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Time machine
Time machine
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Time machine
When one grows up, there is a wish to move out of the normal life and acquire extreme powers. A time machine is one of the fantasies that can satisfy this wish. This is because it entails endless capabilities of breaking the monotony of an ordinary life. This is a prospective idea of stretching out of the boredom that pertains to normal life. A time machine either uses its ability to move forward or move backward in fulfilling the nostalgia for the past and the wish for the future.
I would use a time machine to travel back to the ancient Greece. The ancient Greece was an interesting era that entailed the beginning of civilization. The energy of the era is a great subject for the current set of movies that move back in time to portray the given life. For instance, I would attend the gladiator fights to watch the magnificence of festival. The philosophers’ teachings would be a fascinating spectacle of watching the intelligence of men without the presence of technology (Brennan, 2001).
Employing a time machine to move back into childhood would accord the fulfillment of innocence (Hamilton, 2007). Childhood is full of play and innocent interaction with peers. I would stick close to childhood friends and share the tribulations of adult life. It would be fantastic to watch my younger parents and spend time with my friends who later died. This would be a moment of maximizing the living moment before witnessing the death of my friends.
A time machine is an interesting idea of moving back and forth in time. The time machine would enable a journey to the ancient Greece. Watching gladiator matches and listening to philosophical teachings would fulfill my fantasies of witnessing that great age. I would employ the machine to travel back to childhood and enjoy the pleasantries of playing with my friends. This suggests that I would easily avoid the tribulations and worries of an adult life by interacting with my friends who later died.
References
Brennan, J. H. (2001). Time travel: A new perspective. Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications.
Hamilton, J. (2007). Time travel. Edina, Minn: ABDO Pub. Co.
Tim Cook’s leadership analysis at Apple
Tim Cook’s leadership analysis at Apple
Introduction
Apple Inc. (AAPL) is an American high-tech company. It was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Gary Wozniak and Ronald Gerald Wayne on April 1, 1976, and named Apple Computer Inc., headquartered in Cupertino, California. The current CEO of Apple is Tim Cook taking over as CEO after the death of Steve Jobs. The aim of this study is to examine Tim Cook’s leadership style and discuss his role in the achievement of organizational objectives and dealing with challenges such as cross-culture, sustainability, CSR, gender pay gap and the impact of this leader within Apple. In order to supplement the gaps in the literature, this paper uses the transformational theory to discuss how Cook’s leadership style optimizes the talent of employees and how to pull into the relationship with employees. This research is more conducive to a comprehensive understanding of leadership style, the impact of leadership on organizations and leadership practices in organizations.
Part 1
1.1 Leadership Styles
Tim Cook’s leadership for Apple since 2011 has contributed positively towards its success. Cook is more methodical in his focus on finance. He is also regarded as socially capable compared to Jobs’s focused approach in design. Apple under Cook has a more relaxed work environment, but is equally demanding and detail-oriented. Huberty (2020) quotes financial data as proof of Cook’s success in his time as CEO, citing Apple’s market value having increased by nearly $140 billion. Of the different products sold over the years since Cook took over, Cook’s leadership oversaw the sale of more than 87 percent in sales (Huberty, 2020).
