The Apple Inc. Company
Apple Inc. is a multinational technology company involved in designing and creating
iTunes and iPod, desktop computers and Mac laptop, the revolutionary iPhone and iPad and the
OS X operating system. Manager’s job in any work place is to get job done, and to deliver this,
staff motivation is crucial. The company recently has had challenges as for years; the company
relied around its charismatic co-founder, Steve Jobs. Some of these challenges involve
preserving the company’s persona, managing growth and capturing public imagination.
Apple Company has been able to motivate its staff not only too effectively and efficiently
to do the job but also making sure that their employees enjoys doing the work. With their goal of
manufacturing great products, they use internal rewards to motivate their staff. They give their
employees challenging jobs, where the employee will be pushed to his or her maximum
potential. This inspires employee and feels respected because they are believed that they possess
the potential to accomplish challenging tasks which makes them strife for good results in their
performance. Apple Company has also met their staff safety standards, training needs and also
setting up an average salary.
Shared company vision is crucial to any business as it creates a reason for all staff and a
ordinary identity. Creating joint effort between departments and this improves the operational
competence in the firm. Apple inc. has developed a sense of obligation among its staff where
their interests have been aligned with the dream of the firm. This has improved their commitment
and inspired them to put an extra effort towards achieving the joint vision of the overall business
(O’Dea, 2014).
Apple’s effective expectations and the organizational culture has been the key factor to
its success, Culture, and capabilities in supporting new policies, new strategies and new changes.
Managing sales performance is the most important sales managers kill where they can
communicate their expectations, monitor behaviors and results, and provide regular feedback.
Setting expectations requires planning and the more time a manager invests at the front end, the
more effective the team will operate. Communication is also important when setting
expectations.
Centrally to what many organizations think, workers want to be held accountable for
what they do. Accountability equates to responsibility and responsibility leads to intrinsic
motivator’s accomplishment, purpose and significance. Holding workers accountable is
important as it keeps them engaged. Apple Company has its own code of ethics which applies to
all company employees worldwide including the top managers.
Success of any company is not only the incredible manufacturing capability and location
but many times, Human Resource strategy is what makes the company grow strong to rule the
market. Apple considers great talents management approaches as the reason why they may be
leaders in consumer electronics market. Instead of development and training programs, Apple
Inc. makes workers do it themselves by reinforcing them to have strong self-reliant while
developing their own skills (Chang, 2016).
References
Chang, J. F. (2016). Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. CRC
Press.
O’Dea, M. (2014). Process improvement.
Running head: APPLE INC.
1
SWOT Analysis
Apple’s SWOT analysis focuses on the most important strengths that the company can use
to advance its position and economic enactment, including the weaknesses and threats that should
be handled through new plans (Grant, 2016). The SWOT analysis of Apple Inc. also classifies the
key opportunities that outline the strategic direction of the corporation.
Strengths
Apple Company has been regarded as the top innovator in mobile device technology and
an exclusive and reputed company. The company has a strong brand image, high-profit limits, and
operative innovation development. Moreover, the corporation can introduce profitable, innovative
products and sustains its premium pricing policy.
Weaknesses
Just like it has strengths, the company has its weaknesses which can serve as an obstacle
to the growth of the business. Apple has a narrow distribution system because of its policy of
exclusivity which bounds the market reach of the company (Purkayastha & Sharma, 2016). In
addition, the company’s price is very high and may not be affordable to lots of individuals.
Opportunity
The greatest opportunity that the corporation has is that the new products will improve the
market share of the company and will support the competitive advantage of the organization.
Samsung being the main competitor of Apple Corporation is also the only source of application
computers for Apple’s products. Furthermore, increase in sales will offer a good opportunity to
enlarge its shares.
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APPLE INC.
Threats
The threats of this company could be the hasty technological revolution, which means that
the buyer’s interest can converse anytime and the outcome is a failure. Another threat can be an
increase in tax, price pressure from its main competitor, Samsung over main mechanisms, and
most significant if the rivals move in wired music advertising (Purkayastha & Sharma, 2016).
