Crisis Communication Plan for Apple Inc.

Research

1 .Conduct An Issue Analysis Scan Of The Organization's Industry.

2. Conduct a Specific Issue Analysis Scan For The Organization. 

3 .Identify The Organization's Key Stakeholders And Their Concerns. 

4 .Identify Likely Crises The Organization Might Face. 

5. Update Your Lecturer On The Organization's Crisis Communication Plan Before Your Presentation Day.

6..Be Prepared For a "Crisis" 1-2 Days Before Your Presentation Day. (a Group Member Will Be Informed Via Email Of The Actual Crisis 1 To 2 Days Before The Presentation)

7 .Conduct a Simulated 15-Minute Press Conference On The Presentation Day (This Will Be Followed By 5 Minutes Of Questioning)

8 .Submit a Final Group Report On The Communication Plan.

Apple Inc., a USA based international technology business organisation, formed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976. Headquarter of this company is located in California, the USA. This company provides computer hardware, financial technology, computer software, cloud computing, digital distribution, consumer electronics and artificial intelligence services. Apple is known as one of the big four technology business organisations alongside Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Technological innovation, product design creative advertisement, and leadership of Steve Jobs, the former CEO of this organisation, have transformed this organisation one of the most valued brands in this world. This organisation is successful to enhance not only strong brand loyalty but also constant revenue growth. The annual revenue of this company has reached to more than 260 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 from 8 billion U.S. dollars in 2004. However, this report aims to identify issues, faced by this company, and create a crisis communication plan for Apple. This company is facing certain issues like the impact of China and the USA trade war, software related issues, the impact of Coronavirus, and violation of rules and regulation of the company.

Issue analysis is a procedure, in which the experts of a business organisation identifies issues and its complexity. After identifying the issues, which are affecting a business organisation, the management team and experts of that company have the responsibility to develop a crisis communication problem to solve the issues. Issue analysis is significant for a business organisation because it not only identifies the issues which are affecting the business operation of the company but also identify the opportunity for the company which must be utilised by the company. Apple is a USA based global enterprise that designs, develops and trades customer electronics, computer software and personal computers. This company offers Mac line of computers, iPhone, iPod, iPad, and OS X software, IOS operating system, and iTunes. In 2019, the total revenue of this company was 260.17 billion U.S. dollars (Statista 2019). Timothy Donald Cook is the CEO of this company.  The total number of full-time employees in this company are 139 thousand (Statista 2019). Through online stores, retails stores and direct sales forces, resellers and third-party wholesaler this company sells its products. It can be said that this company is successful to develop an image of a premium brand and create a loyal customer base. However, there are certain issues, which are affecting this company. The business of this company is affecting die to four issues which are a political issue, social issue, software related issues and operation issues. The management team of this company has to resolve those issues to ensure a smooth business operation.

Issue Analysis

The business of Apple. Inc is affected by four issues, which will be discussed in this part. The amount of risk of these four issues will be identified in this part.

For manufacturing and supply chain, Apple heavily relied on China. China and the USA trade war is creating an adverse impact on this company. This issue can be characterised as political issues. The management team of this company is adjusting the profit margin because the cost price has increased due to excessive taxation (Team 2018). This political issue has a moderate risk because through appropriate communication the trade war between China and the USA can be solved.

The software related issues are creating an adverse impact on this company. Apple iOS 13 and iPad OS 13 have been a disaster for this company. Customer of this product has faced problems related to personal hotspot and cellular data performance (Kelly 2020). Though the management solved this issue within one month yet it can be said that the developer of this company has been unable to solve the problem completely. This issues can be characterised as software related issues. This issue has a low risk because the experienced professional experts of Apple Company has the ability to solve this problem through further research. It may take time yet this problem can be solved.

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, not only the manufacturing but also the business of this company affected (BBC News 2020). Due to this situation, the management team of this company is unable to provide service to the customers. Customers, facing problem with iOS 13 and iPad 13, are unable to dissolve the issues as the Apple stores are closed. This issues can be characterised as a social issue. At present this issue has high risk. Because till now no medicine is invented which can fight with this virus. Not only China but also Europe, the USA and several other countries are facing problem due to this virus outbreak (Aljazeera.com 2020). So it can be said that this issue has a high risk.

The management team of Apple identified several desecrations of labour and environmental policies for suppliers. This organisation found that in 2017, there are 44 cases where labour rules were violated (Webb 2017). Please organisation identify that seven hundred foreign contract workers are recruited by a supplier of the Philippines. To recruit foreign contractual workers, the supplier charged a total of$ 1 million (Webb 2017). The management team of this company take strict action against the supplier. So it can be said that suppliers of this company violated the rules and regulations of this company several times, which is creating a bad reputation for this company. This issues can be characterised as an operational issue. Operation issue has moderate risk. This issues can be managed by the management team of this company through appropriate monitoring and strict actions against any kind of rules violation.

Likelihood of Various Crisis

Issue	High Risk	Moderate Risk	Low Risk
Political issue
Software related issue
Social issue
Operation issue

Crisis communication plan plays a significant role in the business organisation to manage a crisis. To manage the crisis the management team has to make a decision and take immediate action. To curtail the adverse impact on the company, the management of a business organisation has to act appropriately and immediately. An accurate crisis communication plan can help a business organisation to turn the crisis into an opportunity. The management team of Apple has to create an accurate crisis communication plan to manage the social issue which is the outbreak of the Coronavirus.

