Assignment 4

Week 3 Assignment 1

Sherri Coleman

Strayer University

BUS499 Business Administration Capstone

Dr. Keller

October 24, 2018

Week 3 Assignment 1

Apple, a technology-based corporation, is America’s largest publicly traded company with a net worth of more than a trillion US dollar. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, has diversified its line of products and operation to include the design, development, and marketing of online services, computer software, and consumer based electronics. The company is known for its quality brands such as the iPhone, iPod, and iPad that has attracted millions of loyal customers who are willing to use the extra money for them. However, despite being a leader in the technology industry, Apple has been affected severally by globalization and technology advancement.

Globalization

One of the most important effects of globalization is increased market for large organizations. Globalization has opened doors for Apple to trade all over the world. Apple products include iPhone, IPad and Mac book, are known and bought in Africa, Europe, South America, China and all over the world. This increase in the market causes an increase in revenue for Apple (Rowland 2018). Another important consequence of globalization is increased competition. Globalization causes increased competition not only for the market but also the raw material for the organization’s operations (Intriligator, 2017). While globalization increases the base of operation and market for an organization, it also brings multinational organizations from other countries. With the entry of large technology organization from Asia and Europe in the American market has increased the competition for Apple and other American companies in the industry. Among the organizations that have given Apple stiff competition include Lenovo, Samsung, Dell and Sony from Asia and Europe.

Technology

Another important effect and apparently manifestation of globalization is the exchange of technology. Exchange of technology goes hand-in-hand with globalization where new technologies are exploited by firms with an international and entrepreneurial orientation to seek business opportunities. The use of technology drives competition where to stay in business, organizations must stay updated with current technological innovation. Apple has been on the forefront in the race for technology in mobile phone and software development (Rowland, 2018). This is caused by pressure from rival international organizations such as Microsoft, Samsung, Google, and Sony. There is also an exchange of knowledge and technology with the use of technology in the globalized world. There is a lot of knowledge and information sharing between Apple and other organizations such as Facebook and that facilitate operations in the collaborating organizations. Globalization and technology have also allowed Apple to extend its operations in a bid to increase net income. Apple outsources the manufacturing to organizations in China where the cost of labor is low hence allowing them to reduce the cost of production. This increases Apple’s revenue and boosts its profitability.

Industrial-Based Model

The Apple brand is a potentially useful resource for the organization that differentiates it from other comedogenic products from such other suppliers as HP, Samsung, and Dell. Unlike other brands in the technology industry, the Apple brand is known for quality. The Apple brand creates a distinctive image built in the charisma of its founder and has been key to the survival of the brand. To nature the Apple brand, there is a need to market its products to all market segments. While Apple products are known and embraced in developed countries, their usage is low in developing nations (Raphaël & Pak, 2018). Marketing is needed for these low-end users to get hooked into the Apple touch. The culture of innovation and embracing change is unique with Apple as seen is the ability of the company to bring into the market a new phone each year. The innovation culture has been developed and is entrenched in every activity carried by the company. Nurturing and developing this culture requires the adoption of a technology philosophy and attracting new talents.

Resource-Based Model

The resource-based model is used by managers to determine the resources strategic to an organization that could be exploited to achieve a competitive advantage. To achieve a sustainable competitive advantage, an organization must exploit its internal resources relative to external opportunities (Westerlund et al., 2017). This requires a three-step process that involves first the identification of the key resources that could potentially uplift the firm. These resources must be valuable, rare, non-substitutable and imperfectly imitable (Raphaël & Pak, 2018). Then, these resources are nurtured and protected. Among Apple’s most useful potential resources include the company brand, culture of innovation and embracing change and strong bargaining power.

Vision

Just like its mission, Apple’s vision statement is quite detailed and elaborate than other companies. The vision statement states, ‘We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and we participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful ones to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate….’ (Rowland 2018). This statement allows Apple to focus on the innovation of products and fine-tuning production to make high-quality products. Apple focuses on collaboration with like-minded organizations to offer innovative products that stand out in the market. This has made the company to increase its grip in the technology industry despite the many competitors.

Mission

Apple’s mission statement is quite long but it relies on its main reason for existence. It states, ‘Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OSX, iLife, iWork and other professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App store and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad’ (Rowland, 2018). From this mission statement, the company sees itself as a tool for human advancement. This mission comes from the founding father, Steve Job who looked forward to making tools that would help the humankind to develop. This has contributed to the high quality of Apple brand and the consequent attraction of loyal consumers which has seen the company make progressive revenue improvements. Attention to making human life better and the consequent high-quality products it develops has made apple stand out among other companies, grow its market and grow its revenue over the years.

Apple owns its success to the many different stakeholders who have contributed to the business in different ways. One group of a shareholder to the Apple success is the customers. Apple has a wide network of loyal customers who are keen to buy their products. These contribute to the revenues that keep the organization in business. The next group is the employees who work on development, management production and other operations in the company. These produce high-quality products and service that are competitive in the market. The next stakeholder group includes suppliers and collaborating organizations where Apple outsource services. Organizations from China have been instrumental in Apple’s success as they provide cheap labor hence allowing apple to maximize its profits. The last important stakeholder’s to Apple’s success are investors who provide capital to the company hence allowing its continued operations. Other important stakeholders include the government which gives an enabling environment, the community which overtly supports the organization and the media that provides a platform for the marketing of Apple products.

References

Intriligator, M. (2017). Globalisation of the World Economy: Potential Benefits and Costs and a Net Assessment. In Economics of Globalisation (pp. 85-94). Routledge.

Raphaël, S. H. L., & Pak, M. (2018). Pro-competitive effects of globalisation on prices, productivity and markups: Evidence in the Euro Area.

Rowland C.(2018). Apple Inc.’s Mission Statement and Vission Statement. Panmore Institute

Westerlund, M., Isabelle, D. A., Rajala, R., & Leminen, S. (2017). Networks, business models, and competitiveness in small Finnish firms. International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 18(1), 9-26.