Cook believes diversity in leadership is important. Diversity is not just a consideration for HR departments. In fact, people with diverse backgrounds working together can generate innovative thinking, significantly increase a company’s bottom line, and transparency is the key to all doors (Cetin & Kinik, 2015). In the face of questions about apple’s working conditions and standards for its employees, Cook gave the world a look at how Apple people work, which not only raised Apple’s profile but also set an example for other manufacturers. Cook is also good at getting to know customers, spending time visiting Apple stores and reading emails from customers. This is an element of charismatic leadership that was not seen before at Apple. In the store, Cook creates emotional connections with his employees and customers, thereby boosting Apple’s image (Business school, 2013). His transformational style of leadership has led to better employee morale at Apple and considerable positive change in public image of the company.1.2 A Focus on Employees and Diversity
When it comes to the future of Apple, Cook has made it clear that he believes in the importance of diversity. Three women were appointed to the company’s management team, and the company declared a pledge to actively recruit people from underrepresented minorities. He started issuing an annual report on diversity and inclusion, which he continues to do today. Additionally, Apple has established Diversity Network Associations and collaborated with groups that support the advancement of women in the technology industry. There has been an increase in the amount of female-oriented Apple product releases (Cetin & Kinik, 2015). For the first time ever, commercials for Apple products included a greater diversity of individuals to promote their products. In Cook’s leadership style, openness and transparency are characteristics that distinguish it from the others. Leaders of successful and strong companies that practice democratic leadership are better equipped to comprehend the demands of their employees and customers (Ghasabeh et al. 2015). Employees at Cook’s company feel appreciated as a result of his democratic leadership style, which places a strong emphasis on creating a positive work environment. Cook takes employee concerns into seriously, and the company has policies and procedures in place to ensure that their well-being is taken care of. As a consequence of this element, Apple’s employees are more inclined to be concerned about resolving the problems of others. As a result, Cook has guided Apple in the development of products that are more affordable for those with middle- and low-incomes. A product such as the iPod is an example of this kind of product.1.3 Social sustainability and challenges
The change in management style and focus of Apple through Cook has also allowed the company to achieve social sustainability by adapting diversity concerning gender; race, religion, culture and other aspects. As a result, the steps taken through management policy changes have helped the company to deal with the challenges of the gender pay gap and cross-culture (Kim, 2020). Cook sees the future as diverse and believes the most diverse workforce will produce the best products. Apple has undertaken several policy changes including corporate social sustainability efforts that focus on diversity. For example, programs like apple’s WWDC scholarship will help attract more diverse people to developer conferences and begin to improve the tech industry’s staggering gender and racial imbalance (Yang Ting, 2016). On the other hand, Apple narrowed the gap in employee racial and gender treatment by analyzing salary, bonus, stock allowance and other data.
The issue of social sustainability is important for multinational leaders and managers like Cook to understand since it is a problem that affects the whole planet. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, is well aware that the global economy has expanded well beyond its natural borders in recent years. For regions and countries, Tasnim (2018) found that sustainable development is represented by the creation of creative environments, which represents a massive competitive challenge for managers to meet. Leaders of political and think tank organizations should devote more time and effort to ensure that working conditions and game rules are adhered to, rather than concentrating only on particular processes.1.4 Internal management
The impact of Cook’s leadership style internally on the organisation is the optimisation of employees’ talents and skills (Kim, 2020). Cook can aim higher by maximizing the potential of his existing employees. The logic behind Cook is that most people on the team are underutilized. Secondly, he is aware that abilities can be brought to the table with the right kind of leadership. Third, intelligence and ability can be multiplied without the need for greater investment. When Apple needed a division to grow quickly with constant resources, Cook didn’t expand the sales force. Instead, he spread key talent across different jobs, spent a week studying the problem and working with other departments to come up with a solution. He changed the sales model to a competence-centric approach that made better use of the best salespeople and deep industry experts in the sales cycle. Because of Cook’s multiplication logic, it has led to the exceptional organizational success of Apple as it became the first company to reach 3 trillion USD worth (Leswing, 2022). In the end, the department achieved double-digit annual growth without adding a single new employee.Part 2
2.1 The Importance of Leadership
Leadership has core importance in the success of organizations (Bratton, 2020). As a matter of fact, leadership affects the direction of strategy. If an organization does not have a leadership team with appropriate capabilities and their respective functions, that is, without strong leadership, no matter how good the strategy is, it will fail. For example, to make a merger, a company needs leaders across its business units and functions to integrate best practices and generate synergies while trying to maintain normal operations. In addition, leaders at all levels of both sides of the merger should not regard the merger as merely a technical level of work, but should encourage staff morale and move towards higher goals. Leadership will also form unique values within an organization (Ciulla,1999). Employees are the shadow of leaders, and the leadership of leaders is the fundamental reason for the formation of organizational culture. With outstanding leadership rather than coerciveness, leaders can make employees see their values and beliefs verified effectively in practice, which can pave a sound and complete organizational culture for their success.
