Assignment

Apple’s Internal Environment

Introduction

Companies need to have an understanding of their internal environment because it influences the type of objectives it can pursue. While assessing the internal environment, each business finds that it has strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the company should try to maximize on the strengths while reducing the weaknesses. This paper will evaluate the internal environment of Apple to understand its strengths and limitations as well.

Vision, Mission, Values

The company's vision is to change the world through its technology creations. This vision is drawn from its founder’s thoughts on man's role in the universe. Steve Jobs believed in creations that change the way of life of people. The company has a mission to be a leader in the technology world and to always come up with creations that affirm this position as a leader. For instance, the company was the first to come up with touch screen smart phones.

The company is guided by the values of honesty, quality, and service delivery. This is shown in the company's approach to serving customers at their stores. Customers get personalized tours of the company's stores and even get all products that the company manufactures. The staff is trained on the importance of honesty in the firm's quest to be a leader in the market. The friendliness of the employees is also a key part of the firm's culture (Duncan et al., 2008).

Strategy Clarification

Apple’s strategy has always been to produce innovations that are relevant in the daily life of customers. In fact, the company aims to make gadgets that are so good that customers cannot leave them behind. This has inspired the tablets, iPods, and smart phones that the company's main products. The company emphasizes on quality a lot because they want customers to remain loyal to them. The company also prices its products above what customers charge for similar or substitute products.

However, the company's product offering is slightly different because they offer customers such things as upgrades on applications and operating systems. Still, the high price is seen as a reflection of product quality as well as the aesthetic value that customers attach to Apple's products. There is a certain pride that Apple's customers derive from owning premium priced products and a reduction in price would perhaps even result in a decrease in demand (Kuratko et al., 2014).

Cultural Assessment

Apple's main attribute of their culture is the independence with which employees work with. The company hires self-motivated individuals who will work better when there is no one to inspect their activities. The hierarchy in the company is almost non-existent because the CEO is assisted by vice presidents of the various divisions. Beyond that, there is no more hierarchy and the Chief Executive Interacts directly with employees and even knows their names, talents, interests and so forth.

The lack of hierarchy also ensures that decisions at the company take little time to be made and communications intended for all employees are delivered swiftly. Accountability is an important element of the company's culture because every employee has a set of duties they are expected to accomplish. The organization has even coined an acronym 'DRI', to mean Directly Responsible Individual. Blame placing is almost alien to the company (Duncan et al., 2008).

Value Chain Analysis

Apple's value chain is composed of a set of activities that the company does itself and some which it opts to outsource. The company starts by coming up with the designs for products it intends to create. Design is quite important for the company because it wants to be sell sleek and uniquely designed products. All designs are created in a factory in California. Another activity the company does for itself in the sales and distribution of final products (Duncan et al., 2008). The company does the sales work at its stores because it wants to give customers a uniform message. Outsourcing this function could lead to distortions of messages given to customers.

Activities that the company outsources include the production of screens and semi-conductors. These products are bought from companies in Asia because their production is a labor-intensive process. These items are also not item-specific and screens can be used by many gadgets and many companies as well. There is no need for Apple to invest in factories to produce them because the other companies can produce the much more efficiently.

Conclusion

The internal environment is characterized by a strong mission statement to which the company has strived to abide. The company always produces quality products that sell it as the ultimate market leader in consumer electronics. The company has a culture that encourages employees to be accountable, creative, and work under minimal supervision. The company also strives to reward its employees generously and create a conductive working environment where employees do not have to be ordered around.

Therefore, the employees reciprocate by showing loyalty to the company. Lastly, the company's value chain is made up of activities that the company outsources and those which it strives to do by itself. The company outsources labor intensive and non-unique processes such as screen making and assembling. However, the company controls essential processes such as product design, distribution, and sales services.

References

Duncan, W. J., Ginter, P. M., & Swayne, L. E. (2008). Competitive Advantage and Internal Organizational Assessment. The Academy of Management Executive, 12(3), 6-16.

Kuratko, D. F., Hornsby, J. S., & Covin, J. G. (2014). Diagnosing a Firm's Internal Environment for Corporate Entrepreneurship. Business Horizons, 57(1), 37-47.