Most of us can agree that around every corner, we are bound to see some sort of Apple device, whether it is an iPhone, iPod, iPad, or Macbook.  Apple has found a way to sneak up into our everyday lives.  The last time I remember Apple computers being in demand was during elementary school, when all the kids fought to play Oregon Trail on the Macintosh.  But somehow Apple has managed to penetrate the market and dominate its competitors

In class we went into detail about the product life cycle and its different stages.  So far, Apple has passed its Introduction, and Growth Stage.  Currently Apple is without a doubt in their Maturity Stage.  Their stock price just keeps rising, and they are seeing nothing but profits within the company.  Orders of high volume are constant, and they are always finding new ways to innovate their products.

Recently, Apple released their 4^th quarter earnings and they are apparently now worth 97.6 billion dollars.  This makes them the worlds most valuable company.  I’m curious to see when, or even if they will ever go through their Decline Stage.  It will be interesting to see how they will deal with this situation, and how long will it take for this Apple to go stale.

 

What is your opinion? Do you see Apple reaching its Decline Stage within the next couple of day or the next couple of decades?

 

Reference: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203718504577182750231602744.html

In our last class we discussed the three components of the project triangle, which are performance, time, and cost. While in class we took a vote to determine which of the three components would be considered the most valuable when working on a project. The Majority of the class came to the conclusion that performance would be the one that holds the most weight, but to our surprise, the correct answer was that all three components are just as valuable.

After the class concluded, I once again asked myself the question that was discussed in class and I started to recall my past experiences as a supervisor on how I dealt with prior projects. The first thing I remembered is that every time my team had a major project due, we would always find ourselves wanting or needing more time. Then I began to recall more information and got a little more in depth. I realized that we never had enough money for our projects; therefore I would find myself always asking for an increase in the budget in order to finish our project. Thirdly, I remembered how sometimes the quality of our final project would not be up to par with our standards but we had to make due with what we had.

I never viewed it that way in the past, but now since the professor explained it, it began to make a lot more sense.  I realize that even though I was never given the textbook definition of the project triangle, in some way I was always trying to find a balance with those three components.  I’m aware that with any project involving business there is always going to deadlines to meet, budgets to keep and quality that the overall business must achieve, and with any lack thereof of any of these components the project itself would suffer.  It seems to me that the best managers are the ones that can learn to manage all three and work with what they got to achieve a successful project.

Whats your opinion?  Do you think one component of the project triangle is more valuable than the other? If so, why?