2.2 Transformational Leader Styles
The transformational leader encourages followers by acting as a role model, motivating through inspiration, stimulating intellectually, and giving individualized consideration for needs and goals (Bass & Avolio, 1994). The leadership style of Tim Cook is transformational as he trusts others and empowers employees, which are the elements of transformational leadership (Cetin & Kinik, 2015).Tim Cook has given Apple employees the right to discuss working conditions, working conditions, and compensation in public, and has encouraged any employee who has concerns to raise them in a way that is most comfortable for them internally or externally, including through their managers, any Apple managers, support staff, business partners, or business practices. His goal was to make sure that every employee was paid fairly in order to close the wage gap between men and women and between different races. Under cook, apple has introduced some employees to a new program called “BlueSky”, in which a small number of employees can work on their favorite projects for a few weeks to help solve the flexibility problem (Leswing, 2022). At Apple’s press conference, a humbler Cook went out of his way to praise his employees, much more warmly than Mr. Jobs did. Cook has always given personal care to his employees and helped them grow as they cope with challenges. A combination of his charismatic style, democratic approach, and transformative methodology have led Apple to become one of the best firms of the current century.A transformational leader builds the capabilities of employees to lead (Ghasabeh et al., 2015). As Tim Cook has done for its employees by empowering them for projects and leading the teams. After taking over leadership, Cook began making changes to Apple’s organizational structure as the new CEO. Apple is led by the CEO and executive team, and at the first level, power is distributed among the functional groups made up of various heads such as CFO, COO, retail, legal, software engineering, and so on. The executive team consists of all senior vice presidents reporting directly to the CEO. At the second level, functions are further divided into subdivisions, and the SVP further distributes authority to the VP at the third management level. All important decisions and actions are made with the intervention of the CEO (Tasnim, 2018). Organizational business is divided into several sub-units. At Apple, organizational responsibility is led by Cook, and the business is divided into several divisions: control, global outsourcing, Apple’s online store, Apple Care, education, Internet services, marketing, and communications. All of these businesses report to the CEO. Working in this organizational environment, all employees know their job responsibilities and management expectations, and they are professional in their work. In addition, Cook set up an organic structure in the design department, where employees’ decisions and ideas are respected, they have the freedom to use their own ideas in projects and are encouraged to write long letters and create (eWeek, 2010), which is why Cook, the underdog after Jobs’ death, still has a large following. Largely, Cook has been very successful using a transformative leadership methodology that also combines democratic and charismatic styles in dealing with the employees.Conclusion
From the discussion provided, Cook believes in diversity and believes in putting the needs of employees first as a company policy. The recognition of the input that employees have on putting Apple ahead is a large competitive edge that has only been realized after Cook took over. His transformation style of leadership combines democratic and charismatic approaches to enable full impact and utilization of top talent where employee ideas and opinions are considered in the management and product development. As a result, employee satisfaction is higher. In order to narrow the pay gap caused by different races, genders and cultures of Apple employees, Apple provides stock allowances and bonuses to employees to narrow the compensation package. The exploitation of the theory of change and specifically for Apple reveals that the organization’s choice in Cook was the right one for Apple. This leadership style allows Cook to empower employees and optimize their talents, which is critical to the success of the organization. Apple lost its intense perfectionism and is more focused on performance, profits and earnings growth. As a recommendation, Apple needs to improve the structure of the marketing model, add innovation, and bring more surprises to Apple customers.
References
Bass, B. M. , & Avolio, B. J. . (1994). Improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Sage Publications.
