Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. (Essay Sample)

MGMT 704 (001) MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
Fall 2022: 
Research and Case Analysis No. 2 (12%): Part B: Steve Jobs and Apple Inc.
Directions: Please use this Word document (and no other document of yours, and if you do so, it will be rejected instantly) and present your word-processed answers immediately below each of the questions asked. Be sure that you use font size 12 and print your submission with single-side printing and deliver it to me in person, in class, in Week No. 7: October 24 – 28, 2022, at the beginning of the class session.
Student name and number:
1. Please go Investor Relations of Apple Inc. and consult the 2020 Annual Report of Apple  Inc. (Form 10-K for FY ended September 26, 2020) and prepare a tabulation of Net sales ($B), Net income ($B) and Total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities ($B) based on the company’s financial statements for the FY’s 2020 – 2019 – 2018 – 2017 – 2016, in that order. Please also offer an informed comment on the last item in your tabulation, from the perspective of a graduate Business School student. (5 marks)
2. Further to question 1 above, please refer to the topic of Products and Services Performance for the FY 2020 and provide a tabulation of revenues by product category and the percentage of total revenues represented by each category. Any insight to be derived from these numbers? (2 marks)
3. Rana Foroohar, in her 2016 book entitled Makers and Takers, stated, “In the spring of 2013, Job’s successor as CEO of Apple Inc., Tim Cook, decided the company needed to borrow $17 billion”. Do you think that Steve Jobs would have done this? Do explain your answer fully. (3 marks)
4. Please make a careful study of Walter Isaacson’s Harvard Business Review article, entitled “The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs”, which has been uploaded on the course platform in eCentennial. Then, answer the following questions: (a) What specific leadership principle relates to the author’s statement that “Sometimes it’s nice to be in the hands of a control freak”? And be sure that you make it clear why you think that your answer is correct. (b) Which of the leadership principle(s) would best relate to corporate finance, to marketing, and to human resources management respectively? Please be sure that there is clarity and proper formatting of your answers. (5 marks)
5. Please review the pages 1 to 4 of the 2020 Annual Report. In business schools, we teach the topic of business strategy in great detail. What would you say is the business strategy of Apple Inc. in terms of the strict classification system of business strategies? Do explain your answer fully and clearly. (3 marks)
6. Please do some research on this 2022 book, After Steve, by Tripp Mickle. Please offer a full and clear statement of what you think is the thesis of the book, as put forward by the author. And, do you agree with the thesis put forward? Be sure that you indicate the source(s) for answer, fully referenced. (4 marks)
7. Offer a full and clear statement about your assessment of the value to you of Research and Case Analysis No. 2 (12%), Part A and Part B, on Steve Jobs and Apple Inc., now that you would soon be completing a graduate management program. (2 marks)