APPEX

CORPORATION
By: Group 12

Chandani Arora
Kawalpreet Singh
Nakul Khandelwal
Navneet Sinha
Shubham Singh

BACKGROUND

Appex Corporation was founded in May 1986 from the merger

of Appex, Inc. and Lunayach Communications
Consultants(LCC).
The company had its headquarter in Waltham, MA.
Provides management information systems and inter carrier
network services to cellular telephone companies. Also LCC
provides design and engineering of cellular radio networks.
Since 1986, Appex has been at the forefront of the cellular
communications revolution providing products and services to
fuel its growth.
During 1987-1990, Appex has enjoyed revenue growth of over
1600%.
Rated as the fastest growing high-technology company in the
United States in 1990 by Business Week.

PROBLEMS

FACED BY THE COMPANY

No development of an underlying planning

structure
Poor customer service(call you back attitude)
Loosely structured
Failures in product development
Loosing money rapidly

CAUSES
No defined organizational structure.
Expenses were not monitored.
No financial planning was there.
No prior planning of work.
No proper intra communication of information.
Employees lacked discipline.

DIFFERENT STRUCTURES ADOPTED BY APPEX

Innovative Structure
Circular
Horizontal Structure
Hierarchical, Functional Structure
Introduction of Product Teams
Introduction of Business Teams
Divisional Structure

CIRCULAR STRUCTURE
Features

Positive Effects

Negative Effects

Non-hierarchical

Free flow of
information
customer-based

Employees were
unfamiliar with
the structure
Developed the
mentality that
customer was the
enemy
Geared towards
responsiveness and
not towards
planning

Concentric circles
expanding out
from executives to
customers

HORIZONTAL STRUCTURE
Features

Positive Effects

Negative Effects

Non-hierarchical

Increases control
within a sub unit

Employees did not

respond
enthusiastically

Separate sub units

HIERARCHICAL, FUNCTIONAL
STRUCTURE
Features

Positive Effects

Functions are
Growth of
organized as teams
organizational
chart
Sub functions
within teams
Focussed on
completion of
tasks
System of
Accountability

Negative Effects
Politics came into
existence
Polarization of
teams (restricting
other departments
involvement)
Sub-functions
within a team
Source of authority
became functional
and not
managerial
Personalities
became more
pronounced

PRODUCT TEAMS
Features

Positive Effects

Separate teams for Functional teams

each product
were aware of all
the product
Product teams cohappenings on a
existed with
daily basis
functional teams
More focus on
each product

Negative Effects
Conflict of
authority between
product teams and
functional teams
Resource
allocation
problems across
teams
Increase in time
spent on meetings
Product teams did
not know about
their authority.

BUSINESS TEAMS
Features

Positive Effects

Teams acting as
Authority lied in
intermediaries
the hands of
between the
business teams
product teams and
the corporate
Problems related
management team
to resource
Teams that
allocations were
operated on the
solved
same network and
shared the same
customer base
reported to a
business team

Negative Effects
Decrease in
revenue-producing
people
Diminishing of
customer focus
Infrastructure
costs escalated
Less focus on
company wide
financial goals

DIVISIONAL STRUCTURE
Features

Positive Effects

Functions are
Improved
grouped together
accountability,
according to
budgeting and
specific demands
planning
of products,
markets or
More focus on
customers(ICS &
meeting financial
IS)
targets
Greater horizontal
and functional
Increased
structure and more
cooperation among
complex
divisions
integrating
mechanisms

Negative Effects
Bad sharing of
resources
Divisions did not
want to share
resources
Little
communication
across divisions
No sense of
financial
accountability as
sub divisions began
to alter their
financial
statements

SUGGESTED SOLUTION
Rotation policy: Provide opportunities for team
members from different divisions to be
interchanged to enhance communication across
divisions.
More focus must be given to cost and quality.
A separate division for customer care should be
created.
There should be proper time management
policies.

THANK

YOU