Therefore, this can be a threat and loss of corporation’s income.
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APPLE INC.
Summary and How to Use SWOT Analysis
Apple Company’s recent success is related to the capability of the firm to deploy its
strengths to overcome weaknesses and threats, and to maximize opportunities. The SWOT analysis
of the company provides understandings on the activities of the corporation to exploit its
development based on those strengths and opportunities. The SWOT analysis also shows the most
significant concerns that the company must handle. For example, the threat of rivalry is among the
most noteworthy. An insight of the changing aspects of internal and external considered issues
also assists investors to assess the value of Apple’s industry (Nwogugu, 2015). Therefore, the
SWOT analysis of the company is of applied use for stakeholders and the leaders and managers of
the company.
Apple’s SWOT analysis shows that the company owns major strengths that can be used to
address managerial weaknesses successfully. The corporation can also use these strengths to
maximize the opportunity to enlarge its supply system. Additionally, Apple can use its strong
brand image and hasty growth processes to improve and launch different product appearances
effectively. Nevertheless, the company faces the noteworthy challenges of forceful competition
and imitation, which are key threats affecting competitors in the firm. An appropriate course of
action is to solve these threats through a stronger clear selection, together with constant innovation
to make sure that there is a competitive advantage of the products of the company even when
players try to imitate (Nwogugu, 2015).
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APPLE INC.
Business Strategy Using Contingency Theory
In circumstances where the development of foreign markets ascertains to be ineffective,
Apple should then target at engaging in the particular markets that it has recognized at the moment
since these markets have now ascertained to be effective to the corporation. The current strategies
would also be uncontrolled and implement the new strategies that have proved fruitful of the
corporation over the years (Nwogugu, 2015). After the loss of Steve Jobs, the company was left
with an enormous emptiness that many people thought it would not be easy to fill. Nevertheless,
the new CEO and the other workers have verified over the last few months that the also have the
ability to take the corporation to new heights even without Steve Jobs.
However, to make certain that the corporation is always doing well; the management has
an obligation to frequently review several figures against the predicted figures to determine
whether the company is healthy or not. After studying the macro environment within which Apple
functions in, it is obvious that Apple has strengths in its assets and abilities. This is since the
company has superlative design players, talented projects engineers, various existing rights, an
operative and fruitful value chain and an innovation based tactic (Purkayastha & Sharma, 2016).
On the other hand, the business within which the corporation runs in is quickly altering as main
competitors are continuously presenting new products that integrate new technology and
strategies.
To be precise, the tablet and smartphone industry have customers who are price delicate
and experiences a great level of replications in both the strategies and purpose ability of these
products can be established by the shared counter allegation against Samsung by Apple and vice
versa. Main competitors in the sector are grounded from diverse parts of the world demonstrating
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APPLE INC.
that it would be difficult to observe every move of the competitors. Apple’s main objective is to
control the several industries that it operates in, while at the same time generating good profit for
the investors and donating at the improvement of the society in general (Purkayastha & Sharma,
2016). Due to the nature of business, Apple, therefore, requires adopting successful plans that will
ensure continuous sustainability of the corporation.
Some strategies that Apple can implement are, increasing the amount or sell channels
especially in unindustrialized nations, cultivate a device that would permit for the products to be
charged by other ways not only from plugging into an electricity opening since the key issue of
devices has received criticisms. Moreover, certify the use of Siri and Mac Software to changed
producers, provide consumers the opportunity to modify and identify the products they desire to
purchase from Apple (Purkayastha & Sharma, 2016). Furthermore, Apple should be more involved
with the groups in areas where the corporation has operations since such tactics will go a long way
in improving Apple brand.
Lastly, Apple Inc. should strengthen business social responsibility. These are methods
embraced by a corporation to meet investor’s requirements and reduce the impact of the
organization to the setting while at the same time funding for the development of a strong brand
and optimistic image of the business. Although Apple is already having a trade social responsibility
structures in place, there is a requirement for the corporation to be more supportive of corporate
social responsibility (Grant, 2016). Some of the enterprises that the company might be established
in would be an institution of technical schools in emerging nations, and expansion of affordable
models of Apple Mac processors for schools in industrialized countries.
