Final Strategic Plan

Introduction

Business environment can be referred to as the combination physical factors from outside and within the organization that encroach and impact the growth and survival of the business establishment (Fisher, et al, 2014). Henceforth, the business environment would be in other words described as every element of the inside and outside forces that influence the businesses’ productivity and development. For any business to grow and survive market threats, business analysis is of great importance in order to comprehend their business position at a given time and therefore decide on which direction to move.

Apple Inc. is an American firm which works in various nations around the globe. This paper thus seeks to discuss the organization’s environmental analysis. The analysis will adopt the use of the SWOT analysis technique for the internal environment and the external factor will be analyzed by the use of PESTEL methodology. The last piece of this paper will focus on the organization’s culture and the hierarchical structure.

Apple Inc. Environmental analysis.

Apple Inc. firm is a leading brand of consumer electronic goods in the electronic market. The company operates numerous retail outlets and an online retail shop in the United Kingdom. The firm’s business environment can be assessed by scrutinizing and analyzing the internal and external forces that influence its operations (Khan, et al, 2015).

Apple’s internal environment analysis.

This environment consist of the forces from within the firm that the organization has total control of and are best analyzed through SWOT analysis.

Strengths

Apple Inc. boasts of a strong brand name in the market providing high quality products to its consumers. The company is also leading in terms of innovativeness since its foundation. Its merger with Microsoft and Intel also gives it an added advantage in the market. The firm has a strong financial background which gives it a boost in its operation. Apple has also invested in research and development projects which helps it to carefully define its competitors as well as the demands in the changing market henceforth developing new innovations (Khan, et al, 2015). Previous research also reveal that Apple Inc. Company has acquired a lot of loyalty from its customers due to the best quality of products it offers to the market (Khan, et al, 2015).

Weaknesses

One of the greatest weaknesses of this firm is the high pricing associated with its products. Most consumers in the market aspire to use the products by Apple but they cannot acquire them due to the high prices. Despite being innovative, the company also suffers technological shortcomings with its hardware and software. This discourages its productivity and profitability. Moreover, Apple’s relationship with Microsoft and the Intel has gradually weakened over time. Additionally, the firm’s product life cycle is viewed as very small and thus its profits rely majorly on the new products. Furthermore, products by this firm has less attraction to consumers of corporate nature.

Opportunities

The fast growing industry has provided the firm with an opportunity to excel. The firm began with few products but currently, the company has expanded largely with the discovery of various product lines. Another opportunity for the Apple Inc. is presented by the technological innovations. New technologies can help the firm in establishing a strong market position with joint ventures and the expanding laptop market. The firm also can utilize its online stores to achieve more profits. Moreover the firm can reduce its products prices and improve the warrant terms to beat competition from its rivals (Khan, et al, 2015).

Threats

Apple faces a stiff competition from its rivals operating in the same industry. Also, when there is crisis in the economy, the company suffers losses because consumers do not get adequate finances to spend on the products when the economic condition is critical. The iTune free music and video downloading may lead to huge losses in the company’s online outlets.

Important strengths and weaknesses of Apple Inc.

The SWOT analysis explained the environment within the business highlighting major strengths and weaknesses as well as strengths and weaknesses. This clearly defines the position the organization takes in the market. The company’s major strengths highlighted by the analysis include a strong brand for the products, strong financial background as well as innovativeness due to technological advances. However, the analysis also identified major weaknesses in the firm’s environment which include, poor relations with Microsoft and Intel companies, highly priced products making consumers to shy away and the technological itches associated with the firm’s hardware and software.

Significant factors from within Apple Inc. the industry and analysis of external factors relatively to the assessment of the internal environment.

The internal environmental assessment reveals that Apple has a strong brand and image in the market that it ought to protect. Apple Inc. ought to make proper use of its strengths to stay competitive in the industry and also maximize the opportunities it got to edge its competitors. The technological factor exerted from the market industry also offers a great challenge and Apple has to adapt to this changes to survive in the market. The weaknesses shown by the SOWT analysis can too be turned into advantages if the company’s management works on them appropriately thus beating competition. The external environment presents challenges that the organization has no control over and it can only comply for it to excel in the market. Such factors influencing a company’s growth and development include; political, technological, social, economic and legal issues.

The economic conditions within which Apple operates are favorable making it possible for the organization to thrive making profits. Moreover, despite the massive technological advances in the industry, Apple has been able to adopt innovative moves thus combating the technological challenges. The industry also enjoys favorable taxes by the governments and also security as a result of guaranteed stability thus creating a conducive environment for business. Additionally, the legal requirements established in the market provide a good legal framework which govern the operations of players in the market. This provides a level ground for competition among the participants. Furthermore, the influence of culture and social life styles impact on the levels of purchase and consumption of the products. Apple uses research strategy to identify the needs and preferences of their clients hence design products accordingly.

Competitor analysis of the Apple Inc.

In any business, competition is inevitable. Apple faces competition in every category or line of its products in the market. In the line of smart phones, the firm faces great competition from giant firms such as Nokia and Samsung (Purkayastha & Sharma, 2016). Other competitors in this category include the HTC Corporation, Blackberry, and Google among others. In the product line dealing with tablets, the Apple leads the market with a share of 201% and the other companies follow behind. However the firm falls behind the likes of Lenovo, HP and Dell in the category of personal computers. Nevertheless, Apple leads in the market of smart watches although it does not score high in the production and marketing of operating systems.

Apple structure and its influence on its performance

The firm, organizational structure is a driving force to Apple’s efficient growth and survival in the market. An effective organization's structural design leads to the growth of the organization and the business at large. However, the structure would also deter a firm’s progress in the case of it being ineffective. In Apple for instance, the structure of authority flow is basically a traditional one and adopts few selected crucial features from various organizational structures (Forstall, et al, 2015). Apple’s success is greatly linked to the initiative and foundation by its pioneer- Steve Jobs. Nevertheless, the firm’s structural organization is designated with the responsibility of ensuring support to the management.

Currently, with Tim Cook at the top of the management, the organization has embraced some considerable transformations in its organizational structure so as to meet market as well as industry demands. This organizational design involves some three characteristics which involve, product-based grouping, spoke-and-wheel hierarchy and the function based grouping. This organizations in the company promotes the quality of products manufactured as well as the effectiveness of the management operations.

Apple’s competitive position and the possibilities it provides

The Apple Inc. has already established a dominating position in the consumer market of electronic products. Their brand and image are very unique in the market owing to the high quality production and differentiation from their rivals. Every category of their product is unique as compared to their competitors and this results to a low entry threat in the market.

The firm also has a vast production scale which can be done at cheaper costs due to the firm’s economies of scale. For this reason and the differentiation of its brand from that of the competitors, Apple stands a better position to dominate the electronic consumer market for the foreseeable future.

References

Fisher, R. E., Davis, B. J., Bushard, B. B., Meyer, M. J., Fisher, J., Patil, N., ... & Johnson, D. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,902,315. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Forstall, S., Chaudhri, I. A., Louch, J. O., & Peyton, E. S. (2015). U.S. Patent No. 9,104,294. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Golko, A. J., Schmidt, M. W., & Alvarez, F. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,787,006. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Khan, U. A., Alam, M. N., & Alam, S. (2015). A critical analysis of internal and external environment of Apple Inc. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, 3(6), 955-961.

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), 138-155.