Description
Research a top multinational company in the world including its international strategy over the last 10 years. Using your research, write a report explaining its strategy, including a discussion of the following questions:
- How do management practices, HR policies, and strategy decisions differ between multinational companies and local companies?
- Identify some cultural, legal, political, and financial issues this multinational company may have based on their environment.
- What sort of international orientation does it have?
- Do you think it is ethno-, poly-, or geocentric?
- What were the decision factors for the locations it chose to expand in?
- Did it have the core capabilities to succeed in those markets?
- Think about its objectives, how it chose its countries, what opportunities and constraints were apparent at the time, and what it needed to do to succeed in those markets.
- If you were going to compete with this company what would you use as an international marketing entry strategy (licensing, franchising, exporting, joint ventures, etc.) and justify your answer
- Define what a value chain dispersal and integration strategy is, and then describe how the strategy is organized around it.
Please submit your assignment.
Explanation & Answer
Please have a look at it. Regards.
Running Head: INTERNATIONAL STRATEGIC PLANNING
International Strategic Planning and Implementation
Institutional Affiliation
Date
1
International Strategic Planning
2
Introduction
Apple is an American multinational company that has its headquarters in Cupertino,
California. The company develops, designs, and sells computer software, consumer electronics,
and online services. Its hardware products include the iPad tablet computer, the iPhone
smartphone, the Mac personal computer, the Apple Watch smartwatch, the iPod portable media
player and the Apple TV digital media player, notes Christensen (2013). Further, the Apple Co’s
consumer software includes the IOS and MacOS operating systems, the safari web browser, the
iTunes media player.
Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne, and Steve Wozniak founded the company in 1976 with the
main purpose of developing and selling personal computers. The company was incorporated as
Apple Incorporation in 1977. It remains to be the largest information technology company in the
world by revenue. The company has grown tremendously in the past two d ecades. Between 2008
and 2013, the total returns on Apple stock increased by 331%. The reason behind this growth is
attributed to the transformation of the technology sector (which the company has capitalized on).
While Apple enjoys dominance in the US market, its continued growth heavily depends on the
continued production of new and more improved technology for the developed and emerging
markets (Kane, & Rohwedder, 2010).
Apple’s Global Expansion Strategy
Apple’s strategy for international expansion includes building and establishing its own
online and retail stores. It also depends on expanding its distribution networks in order to reach
out to a wider market and provide high-quality sales and customer support. This is due to the fact
that Apple’s highest sales annually are realized from international markets. Apple has also
International Strategic Planning
continued to expand its third-party digital content offerings through its iTunes store. Another
way that the company has continued to expand globally is by adopting advanced features and
enhancing the capabilities of the products and services they offer (Satariano, 2013).
Apple’s market entry modes into the international markets include licensing, export, and
import strategies. Licensing has more positive features than other marketing strategies like
strategic alliances and joint ventures. Some of the advantages include low risks, fewer
regulations, and high returns (Simerson, 2011).
Apple’s Differentiation Strategies
Apple aims to take advantage of the increased technological dependence and the
convenience of internet enabled computing and communication devices. It is due to this factor
that Apple has put more emphasis on value and high quality. Apple has some of the best
technologies in terms of software and hardware integration and innovation, well established
retail and distribution channels, and also effectively uses outsourced supply chain management
systems where they do not have their own retail stores.
The innovative nature of Apple has made the company stand out. Most of these
innovations are difficult to imitate leaving Apple to enjoy the uniqueness of their products and
ward off competition. These factors have made Apple achieve high levels of ...
Review
Review