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APPLE INC.
References
Grant, R. M. (2016). Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley & Sons.
Nwogugu, M. C. (2015). The Case of Apple, Inc., and the S&P-500 Companies: Managerial
Psychology, Corporate Governance and Business Processes.
Purkayastha, A., & Sharma, S. (2016). Gaining competitive advantage through the right business
model: analysis based on case studies. Journal of Strategy and Management, 9(2), 138155.
Running Head: THE APPLE INC. COMPANY
1
Introduction
Apple Inc. is a multinational technology company involved in designing and creating
iTunes and iPod, desktop computers and Mac laptop, the revolutionary iPhone and iPad and the
S-X operating system. Essentially, a manager’s job in any workplace is to get the job done and to
deliver this, staff motivation is crucial. The company recently has had challenges as for years; the
company relied on its charismatic co-founder, Steve Jobs. Some of these challenges involve
preserving the company’s persona, managing growth and capturing the public imagination.
Apple Company has been able to motivate its staff not only to effectively and efficiently
do the job but also making sure that their employees enjoy doing the work. With their goal of
manufacturing great products, they use internal rewards to motivate their staff. They give their
employees challenging jobs, where the employee is pushed to his or her maximum potential. This
inspires employees and makes them feel respected because they are believed to possess the
potential to accomplish challenging tasks which make them strive for good results in their
performance. Apple Company has also met their staff safety standards, training needs and also
setting up an average salary. Additionally, Apple Inc. has developed a sense of obligation among
its staff where their interests have been aligned with the dream of the firm. This has improved their
commitment and inspired them to put an extra effort towards achieving the joint vision of the
overall business (O’Dea, 2014).
Proposed Change
Apple Inc. boasts of having a great pool of talent from their large labor force. Moreover,
among the companies, strength is that it is known for its leading position in technological
innovation. Therefore, by exploiting these two strengths and believing in the fact that the company
THE APPLE INC. COMPANY
2
has the ability and capacity to develop new and innovative products and maintain its marketability,
there are high chances of adopting the same innovative strategy on the market. This is because
Apple has only been innovative in creating their products, but they have never concentrated or
rather focused much on how to penetrate their market of operation. Therefore, this paper proposes
a strategy for the organization to incorporate innovation in all their process from production to
marketing (Venugopal & Viswanathan, 2015). Essentially, this proposal focuses more on ensuring
that the company’s products are not marketed via the conventional marketing methods which are
also used by other companies operating within the same industry as Apple Inc. This strategy does
not involve revising the current production techniques. Instead, it insists on having new and
innovative marketing techniques.
Process Implementation
This change will require Incorporation of new marketing strategy techniques and model in
an organizational strategy. This is because it is the strategy which governs the particular processes
to be implemented in order to achieve the objectives of an organization. Currently, Apple Inc. uses
the 4p’s marketing mix model. This model is seen as being suitable because of the diversification
and innovative objective of the company. For instance,
basing on the place concept, the
organization has increased its market presence by opening new markets and acquiring more market
shares. The development and designing of new and innovative products represent the product
concept, while their standard prices that are designed to maximize profitability represent the price
concept of the 4P marketing strategy (Choi, 2017). Lastly, the promotion concept of the strategy
is based on the enhanced company name of the Apple Inc. which is a trademark name in the phone
and phone accessories sector. This model is good and has been effective in pushing Apple Inc. to
THE APPLE INC. COMPANY
3
where it is. Therefore, there is no need to replace it. However, reinforcing it with another
marketing model is likely to enhance the marketability and profitability of the company.