Bratton, J. ed., 2020. Organizational leadership. Sage.
Business School. (2013). Tim Cook’s five Core pieces of leadership. Small and Medium Enterprise Management and Technology (11), 1.
Cetin, M. O., & Kinik, F. S. F. (2015). An analysis of academic leadership behaviour from the perspective of transformational leadership. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 207, 519-527.
Ciulla, J. B. . (1999). The importance of leadership in shaping business values. Long Range Planning, 32(2), p.166-172.
Ghasabeh, M. S., Soosay, C., & Reaiche, C. (2015). The emerging role of transformational leadership. The Journal of Developing Areas, 49(6), 459-467.
Kim, H., 2020. Comparison of Strategic Leadership: Steve Jobs and Tim Cook. Business and Management Studies, 6(3), pp.17-25.
Leswing, K. 2022. Apple becomes the first U.S. company to reach $3 trillion market cap. NBC News. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/apple/apple-becomes-first-us-company-reach-3-trillion-market-cap-rcna10767
Tasnim, M. (2018). An Organizational Analysis on Apple.
Ma Qiao. (2011). Cook began to infuse Apple with his own style: managing the executive side. Tencent technology. https://tech.qq.com/a/20111102/000253.htm
Yang Ting. (2016). Apple’s latest diversity report: It has narrowed the racial and gender pay Gap. The web. https://tech.huanqiu.com/article/9CaKrnJWSmV
Tik Tok Business Model Analysis
Tik Tok Business Model Analysis
Business Model
Tik Tok is one of the social media platforms that allows users to share short videos which are self-made, allowing users to show their creativity. Tik Tok services are accessed via an app that functions as a multi-sided platform with brands, viewers, and content creators. The app is easy to use. Due to its ability to promote creativity, Tik Tok has been widely accepted across the globe even in rural and poorer regions characterized by limited access to digital entertainment. Tik Tok is different from other social media platforms. It has two social feeds – for shared content from profiles that users follow and one for recommended content from the platform’s algorithm. The two feeds provide Tik Tok users with a variety of entertainment content. The platform has a virtual gift shop used to reinforce the relationship between the viewers and the content creators. Through this platform, virtual gifts are given to the content creators as a sign of gratitude for their positive engagement, after which the creators convert the virtual gifts into real money. The platform also provides a creator marketplace where advertisers directly contact influencers based on the target market demographic. Therefore, the platform provides a direct relationship where third parties are involved in handling influencer marketing agreements.
Tik Tok allows for live streaming, which gives content creators an opportunity to directly interact with their followers. This feature provides the influencers with an opportunity to auction products during the live session. Besides live streaming, the platform offers video editing functions that are constantly updated and allow users to become creators regardless of their knowledge in editing. Creating and consuming content in Tik Tok is a seamless activity for the users as it takes a short time to create and watch content on the platform. The Tik Tok challenge is another element that enables videos to go viral. These challenges are themed Tik Toks in the app, which allows and encourages users to demonstrate their creativity to create videos matching the theme of the challenge. A key element in the themed challenges is the background music that helps challenges spread among users. In regard to revenue generation, Tik Tok generates revenue from ads and in-app gift purchases. Advertisers select their target demographic, and the platform places the ads on the screens of the desired audience. In-app gift purchases are used by creators to convert tokens in exchange for real money. Tokens vary in price, but 100 tokens are valued at 99 cents.
Business Model Strengths
Marketing strengths
Creating a hashtag challenge is one of the marketing strengths, as it provides businesses with an excellent way to increase their engagement and brand awareness without inputting many efforts. Marketing companies use influencers for marketing their products, and these challenges go viral, allowing the adverts to reach many users who might be potential customers. Through this, Tik Tok enjoys a greater marketing strength.
