Strategic Management paper help

APPLE and SAMSUNG

Apple Inc. is one of the giants of the mobile tech industry and is now a common household name. The success of the company is attributed to many factors that play well in place to put the company at the top. Samsung Electronics is also another major mobile player that can compare with Apple. Its range of phone products has also made it well known and liked and is one of the top competitors of Apple Inc. Each of these companies needs a good environment to survive. An environmental scan will help determine the environments of the two tech giants and also determine how they both are able to have a competitive advantage over other companies. Strategic management is hence key for both companies to stay at the top. Apple started out as a small computer company and branched out further into smartphones, television sets, music players, and tablets. The company has even gone further to making their own software and operating systems that they use on all their gadgets. They have also taken over the entertainment world through their huge sales of videos and music. The company’s products are well known and most Apple lovers are usually on the lookout for newer better models of the gadgets they already have. Its revenues and sales have been in billions of dollars indicating how well established this company has become ("Apple", 2016).

The internal environment of Apple constitutes its management, employee morale, cultural changes and financial changes. Management of Apple is on point as great management of a company reflects on the wellbeing of the company. Apple’s current and overall third CEO is Tim Cook. The CEO’s of the company have been very opinionated and brought a great deal to the company. Their shrewdness and ability to make tough decisions have made Apple stand strong at all times. The company CEO’s have encouraged the best skilled workers keep joining the Apple team and hence making their productivity keep growing. Employee morale is key to a good internal environment at Apple. The company’s previous CEO, the late Steve Jobs, encouraged his employees by creating the Apple Fellowship that awarded employees who made remarkable contributions to their work either in technological input or in leadership. The employees of the company also specialize in specific areas of work. Instead of working on many different tasks, they are only tasked with one specific task. For example, the employee in charge if selecting stores and store locations was not responsible for the inventory of these stores but another employee was selected for that. This division of labor led to specialization of labor, which in turn improve the company’s productivity. Cultural changes in a company can affect the company positively or negatively. Apple has managed to maintain its culture of running its activities in such a way that despite managerial change, the culture of the company does not change but is improved constantly to keep up with changing times. Financial changes in the company have also been kept at an absolute minimum. The company keeps growing financially and its management ensures that the right decisions are made to ensure that it maintains its financial stability.

Samsung Electronics’ internal environment is also geared towards the above factors. Jong-Kyung Shin is the company’s CEO and has done a commendable job of maintaining the company name. The company is one of the largest tech giants and has a varying range of products and services. Management has maintained the company’s status by ensuring that advances in innovations is met and that its wide range of products are the best on the market. Samsung employs a wide range of employees and has maintained these employees through different awards and recognition. The company’s employees specialize in specific products and services. The employees making phones and tablets are not the ones making fridges and television sets. Each employee has a specific role, be it in production, supply and distribution or even testing. This has enabled the company to produce high-end goods due to specialization of labor. Cultural changes in the company are positive changes. The company works towards making their customers’ lives easier through the products and services they produce. Their brands are so well rooted in the market that some entire households have electronic and appliances of Samsung. The financial matters of the company have stabilized enabling the company to grow continuously in all its sectors ("Home", 2016).

Apple has maintained a competitive advantage through specialization of labor. This has enabled the company to produce high-end goods at all times. Their products are recognizable from afar and are some of the best products worldwide. The company has many branches and sub outlets worldwide to enable distribution of its products easily. The advertisements on their products or services is said to be highly captivating that even people without the devices are tempted to try them. The company has maintained its brand in the best way possible in that any of its products are self-selling just because Apple makes them. Samsung has maintained a competitive advantage through its varying range of products and services. The company distributes their products through most countries worldwide. Its common two-year warranty also encourages buyers to invest in their products. They also maintain their competitive advantage through constant free updates all over the world. These involve say updating of consumers’ phones, tablets and laptops software. The company’s high end products speak for themselves worldwide.

For Apple to maintain its competitive advantage, it maintains its products and services differentiation at all times. Due to its high level of specialization of labor, it has managed to give the best of their products and services. While they may not offer as many products and services as other tech giants like Samsung, their products and services differentiation has enabled the company to stay at the top. It has also maintained people differentiation through ensuring that its employees only work in their area of expertise. They encourage highly trained employees to work with them and recognize the efforts of those who perform exceptionally well at their jobs. Samsung has maintained its competitive advantage through mainly innovation differentiation where they have produced a wide range of products that are of the best quality and sometimes first in the market. The company’s quality differentiation has enabled them to maintain this advantage as it has products for all families of any level of income. It has products suitable for low, middle and upper income earners that are of high quality and offer great service to their customers no matter how much they make. It has also maintained its competitive advantage through its vast range of products and also its ability to reach many people worldwide at their local towns or stores. Both Apple and Samsung have maintained great image differentiation that gives each a competitive advantage. Their products are self-selling and most customers already know what they are getting even before purchasing.

Both these companies use efficient, product, outcomes and quality measures to determine their strategic effectiveness. The efficiency of their products and services based on their customer feedback gives them a guideline as to how effective they are. The products and services they provide will let them know of their strategic effectiveness through how well they sell. The more they sell, the better their strategy was at being delivered.

Both companies are truly top of the line and tremendously successful in delivering their strategies. Their products are the best worldwide and are well established in all markets. Apple’s ability to produce high end products has shown its success in the strategies the company uses such as specialization of labor. Samsung has shown how effective its strategies are in how fast the company is growing. Its ability to produce products that suit all persons has put it at the top of its own class (Williams, 2009).

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