As Giannakis, Harker, & Baum, (2015) argues, the 4Ps marketing strategy is mostly vital
for already established products and organizations. Therefore, Apple Inc. being an established
organization with a strong brand name, the model is suitable. However, there is a need to create
new markets and offer more information about the company’s new products. Therefore, a different
marketing model can be utilized for this function, and in this case, the 3C’s strategy model seems
to be highly suitable. This strategy will help the organization to increase the current number of
sales through utilization of a customized marketing strategy. This is because this strategy will
make the company be a pioneer mobile phone producer. The success probability of this
organizational marketing strategy and model is founded on the fact that Apple Inc. has strong
research capabilities as well as a strong culture of innovation and research.
The 3C marketing model has three parts which are represented by the Cs in the name. These
are the corporation, customers, and competition.
Customers
These are the clients to business, and Apple Inc. needs to focus on their interest and needs
first (Venugopal & Viswanathan, 2015). Therefore, most of the innovation produced by the
company should be customer centered and not just directed at revolutionizing the technological
aspect of the telephone sector. This can be achieved by;
Segmenting the company objectives. This could be achieved by differentiating the
products with regard to the unique ways that customers use their products. This does not merely
lie in the customer thinking but rather in client expectation.
THE APPLE INC. COMPANY
4
Segmenting by customer coverage. This will be aimed at optimizing the range of market
that Apple Inc. will be able to cover geographically. The spread should be based on establishing
a neutral or rather conducive point that balances the costs involved in expanding coverage with
the returns. This is because there are situations in which market expansion contributes to
diminishing returns.
Segmenting the market again. This is vital in helping the firm deal with competition, a
fact that will be suitable for Apple Inc. at the moment. This is because Apple faces new competition
each passing day as new companies enter into the mobile phone sector on a daily basis. This
reduces the effectiveness of the earlier segmentation by the company since the competitors are
focused on dissecting the market freshly. Therefore, for Apple to realize this market-based
segmentation, the amount of resources allocated to the business marketing should be enhanced so
as to effect positive change in the distribution of user mix by the existing market forces.
The Competitors
This involves developing new competitor based strategies. This can only happen by
increasing the product differentiation between Apple Inc. products and that of their competitors.
From the SWOT analysis, Apple Inc. can utilize these strengths.
Capitalize on the cost versus profit structure differences. This involves evaluating the
sources of profits and fixed costs ratio differences. This will enable Apple to have lower prices
due to lowering the fixed costs ratio and is likely to attract more clients to their products and result
in increased sales.
THE APPLE INC. COMPANY
5
The Corporation
This part of the 3C’s strategy model focuses on making the commonly better (Choi, 2017).
In this regard, Apple Inc. can also better itself through variation of their marketing approach. This
can be achieved through;
Sequencing and selectivity. Currently, the company has the edge over other players in the
same industry in terms of innovation. Therefore, to increase its strength, the organization can
consider becoming a market leader in other areas too. This proposal suggests that it can better its
status by enhancing its customer-focused initiatives such as quality products, excellence customer
care, and high relativity of their products to customer demands.
Conclusion
Apple Inc. is one of the leading phone manufacturers in the world. The company is highly
known for its creativity and innovation that are replicated in their products, a fact that distinguishes
it from other firms in the same industry. However, there has been increasing competition as other
players have joined the industry. Some of them have strong operational abilities that threaten Apple
Inc.’s long-standing dominance. Therefore, there is a need to enhance the company’s current status
in relation to the changing business environment. Varying the organization’s marketing strategy
and technique seems to be one of the fundamental changes that can help the organization to
progress well. This is because it will help it to sell more products, brace off competition, and
enhance its relationship with their customers. These features can be enhanced by implementing
the 3C’s model which changes Apple Inc.’s marketing focus from three standpoints that are
customers, competitors, and corporation.
THE APPLE INC. COMPANY
6
References
Chang, J. F. (2016). Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. CRC
Press.
Choi, I. (2017). A Study on Effect of Trust, Relationship Commitment on CollaborationOrientation
(3C's),
Performance
and
Satisfaction-Focused
on
Communication,
Cooperation and Coordination. Journal of Marketing and HR, 4(1).
