Apple Inc. Strategic Audit

Apple Inc. was co- founded in the year 1976 by Jobs Steve and Wozniak Stephen. The abilities of the two partners were as strong as they were so full of creations.  They began to manufacture individual computers for sales.  Stephen being the designs brain as well as natural capability they were able to combine efforts and strategically push the products to the market.  With the design of Apple one the corporation was able to get into the market (Apple, 2016).

Apple corporation is fully committed  in providing the best  computing experience  to the consumers across the  globe  via the development  of  innovative  software, hardware and  internet provision.  Through the reinvention of personalized computers the corporations has remained at the leading position through its strong financial development (Pride, & Ferrell, 2010).  The corporation is additionally striving in ensuring that its consumer base is fully developed by maintaining a good product image at the lead. The current problems that the corporation is facing include competition, lawsuits and development of the supply chain due to the growing demand and changes of consumers’ expectations and preferences. The corporation overcomes this through the use of several tactics which includes addition of Apple stores, consumer loyalty, diversification, differentiation and uniqueness (Apple, 2016).

The principle activity of Apple Corporation is mainly to manufacture design and market individual computers and the entire related individual’s computing as well as communication resources.  The products are mainly developed for the purposes of education, consumption, creativity and also for business.  Individual  computing  products that  he corporation produces  are notebooks and desktops associated  devices  with the incorporation of  peripheral , connectivity  as well as networking  products and   third party  products for hardware services (Pride, & Ferrell, 2010).  The major software that is produced by the corporation includes application software, operation system, and internet, services and integration software’s (Apple, 2016).   Even today computers are considered as a very significant section of Apple Corporation but it has advanced to the development of smartphone products such as mobile phones. The company few years ago achieved a hit with its technology music players referred as iPod and ITunes which are music store located on the online platform.  The company holds several products which are Xserve and networking wireless equipment as well as media and publication software’s. In 2002 up to 2015 the fiscal revenue of more than 80% was accounted by computing and mobile products while the rest is accounted by services as well as software’s (Pride, & Ferrell, 2010).

Apple’s strategic planning mainly involves developing decisions in regard the long-term objectives and strategic approaches of the corporation.  These strategic plans hold strong external alignments as they cover most major organization sections (Pride, & Ferrell, 2010).  The corporation’s senior executives are mainly responsible for execution and development of strategic tactics despite the fact that they are not involved in execution and implementation of the general plans.  In the present economic world companies that needs to acquire success requires planning diligence of the long-term objectives of the corporation, approaches, and results expectation.  This is highly required in order to attain long-term value, growth and sustainability.  With globalization competition is very high and therefore corporations must be strategic to achieve an advantage in competition.  The beginning of Apples computers was characterized by a high reactivity to the rapid and fast speed changing innovation and technology industry (Apple, 2016).  However in order for the corporation to remain competitive it has always re-invented the products which help in gaining and retaining consumers.

Figure 1: Strategic Planning and Implementation

 

There are numerous factors that affect the strategic planning of Apple Inc.  The corporation selected to utilize differentiation as a marketing strategy (Pride, & Ferrell, 2010).  This therefore implies that the corporation highly benefits from different approaches such as product development, growth, marketing as well as innovation.  The tactic of differentiation that the corporation utilizes helps in the creation of growth based on that it manufactures unique and quality products.  This has proven the capability of the corporation to develop fresh and innovative products such as iPhones and iPod.  An additional factor that affects the strategic tactics of Apple is market segmentation.  The corporation offers products based on different market segment such as educational, professional, business as well as consumption.  The consumption and business markets are currently leading as the education and profession markets have most been affected by the growing competition in the technology market thus repressing 5 and 10 percent respectively (Pride, & Ferrell, 2010).

In the technology market today Apple is among the major and few corporations that   have continuously been able to generate finances in the software and individualized computerized product market.  However the recent with the recent market turndown the corporation’s strategic plan has been affected (Grant, 2016). This for the corporation means that it has to focus on generation of fresh and innovative products that are different from those offered by the competitors in terms of needs satisfaction, trendy and quality.  Rivalry is an addition strategic planning influence because the corporation operates in a highly competitive market with rivals who are well established in the market. This includes Samsung, Dell, HP, and Toshiba IBM and so on.  They offer stiff competition because their products are well established with a good reputation (Apple, 2016). However Apple is able to obtain international competitive advantage through the utilization of distribution channel differentiation strategy by opening many stores in different location to increase products supply to the market.

Figure 2: Competition Rivalry

Apple Corporation is not affected by the growing market recession because of its high innovative nature.  The corporation products are characterized by high prices as compared to those that are offered by the competitors. However this does not affect its ability to gain, retain consumers, increase productivity as well as sales (Grant, 2016). This is mainly because it develops products that satisfy the existing market needs through innovativeness.  However the company is challenged by the theft of technological ideas and products by the competitors which forces it to develop products for longer period. In addition technology is changing rapidly and the demand of smart products is growing rapidly thus requiring it to be highly innovative.  The corporation products prices are also differentiated which helps in gathering consumers from all backgrounds with high interest of quality innovativeness. Apple’s success factors include market share, financial development, rapid technological adaptation, branding, innovativeness, consumer loyalty, a high number of stores, quality, and consumer and price differentiation (Apple, 2016).

 

Figure 3: Competitive Strategy

 

Internally  the aspects that makes Apples corporation  includes  secrecy, innovativeness, encouraging employees to  bring  ideas to the work organization through building a good  product image  and  thinking beyond the obvious things (Grant, 2016).  The corporation products in a fast pace as it state that it   produces products that are sold in a high pace similar to the selling pace.  In addition the corporation highly relies on innovativeness growth and good marketing.  From 2006 up to 2015 the revenue of the corporation developed by 35% (Grant, 2016). In addition the liquidity and the quick ratio are very high which has helped the corporation in expanding its ROE and operating margin (Apple, 2016).

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Apple Inc. (2016). Apple Inc. Retrieved from http://www.annualreports.com/Company/apple-inc

Grant, R. M. (2016). Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases. John Wiley & Sons. Print.

Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. C. (2010). Marketing. Australia: South Western Cengage Learning.