Jobs take control of the company again.
• Jobs put the organizing skills he had subsequently developed as the founder of other companies such as NeXT Computers and Pixar to good use.
• Understanding what a company needs is a clear hierarchy of authority and task responsibilities, he energized and motivated employees to develop the next generation of Apple computers that allow the company to survive.
• He also established a clear structure of teams and team leadership to allow programmers to work together to develop the new computers and delegated considerable authority to these team leaders, but he also established strict timetable and challenging “stretch goals” for these teams to survive.
• Through this new method of organizing, Jobs revitalized Apple and started a new culture that sped product development.

Dell Computer Organization

• Michael Dell adopted a very different approach to manage his company, which he assumed the position as Chairman and developed a participative management approach, involved employees in decision making and fostered a spirit of comradeship and cooperation among team members to encourage top performance.
• This management style engendered intense loyalty from his employees who liked his hands-on approach and his close attention to managing the company. For example, Dell was careful to watch the team progress closely and he was very conscious of the need for control costs.
• As company grew, Dell recruit expert managers to help him manage his company, by hiring experienced executives from companies like EDS and IBM and decentralized control of its functional operations like production and marketing to them.
• Dell’s organizing approach fostered a different kind of company culture, where people cooperate to improve its performance by recognizing the manager’s expertise and his limitations.