Operational strengths
Tik Tok enjoys a wide selection among users due to its availability and simplicity in use. The platform is global, which means it has a strong fan base. Users are able to select various contents from the platform through the search icon. There are limited navigation icons in the platform, which allows users an easy way to navigate across the platform in search and creation of content. Users can select influencers of their choice, and through this, they can access adverts posted by their favorite influencers.
Financial strengths
Tik Tok generates revenue through two major ways that include in-app purchases and Tik Tok for business. Tik Tok for business allows a brand to engage and connect with audiences across the globe. These brands pay good money to the platform, allowing it to generate reliable revenues. The platform is able to generate millions of dollars. For example, in 2020, the company made a fortune of around 1.9 billion dollars, a 457% increase compared to 2019. A large part of the revenue, 79%, comes from China, 8% from the United States, and 3% from Turkey. Another financial strength is that Tik Tok’s parent company, Byte Dance, is one of the world’s wealthy companies. The company has more than doubled its annual revenue to around 34.3 billion dollars, an 111% increment from the previous year. Based on this, Tik Tok can be said to be enjoying a strong financial muscle.
Strategic strengths
Tik Tok enjoys exceptionally high engagement figures in the platform, and therefore, it beats other platforms when it comes to engagement levels across accounts of all sizes. Also, the platform is really good at keeping users engaged in the app, with most users spending more than 45 minutes in a day. This provides advertisers with more than enough time to get the attention of users through influencers on the platform. Another strategy strength is based on the platform’s recommendation in which it recommends its users content they want to see. Based on these recommendations, the platform provides advertisers with an opportunity to select their demographics and select influencers based on the demographics who will engage their viewers with the respective adverts.
Business Model Weaknesses
Marketing problems
Despite Tik Tok having a strong marketing strategy, the platform is subject to fake accounts and scams. The platform gets attention from every one, with some ungenuine users who use the platform to impersonate or misuse their rights. For example, most users have reported being redirected to adult dating scams, and considering that the app has no age restrictions, it has become a major concern, especially for young children.
Operational problems
One of the major problems associated with the platform is that it is strictly video-based content, which means it is subject to the limitation of the medium. In this case, users cannot post any other content other than videos. Texts and photo posts are not allowed on the platform, making it a weakness in regard to user expression. In addition, Tik Tok is more of a reaction platform where views only interact with the comments. However, the platform lacks private chatting, which reduces connectivity.
Financial problems
Funding is one of the major issues that the platform faces. Despite generating massive revenues and having a wealthy parent company, the platform has presented numerous funding problems to content creators. As a result, Tik Tok has come under heavy criticism for low payouts. Also, the minimum balance to withdraw from the platform is too high, and there is no guarantee of how much funding content creators can receive from the platform. In addition, the platform offers fewer monetization options compared to other social media platforms.
Strategic problems
Despite the fact that Tik Tok enjoys high engagement figures that facilitate advertisements, the platform lacks an ad performance history, making it hard for a user to account when the advertisement was made. The lack of competition in the platform ad space is a double-edged sword as it lacks enough data to help advertisers and other users determine the validity of the content. In addition, most of the content available becomes viral due to the Tik Tok challenge; based on this, users may not have a chance to get the original content in which ads were presented. By this, it lacks a real-time marketing strategy.
Forecast/ Recommendations
Marketing problems
Fake accounts and scams are a major challenge in the platform as they increase impersonation and violation of user rights. As noted, these impersonators tend to lure users to inappropriate sites such as adult content. Based on this, it is recommended that the platform impose restrictions on the type of content uploaded and block certain sites that might be considered inappropriate. Also, to comply with child guidelines such as YouTube, Tik Tok has to regulate the content being posted to become age-sensitive.
Operational problems
Tik Tok only allows videos to be posted on the platform, hindering texts and photos that are also means of communication. The essence of the platform is to promote creativity, which means that painters and other content such as poetry are not welcomed. A recommendation for this is that Tik Tok should reconsider its creative purposes and allow texts and photos to be part of the creativity. Also, there is no direct contact between users and viewers, which means that a follower cannot communicate with the content creator in private but only on public comments. A recommendation for this is that Tik Tok should reconsider creating a private chat box to allow more connectivity.