Giannakis, D., Harker, M. J., & Baum, T. (2015). Human resource management, services and
relationship marketing: the potential for cross-fertilisation. Journal of Strategic Marketing,
23(6), 526-542.
O’Dea, M. (2014). Process improvement.
Venugopal, S., & Viswanathan, M. (2015). Developing customer solutions for subsistence
marketplaces in emerging economies: a bottom–up to 3C (customer, community, and
context) approach. Customer Needs and Solutions, 2(4), 325-336.
Running head: APPLE IMPROVEMENT PLAN
1
The new process aims at achieving two main objectives. First, the organization aims at
increasing the number of sales in the company overall sales. Second, the organization aims at
making it easy for the new products to penetrate the market with the help of the organization
reputable name and current marketing. This will create a way to segment both customer
objectives and the company objectives (Hill, 2013). The new process implementation will also
help the organization understand their competitor in a better perspective as well as understanding
the company in an advanced way. Therefore, the plan will increase sale and make the
organization one of the world biggest mobile devices manufacturers.
The company will manufacture the new products right after its planning. This will
include planning ahead. The manufacturing of the new product will be done as the hiring of the
new marketers get underway. This includes the following. After hiring, market segmentation will
follow and the marketers will be assigned their location based on their geographical
backgrounds. This will be a week after the new product has been launched in the market. The
innovation incorporation with the organization strategy will be a continuous process that will
start from the beginning of manufacturing of the new product and in the market. This will
include continuous changes in the market based on the customer and competitor behavior.
The new process will be of great value to Apple Inc. because it will increase the market
share which will, in turn, improve the company brand recognition in the market. It will also help
Apple Inc. increase sales. Increased sales will translate to increased profits. This makes the
organizational financially stronger and better. The new process implementation will also increase
the number of products sold by the organization thus increasing the chances of tapping more
clients and meeting the need of the customer. Finally, the process will help the organization to
APPLE IMPROVEMENT PLAN
2
improve their competitiveness (Sadeghi, 2012). Therefore, the new process will make the
company stronger than it is today.
The management theories have played important roles in developing goals and
objectives. They helped in analyzing the current state of the organization and the possible change
that can be made to the company process to make the company better and competitive. The
theories also helped in understanding how the organization can implement changes without
necessarily changing the organization strategy. Theories also helped understand how innovation
can be easily incorporated into the organization process and make the organization powerful and
better. Understanding this helped in defining the route to follow and set up the right and real
goals and objectives.
APPLE IMPROVEMENT PLAN
3
Reference
Hill, M. E. (2013). Marketing strategy: The thinking involved. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE
Publications.
Sadeghi, S. (2012). Defensive Strategy - Apple's Overlooked Key to Success. Berlin: epubli
GmbH.
Software Requirements
Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)
For the process improvement to be successful, the company will need to have a
comprehensive customer relationship management system. The term customer relationship is
used to describe the practices, strategies the technologies used by any company in analysing
and managing the interaction with their consumers throughout their life cycle (Jarvis, 2016).
The major goal of this is to improve the company relationship with the consumers and in the
process help in driving the sales high and maintain the customer loyalty. The company will
use the system to gather all the information on the customers across the various point of
interaction between them. The system will also consolidate all the information about the
customers making easier to manage and access it. The CRM software will help the company
grow their sales by
Automating marketing: the CRM system will have tools that allow for marketing
automation abilities to automate the repetitive tasks in the company. This will facilitate the
company marketing efforts to customers at various points in their life cycle.
Sales force automation- This automation helps to avoid duplicate efforts between the
salespeople and the consumers. The CRM software will ensure the company achieves this by
a routine track of all the contacts and follow up between the two parties.
Geolocation technology- The Company will use the system to launch geographical,
marketing promotions which will be based on the consumer physical location. The
Geolocation tool will also be used as a contact management tool that will help establish the
sales prospect of certain areas.
Sales Management System
This is a system that will enable the sales people in Apple Company to be organized,
manage their customers better and help them track their deals in a more efficient manner.