To manage the crisis, due to the outbreak of coronavirus, this organisation has developed a crisis management team which contain Timothy Donald Cook, the CEO of Apple, Jeffrey E Williams, the Chief Operating Officer, and Mary Demby, the Chief Information Officer. These people have the responsibility to manage the business during the crisis.

There are internal and external stakeholders who can be affected by the crisis. Relevant stakeholder of this company are customers, employees of this organisation, investors, suppliers and distributors. Employees, suppliers, distributors and their families are internal stakeholders and consumers are the external stakeholder. The management team of Apple has to take responsibility for these stakeholders.

For the emergency operations centre, headquarter of Apple will be used. From this centre, the Crisis management team will evaluate the incidence and crisis, prepare a recovery plan and execute the plan. To manage the outbreak of the Coronavirus, the Crisis management team will coordinate with other agencies to execute the strategic plan and take the executive decision to respond to the crisis. The emergency operations Centre has to control five functions which are command, operations, planning, logistics and finance.

A proper communication system is necessary to convey the response to the crisis by the crisis management team. The officials of Apple has to utilise traditional communication, modern communication and press conference to communicate with the relevant stakeholders. Mainly press conference will be the key communication method for this company. It will help this company to manage the pressure from the stakeholders.

To manage the crisis, identifying the best spokesperson is important for a company. Timothy Donald Cook will be the spokesperson, who will act as the representative of Apple. It will be a good selection. If the CEO of this company comes to the press conference to discuss the crisis and the planning to manage the crisis then it will boost the confidence of the relevant stakeholders of Apple.

Crisis Communication Plan

The key audience will be e the stakeholder of this company and media persons. In the Press Conference, The CEO of this company will discuss the planning of this company to manage this crisis. It can be said that contributing to managing this type of crisis will be a part of the CSR activities of this company. To save the community organisation has to contribute and act appropriately.

Through the newspaper, social media and press conference, the Crisis Management Team will share important messages. The plan of this company to manage the prices will be shared through these messages. To protect the relevant shareholders what initiatives will be taken by this company will be shared through these messages. The position of the company in this troublesome situation will be shared through these messages.

The Rationale for The Plan and Approach to The Press Conference

In this part, the justification for the press conference will be discussed. To spread the message of the company can be easily done through the press conference. In the press conference, the representative of relevant stakeholder and media persons will be present. This plan will help this company not only to share the plan of this company to manage this crisis but also the position of this company in this crisis. For the approach part, it can be said the spokesperson of this company has to take supportive strategy. This strategy will be used to support the community to battle with the coronavirus outbreak.

Conclusion

Thus it can be said that the crisis communication plan will be helpful for this company. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the business of this company is affected. As a leading company, the senior executive of this company has decided to contribute to society. Also, this company has developed this plan to manage the crisis and assure the relevant stakeholders. The newly formed crisis management team of this company will lead this company to manage this situation. To manage this situation, the crisis management team will operate the entire action from the headquarter of this company. CEO of this company will communicate with media to share the initiatives, which will be taken by Apple Company to battle this crisis.

References

Aljazeera.com, 2020. Coronavirus: Which Countries Have Confirmed Cases?. [online] Aljazeera.com. Available at: <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/countries-confirmed-cases-coronavirus-200125070959786.html> [Accessed 25 March 2020].

BBC News, 2020. Apple Warns Coronavirus Will Hurt Iphone Supplies. [online] BBC News. Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51539322> [Accessed 25 March 2020].

Kelly, G., 2020. Apple Secretly Issues New Warning Affecting Millions Of Ipad, Iphone Users. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2020/03/22/apple-iphone-ipad-ios-13-personal-hotspot-cellular-problems-warning-iphone-ios-upgrade/#2b58e227794e> [Accessed 25 March 2020].

Lamkin, P., 2018. Smart Wearables Market To Double By 2022: $27 Billion Industry Forecast. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/paullamkin/2018/10/23/smart-wearables-market-to-double-by-2022-27-billion-industry-forecast/#71fb46fc2656> [Accessed 24 March 2020].

SHTAL, T. V., BURIAK, M. M., AMIRBEKULY, Y., UKUBASSOVA, G. S., KASKIN, T. T., & TOIBOLDINOVA, Z. G. (2018). Methods of analysis of the external environment of business activities. Revista ESPACIOS, 39(12).

Statista, 2019. Apple: Annual Revenue 2019 | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/265125/total-net-sales-of-apple-since-2004/> [Accessed 25 March 2020].

Statista, 2019. Apple: Number Of Employees 2019 | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/273439/number-of-employees-of-apple-since-2005/> [Accessed 25 March 2020].

Team, T., 2018. How A Trade War With China Would Impact Apple's Valuation: An Interactive Analysis. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2018/09/11/how-a-trade-war-with-china-would-impact-apples-valuation-an-interactive-analysis/#67c7848565c2> [Accessed 25 March 2020].

Webb, J., 2017. Apple's Supply Chain Attracts Criticism For Performance But Also Praise For Sustainability. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/jwebb/2017/10/30/apples-supply-chain-attracts-criticism-for-performance-but-also-praise-for-sustainability/#145d40f67398> [Accessed 25 March 2020].