Evaluation of Business Operations

Vision, Mission, goals and tactical plan of Apple

Vision

The vision statement of Apple Company is making the best products by promoting innovation. Simple technology should be employed in the production process. The company does not believe in taking part in a market without having meaningful impact. In its quest for success, the company believes in collaboration within the existing groups in the company to realize success. Whenever the company is wrong, it honestly accepts liability and changes.

Mission

The mission of Apple is to produce the best computers globally together with iWork, iLife and OS X. Apple is the leading company in music revolution in terms of using iTunes and iPods. This is the same technique that it has used in computing devices and mobile media.

Goals

The goals of the company include attaining software accuracy, appoint a team that would help it in improving its software and document any strategy used in estimating proxies. It also intends to record all its working hours and collate all its results. The other goals of the company are to do review on estimating how accurate its operations are.

Objectives

The objectives of the company include producing products and services that the great deal consumers enjoy. In addition, it seeks to become the leading company in mobile business. The company also looks forward to expanding its sales to consumers who are not at the moment doing business with it. In other words, the company looks forward to taking advantage of emerging markets.

Tactical Plans

The company has laid a variety of strategies to attain its objectives that have been mentioned above. It has tried to invest in the provision of the internet, retail stores by third parties and flagship stores. Other crucial stores include the production of a new crop of products. The new products have got features that did not exist in the previous products and this has really helped in boosting the market. The other tactical plan that the company has employed is doing research on online services. It is also the interest of Apple Company to monitor how Yahoo and Google operate so that it can borrow ideas from it and keep on improving.

Functions of management

Functions of management have greatly helped the company to improve. For instance, planning has helped Apple to know what it is supposed to do, when it is supposed to do it, where it should be done and who should be in charge of it. Other areas where planning has been effective include knowing how things are done and the necessary resources needed. Organizing has helped Apple to assign responsibilities to its employees leading to success as they specialize in their jobs to avoid conflicts. Through coordination, Apple has managed to interlink the activities of various departments so that in the long run the objectives of the company can be achieved. Emphasis is made on the objectives of the company so that in the long run they know that the objectives are more important than individual interests. Staffing as another function of management has also played a crucial role in the attainment of the goals and objectives of the company. Competent individuals are employed in the company through a vigorous process that has seen its rise in the market.

Ethical Implications

The company has put in place ethical policies that promote environmental conservation thereby improving it marketability. It has shown a lot of concern for the working conditions of its employees and does not promote unacceptable employment activities like child labor. It is socially and environmentally responsible. Even if it expands to new markets, the company is very compliant on matters of environment and social responsibility. Other important aspects of the company include the proper management of human capital (Müller, 2010). The company is a good example when it comes to ethical and moral matters that other companies can also follow. This is also the reason as to why the company is in good relationship with clients, shareholders and all the other partners.

SWOT Analysis

Apple has got a variety of strengths which include innovating products almost each and every year. This has enabled to meet the needs of individuals. It is also the leading company globally when it comes to the generation of revenue in the field of technology. The other notable strength is that its brand equity is very high and is the best globally. The way it designs its products is very attractive to its clients and this has improved its sales. It has got distribution channels spread in different countries and also sells its products online. Good leadership of the company has steered it to the climax. Apple has got stable prices in its markets and it does not change in different markets. In designing its products, it focuses on the consumers. The weaknesses of Apple include the difficulty in meeting the expectations of the consumers that keep on rising with time. The other weakness is that some of its policies are not compatible with accessories and software. This has affected the desirability of its products by the consumers. It also has got very few products that it relies on and if the products fail, the company is finished. The company has some opportunities for it to take advantage of and this include Apple cars, the room for it to expand technologically and the market that keeps on expanding. The other opportunities are Apple TV and IWatch. If it takes advantage of the opportunities well, it can be very profitable. The threats of the company are many smartphones penetrating the market. In this case, Android is giving Apple hard times in the market. Many companies also produce good laptops in the market and this gives Apple hard times as well.

BCG Matrix for Apple

The BCG matrix for Apple has made up various products. Cash cows show products that the company depends on because of hug demand and extended market. The products are sold at a mature stage. The second products are the stars which have got high share in the market and have got the potential of expanding. As the industry grows, it is possible for the products to continue penetrating the market. Stars have got the potential of being cash cow providing the industry experiences growth. Smart watch and iPhone 7 are products in this category. Question mark is for products or business units that can become stars. The change is not seen as uncertain. A company can take advantage of the opportunities for it to expand. However, low operations of the units can result to low growth for Apple. The products can spur growth for the company in the years to come. Mac laptops and computers have not picked very well in the market. The dogs make the last category of products for Apple. It has made up products that are seen as those which having growth potential. Taking the products to the market reveals the difficulties as they cannot be sold with ease and leads to huge losses to the company. The company cannot invest in such products moving into the future. Ipods are categorized under Dogs by Apple.

Environmental Scanning

The structure of the organization facilitates the ease of doing business and attaining its objectives. The structure outlines the way in which activities are supposed to be coordinated as the responsibilities are very clear. This minimizes conflicts and improves productivity. The clear organizational structure is very important when it comes to promoting the relationship and interactions amongst shareholders, management, employees and the competitors. Apple is a compliant company and does as per the requirement of the government (Cascio & Boudreau, 2012). This has a great perform at the macro level. At the same time, its performance at the micro level is also good because of the ethical principles that it has put in place and this is why it is appreciated by the employees and stakeholders and so it does not have any reasons to fail. External and internal analyses are favorable for Apple Company and this is not possible to revert at the moment. However, the goodness of the company can be affected if the management is changed and a new crop of leadership comes with different strategies altogether. This may call for the attention of the shareholders and other partners who may not be keen for things that are beneficial to be changed. The satisfactory performance of the company should only be maintained if changing proves to be very hard.

References

Cascio, W. F., & Boudreau, J. W. (2012). Short introduction to strategic human resource management.

Information Resources Management Association. (2012). Human resources management: Concepts, methodologies, tools and applications. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference.

Müller, C. (2010). Employee motivation an incentives at Apple: Do incentives really help to motivate employees?. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag