End Goal Portfolio

 To what extent, or in what ways, does your company use the Internet for employee training and development?

Training at Apple Inc., refers to providing planned and coordinated educational programs of instruction in professional, technical, or other fields to the employees that are or will be related to the employee’s job responsibilities. Training can be accomplished through a variety of approaches, such as classroom training, e-learning, and professional conferences that are educational or instructional in nature.

Internet is applied wherever necessary. For example, Apple’s case studies are debated. Internet is used to analyze the history of the company for the debate or internet is used to learn the programs online. Online teaching methods are used as one of the training methods for training the employees at Apple. Even before the training is provided, determining the type of training methods for the employees is first step considered for training. Not only internet, fine arts is used as a metaphor on teaching the employees how Apple communicates. In short Apple's internal training program is highly secretive and rarely written about and hence the above information was based on navigating the online websites.

 What products are sold in the company’s international markets? Do they vary by country or by region?

Mac Computers

iPads

iPhone

Apple Watch

AirPods

AppleTV

iCloud

iTunes

iPod

Apple likes to keep all products standardized across the globe. Which means that no matter the country or region, you will receive the same quality of Apple product as you would anywhere else. The pricing changes to fit the economy and accommodate cost of living in areas other than the US.

 What types of promotion does your favorite company emphasize in its international markets? Do they differ from those used in its domestic market?

   Yes, global marketing do differ.

Global marketing is “marketing on a worldwide scale reconciling or taking commercial advantage of global operational differences, similarities and opportunities in order to meet global objectives.

One of the product categories in which global competition has been easy to track in U.S. is automotive sales. The increasing intensity of competition in global markets is a challenge facing companies at all stages of development in international markets. As markets open up, and become more integrated, the pace of change accelerates, technology shrinks distances between markets and reduces the scale advantages of large firms, new sources of competition emerge, and competitive pressures mount at all levels of the organization. Also, the threat of competition from companies in countries such as India, China, Malaysia, and Brazil is on the rise, as their own domestic markets are opening up to foreign competition, stimulating greater awareness of international market opportunities and of the need to be internationally competitive. Companies which previously focused on protected domestic markets are entering into markets in other countries, creating new sources of competition, often targeted to price-sensitive market segments. Not only is competition intensifying for all firms regardless of their degree of global market involvement, but the basis for competition is changing. Competition continues to be market-based and ultimately relies on delivering superior value to consumers. However, success in global markets depends on knowledge accumulation and deployment.[2] Today, more and more marketing companies specialize in translating products from one country to another

 What kinds of distribution channels are being employed in your company’s international markets?

Apple Inc. have some brilliant marketing and distribution channel strategies which make them leaders in their respective industry.Apple Inc. has always used differentiation cost strategy in its market ,delivering the quality product has been one of the top most priority of Apple.To manage the profit out of the promised quality is what makes Apple 'the most reliable company of the world.'Apple has managed it's distribution channel very wisley in such a manner that no bug can be found in there channel ,being a global company Apple uses different kinds of channel to make their sale effective and efficient .

1)product via retailers and service providers.

Apple uses this channel in order to sell product via retail stores and service providers.The company directly places it's product in selective retail stores and cell phones hubs.

Apple designed it's distribution strategy after the analysis of availability of channel and density of competition.Apple only distribute it's product very carefully to exclusively selected mobile carriers. Apple Inc. is a global brand thus it sell a large proportion of its product in many foreign countries thus to manage the cost of distribution has to offset and must be recovered in the price, which makes product more expensive thus distribution channel must be short and accurate ,and is used in international market as well.

2)Online selling

Since the Apple products are expensive in nature ,so to manage cost Apple uses online selling portals to make there sales as well.

 Is the company practicing global procurement? If the company is procuring globally, what goods and services is it procuring and from which countries? 

Yes Apple Inc is practicing global procurement. There more suppliers of Apple prodcts throughout the world. Apple produces electronic items, softeware development and other networking services.

Some of the companies with which Apple inc has tie-up are as follows:

1. Qualcomm, Inc (USA)- It is one of the major supplier of semiconductor and telecom product suppliers to Apple, Inc. It supplies throughout the world

2. Samgung (South Korea)- It supplies flash memory, DRAM and other processors throughout South korea, China, U.S and Philippines

3. Texas Instruments, Inc - It supplies amplification system, throughout Taiwan, U.S, Malasiya, Japan and Mexico

4. Micron Technologies, Inc- It supplies DRAM, LPDDR3 and LPDDR2 throughout Taiwan, U.S, Singapore, China and Japan.

5. Glu Mobile, Inc- It supplies mobile games and iOS apps throughtout the world

 Is the company practicing global production? If the company is producing globally, what goods and services are produced globally and in which countries?

Yes, their supply chain is global

Apple products are made all over the world. As of December 2018 the countries where these goods and services are sold are listed below:

Australia

Austria

Belgium

Brazil

Canada

China

France

Germany

Hong Kong

Italy

Japan

Macao

Mexico

South Korea

Singapore

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Taiwan

Thailand

Turkey

United Arab Emirates

United Kingdom

United States

 Has the company outsourced goods and services? Has the company insourced goods and services?

Outsource

Currently Apple assembles the majority of their iPhones in its Shenzen, China location. Despite the fact that there are many other factories across the globe. After recent research, there was also signs that Apple takes different parts from all over the world to assemble the phone in its entirety.

Insource

Insourcing is a business practice in which work that would have otherwise been contracted out is performed in house. With knowing that definition, there was an article released shortly before the announce of the iPhone X debut that mentions Apple starting to manufacture their own MicroLED feature screen displays. The screens were previously manufactured in factories overseas.

 Is the company a member of one or more supply chains? If yes, can you identify the major members of the supply chain(s)?

The major members of supply chain of Apple are -

· Suppliers of the materials required to manufacture the gadgets

· Apple company

· Contract Manufacturers - Foxconn, Pegatron - who manufacture the Apple gadgets

· Distributors of Apple products

· Retailers who sell Apple products in physical stores

· E-commerce companies who sell Apple products online

 In what countries does your company export goods? Import goods? How would changes in the values of these countries’ currencies relative to the U.S. dollar affect transactions and translation risks? Economic risk?

Apple products are sold world over. However, the major countries where the products are exported are China, India, Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Japan and Indonesia. The major country from where the imports are made is China and all the assembling is also done there. The changes in the values of these countries’ currencies would have a significant effect on Apple’s business. The relation between interest rates and changes in exchange rates is critical. For example, weakening of foreign currency as against the dollar will result in Company’s sales and earnings being adversely affected leading the company to increase its price and ultimately reducing the demand for Company’s products.

The Company’s earnings depend to a great extent on the worldwide economic conditions. Uncertainty about economic conditions leads to less consumption of products, decline in income and tighter credit and unemployment.