Implementing a customizable sales management system will help the company achieve its
goals for competitive advantages and increase their profits through higher sales. The system
will enable the company to evaluate their sales cycles, target features, competitive advantage
position and give information on the effectiveness of their sales campaign in different areas
(Mishra, 2009). Additionally, the system also provides vital information which can aid in
making an accurate forecast for products. This is especially important after launching new
products to determine how they are going to favour in the market in future.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
This is a new technology that usually involves small unique tags that are put on
products to emit a distinct signal. The company will read the RFID tags placed on individual
products using a remote scanner to collect important information on the products sales and
the precise location of the product. The company can use this information to map out
individual customer movements (Bidgoli, 2010). RFID will significantly benefit the company
supply management chain by ensuring that all their available products are at the right
locations with no inconsistencies or errors. Additionally collection of information about
maintenance and repairs will be possible which will help the company on planning their
maintenance schedules or integrate it into the production process to prevent any costly
production breakdowns. Implementation of RFID will also help in the distribution of new
products and increase the accuracy selecting the areas in which to try the products.
Hardware requirements
Computers
Strong and high-speed computers will be needed on which the system will be installed
and run.
Networking equipment (switches, cables, routers)
High-speed network will be vital for the working of the system to be implemented.
The system will be installed on a dedicated server that will provide services to the team
members who will be working with the system. High-speed network cables, switches, and
routers will be used to interconnect the different work stations for efficiency and information
sharing.
Training materials
White boards this is an old-fashioned method but is very effective if the trainees need
to acquire new skills.
Overhead projectors these will help the trainers to customize presentations much
easily on the spot. Presentation software will be used to create customized training lessons
that will be led by a trainer. The trainees can also access and use these materials individually
for better understanding or catch up.
Real estate requirements
4000 square meters of floor and a server room. This will give the team ample space to
carry out the implementation process successfully. Training operations will also be carried
out on the floor which is very important to accomplish the whole project goals and strategies
priorities.
Human capital
Developers a team of 5 developers will help to customize and implement the
management systems for process improvements.
Sales peoples these will do the actual sales of the company product and make contact
to the customers using the implemented system.
Time training
Each phase will take at least three weeks to complete in different locations around the world
Time
Activities
Cost (approx.)
Phase one
In class training
$3,000,000
Phase two
Coaching
$1,000,000
Phase three
Field trip
$8,000,000
Phase five
Forums
$2,000,000
Phase six
Special project
$9,000,000
Phase 1 in class training
Employee training and development will need to be at par with the new changes that
will come with the new system to fit the job descriptions and requirements. In class, training
will be used to give employees the general knowledge of the system and what will be
required of them. Experts and the system developers will engage with the employees in the
classroom training where they will help employees familiarize with the systems.
Phase 2 coaching
This will involves demonstrating the skills that will be required of the employees and
giving them guidance, assurance when they start to tackles their new roles.
Phase 3 field trips
This will help the company employees who will be involved in running the system
expand their understanding and have a full picture of the customers the company will be
serving.
Phase 4 forums
Forums relevant to the organization improvement process will be organized for
employees to attend. Forums can be viewed as an off-the-job learning experience which can
give valuable skills to the employees.
Special project
After all the training the employees will be given a special project to complete and
evaluate how they will fair. This will enable the training team to determine how successful
their training process was.
Apple financial state
Apple financial results for the financial first quarter year 2017, ended on December 31st,
2016 for their first quarter Apple reports
•
$ 78.351 billion which was a 3.3% than the previously reported revenue in the first
quarter one year ago
•
Net income profit $17.891 billion down 2.6% from the first quarter 2016
•
64% of the sales from the first quarter 2017 were internationals.
References
Jarvis, A. (2016). Achieving customer experience excellence through a quality management
system.
Mishra, P. (2009). Sales Management: Keys to effective sales. New Delhi: Global India
Publications.
Bidgoli, H. (2010). The handbook of technology management. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley &
Sons.
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