Kim Woods - Strategic Plan Part III: Balanced Scorecard and Communication Plan

Strategic Plan Part II: SWOTT Analysis

Kellee Kelley

BUS/475

October 11, 2017

Dr. Peter Francis, Ph.D

SWOTT TABLE 

EXTERNAL FORCES AND TRENDS CONSIDERATION  

Factor	Strength	Weakness	Opportunity	Threat	Trend
Industry Changes	Ability to cope with changing trends in the industry	Stiff competition	Increased demand for innovative commodities	Upcoming technological organizations	Technological advancement
Legal and regulatory	Able to comply with legal requirements in different nations	High expenses on litigation issues	Good legal record (Hill & Westbrook, 2017)	Ruined public image	Increased compliance measures
Global	Best known technological company	Market diversity (Hill & Westbrook, 2017)	High global population hence high demand	Increased global regulations and  market constraints	Dynamic consumer tastes and preferences
Economic	Financially stable	High cost of production due to quality	Large capital base hence strong borrowing capacity	Financial risks in the market	Upcoming purchase and sale economies and different market platforms
Technological	Capacity to keep up with emerging technology	Competition from other firms (Hill & Westbrook, 2017)	High rate of innovation	Ambiguity in technology	Advancements in the technology sector
Innovation	High rate of innovation	Employee varied levels of skill	Embracement of the learning curve in the organization	Constant poaching of employees by other organizations	Different ways of operations keep coming up
Social	Good relationships with external stakeholders	Expensive to keep up with corporate governance initiatives	Recurring community needs and social gaps to be filled	Cultural differences	Embracement of technology by the society
Environmental	Good business environment	Expansive to put up in new locations (Hill & Westbrook, 2017)	Expansive markets in different environments	Global competition from other multinational firms	Increased globalization in the 21st Century
Competitive analysis	The inability of competitors to embrace apple’s method of production	Inability to keep up with expenses due to quality requirements	There is plenty of room for new ideas in the market	Expensive information in the market	New competitive discoveries from different companies

INTERNAL FORCES AND TRENDS CONSIDERATIONS:

Factor	Strength	Weakness	Opportunity	Threat	Trend
Strategy	Product development	Not shareholder friendly	Ability to change	Dynamic preferences	New strategies keep coming up
Structures	Design and utility are acceptable	Complex systems where top-level management is involved	Flexibility (Hill & Westbrook, 2017)	Need to maintain consistency	New organization structures
Processes and systems	Effective marketing strategies	Very proprietary and controlling	Flexibility	Obsoleteness (Pratap, 2016)	New processes and systems
Resources	Availability of resources in the organization	Expensive production materials	Availability of resources	Lack of flexibility	New developments
Goals	Visionary goals	Too demanding	Good reputation	Lack of flexibility	New strategic requirements.
Strategic capabilities	Perfect brand name	Employee intimidation	Loyal consumer base	Inability to meet demand	New version of Apple TV
Culture	Dynamic culture in different markets	Failure to be embraced by some cultures	Different cultures different preferences	Lack of acceptance	Acceptance by communities
Technologies	Ability to embrace technology	Inability to embrace some technological developments	Diversification of technology	Big ideas are easy to duplicate	Constant development in technology
Innovations	High level of innovation from personnel	Inability to come up with new ideas in some cases	Variety to choose from (Pratap, 2016)	Big ideas are easy to duplicate	High rates of innovation
Intellectual property	High value and protected information and organization patent.	Expensive	Information intelligence is abundant	Big ideas are easy to duplicate	Innovation has become increasingly destructive
Leadership	Participative leadership in the organization	The CEO is very demanding (Pratap, 2016)	Inability to cope with upcoming industry leaders	Leadership inefficiency is a loss to organization	The growth of leaders through training and constant knowledge transfer

ANALYSIS

Identify economic, legal, and regulatory forces and trends.

Legal trends include the department of labor regulations and employability rules. The rules of hiring, firing and treating personnel is well explained in this policy (Rowland, 2017). Regulatory trends include; tax amounts, penalties, and economic trends are such as; increased market share, increased income levels of consumer, and increased market inflation rates.

Critique how well the organization adapts to change.

Apple is known for its excellent ability to adapt to diversity, in the technology industry. The organization embraces change and regards the difference to be the cause of its success. Change is inevitable, and other groups which aim at prospering, need to imitate Apple's ways of embracing change. Personnel is not left out in the change process. Hence reluctance is highly mitigated.

The supply chain of the new division of the existing business

The supply chain and logistics in any organization are a significant determinant of its overall success. Apple’s supply chain and logistics process are very well informed, well managed and professionally executed for accuracy and effectiveness in the market. The supply chain of the new division of the existing business will focus on production and supply of commodities as per the order period and time duration (Rowland, 2017).

This will ensure that a just in time system and the first-in-first-out method of inventory management are incorporated. Developing and leveraging core competencies and resources will be done through engaging more stakeholders in the process. This way, when all stakeholders are involved, it will be easier to make sound decisions, while embracing the opinions of everyone for the new business model at the organization. The technology industry is dynamic, a fact that needs to be adopted (Ingenhoff, & Fuhrer, 2010).

The primary internal organizational considerations for the development of a strategic plan.

The organization should take into consideration the need for consistent employee training and development programs. Learned employees are a representation of the development of a team. When employees understand business strategies, implementation of the organizational strategic plan becomes smooth all the way.

Major issues and opportunities the company faces based on your analysis.

Apple Inc. faces three major issues, based on my analysis. These include technology challenges, leadership challenges, and competition challenges. Barriers to competition and innovation have slowed down the development at Apple, while the company is currently in the middle of a leadership transition, which presents a lot of uncertainty in the future of the organization. Regarding the technological challenge, improvement is in high demand in almost all products of the group by new markets (Ingenhoff, & Fuhrer, 2010). There is a significant opportunity for Apple Inc. to link itself to the high population and extensive markets in regions it operates. High demand leads to high sales hence high profitability in the future.

References

Hill, T., & Westbrook, R. (2017). SWOT analysis: it's time for a product recall. Long range planning, 30(1), 46-52.

Ingenhoff, D., & Fuhrer, T. (2010). Positioning and differentiation by using brand personality attribute: Do mission and vision statements contribute to building a unique corporate identity? Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 15(1), 83-101.

Pratap, A. (2016). Apple Mission and Vision Statements: An analysis. https://www.cheshnotes.com/2016/12/apple-mission-and-vision-statements-an-analysis/.

Rowland, C. (2017). Apple’s Vision Statement & Mission Statement. http://panmore.com/apple-mission-statement-vision-statement .