Financial problems
One of the major challenges faced by the platform is funding. The minimum withdrawal limit is too high. Tik Tok has received great acceptance from rural and poor regions, which means it is a source of income for poor youths. Based on this, Tik Tok should consider revising the minimum withdrawal limit to favor people from poor backgrounds.
Strategic problems
A major problem identified is that the ads lack performance history, making it difficult to obtain real-time information such as posting dates to determine the validity of the content. For example, if it was a promotion, the promotion might have expired by the time some users see the content. A recommendation is that Tik Tok should avail vital data such as posting time to allow users to validate the ads.
Part II:
What is the current valuation of this business? Is this appropriate? Why or why not?
Tik Tok is currently valued at 250 billion dollars, and this makes it the most valuable privately held company in the world. The valuation is appropriate as Tik Tok is a global platform with more engagements than any other social media platform, making its revenues much higher as people try to create new content and perform challenges. Also, the platform has a partnership with other business companies that use the platform for advertising, which earns the platform a fortune.
What is Tik Tok’s value proposition, and how did it create this? How is this different or better than its current competitors (you have to research them)?
Tik Tok aspires to inspire creativity and bring joy to the users as they lead the entertainment landscape by creating and viewing short clips on their mobile devices. The platform is multi-sided, consisting of creators, viewers, and brands, which helped create the value proposition of the platform. Brands contact content creators who, in turn, advertise their products to their followers. Based on this, users can get entertained while at the same time obtaining knowledge regarding certain products and brands. In return, content creators can earn through adverts as a way of appreciation. Most of the social media platforms have a similar value proposition, in which influencers are used to advertise brands based on their demographics.
What are the economics of this business? Please explain in detail how revenue is generated and costs are kept down. Has this worked out for them recently?
Tik Tok generates its revenues through two major ways; In-app purchases and paid advertisements. The platform offers businesses a chance to promote their brands through paid advertisements. Based on this, brands can use Tik Tok for business to enhance their marketing solutions by using the platform’s features such as in-feed video ads, brand takeover ads, branded effects, top view ads, and hashtags. These revenue generation streams have worked effectively as they have generated billions for the company, making Tik Tok the most valuable privately-owned social media platform across the globe.
What are the concerns about Tik Tok use in the United States? Does your research lead you to conclude that the concerns are justified or not (please explain in detail)?
The United States government perceives Tik Tok as a national security risk, which is why former president Donald Trump chose to ban the platform in the United States. However, Tik Tok is just a social media platform for silly pranks and dance moves. Based on this, the app has nothing to do with security threats as it bases its content on entertainment. Therefore, the U.S government’s claims to national security concerns are thinly veiled protectionism, considering that the platform traces origin from China, a big competitor of the United States.
What improvements would you make if you were made the CEO of this company today? (Please research some likely valuable attributes instead of listing a number of superficial ideas…)
One of the major improvements that I can make is I were made the CEO of the company is putting on filters to separate content such as entertainment versus educational content. Currently, the platform has a randomized feed that brings all types of content to the screen, leaving users with conflicting types of content. Some people prefer educational content, while others are in Tik Tok purely for entertainment. It would be great to have such filters integrated into the platform to enable users to search content based on their preferences.
Who are Tik Tok’s most dangerous upstart competitors, and what makes them so dangerous?
Tik Tok is a social media platform which means that it faces stiff competition from other social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are some of the major competitors of Tik Tok. The reason for this is that they provide almost every feature offered in Tik Tok, such as paid advertisements, videos for entertainment. However, the three competitors offer other features such as text and photo posts, making them distinct. Also, Facebook and Instagram allow for private chats, which enables not only entertainment and reactions but also enhances connectivity with users and content creators.