TOP 100 COMPANIES

IMAGE: APPLE

Founded in 1976

CEO: Tim Cook

Htps:/ aple. comironmountain. com htps company www:/ linkedin. apple /

Consumer tech giant Apple is one of the world’ s most valuable companies. Its iconic and hugely popular product line includes the iPhone, iPad, Mac desktop and laptop computers, the Apple Watch, Apple TV, as well as numerous software apps, such as GarageBand.

In August 2021, Apple became the first publicly traded US company to reach a market capitalisation of $ 2 trillion.

This growth has been overseen by CEO Tim Cook, who had doubled the company’ s revenue and profit since taking up the position in 2011 when founder and CEO Steve Jobs was terminally ill with pancreatic cancer.

Cook loathes inventory, telling Forbes he finds it“ fundamentally evil”.“ Inventory is like dairy products,” he has also said.“ No one wants to buy spoiled milk.”

Thanks to Cook’ s just-in-time supply model. Apple – in pre-pandemic times, at least – was able to turn over its inventory once every five days. Apple’ s ability to launch, manufacture, and ship millions of iPhones globally, like clockwork – with virtually no inventory surplus – was bewildering.

Cook’ s supply model has been severely tested by the global pandemic, but what supply chain hasn’ t been? The company is now looking to loosen manufacturing ties with China, but this will be a long and drawn out process.

Cook’ s first deed was to pare back Apple’ s supply chain vendors from more than 100 to 24. He also cut the number of warehouses by half and established relationships with contract manufacturers.

Computers and Electronics Manufacturing United States

64 2023