Unit 1 Case Analysis: Apple Inc.
GB520 Strategic Human Resource Management
About
“Strategic management is an ongoing process that evaluates and controls the business and the industries in which the company is involved; assesses its competitors and sets goals and strategies to meet all existing and potential competitors; and then reassesses each strategy annually or quarterly [i.e. regularly] to determine how it has been implemented and whether it has succeeded or needs replacement by a new strategy to meet changed circumstances, new technology, new competitors, a new economic environment., or a new social, financial, or political environment” (Lamb, 1984: ix).
In 2008, Harvard Business Case Study for Apple Inc., describes a very popular Corporation which had 24 billion in revenue in 2007 and how the company has some concerns for many years. Company status was reviewed in-depth of the article that identified several strategic steps of the CEO in marketing, not just the computer industry, and consumer electronics industry. This issue will be discussed in this analysis paper of strategic management. The final section of this document will offer recommendations to some of the difficulties faced by Apple, Inc. in a process of making successful changes.
Issues and/or Problems and their Possible Solutions
The first phase of strategic management for the Corporation is to evaluate its mission statement. The purpose of this mission statement is to define in simple terms the reason and purpose of its existence. This can be very difficult to build because it requires having clear and concise understanding and vision of the Organization and ultimately to understand why it exists at all. Apple ...
... middle of paper ...
..., positive image of the brand are innovation, competitiveness and sustain competitive advantage are to open more stores, continue to on the market for education, come up with different new products all the time, and may be create additional compatibility.
References
Lamb, R., B., Competitive strategic management, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984
Slind, M., Yoffie, D., (2008), Harvard Business Review: Apple Inc., p1-32.
http://www.uscubacommission.org/strategic-financial-management-or-institutional-management.html
References
Lamb, R., B., Competitive strategic management, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984
Slind, M., Yoffie, D., (2008), Harvard Business Review: Apple Inc., p1-32.
http://www.uscubacommission.org/strategic-financial-management-or-institutional-management.html
Dess, G. G., Lumpkin, G. T., Eisner, A. B., & McNamara, G. (2012). Strategic Management: Text & Cases (6th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Strategic management is the ongoing process of ensuring a competitively superior fit between the organization and its ever-changing environment (Kreitner, G13). Strategic management serves as the competitive edge for the entire management process. It effectively blends strategic planning, implementation, and control. Organizations that are guided by a coherent strategic framework tend to execute even the smallest details of their mission in a coordinated fashion. The strategic management process includes the formulation of a strategy/strategic plans, implementation of the strategy, and strategic control. A clear statement of the organizational mission serves as the focal point for the entire planning process. People inside and outside the organization are given a general idea of why the organization exists and where it is headed. Working from the mission statement, management formulates the organization's strategy, a general explanation of how the organization's mission is to be accomplished. Then general intentions are translated into more concrete and measurable plans, policies, and budget allocations. Implementation is the most important part of the strategy. Strategic plans must be filtered down to lower levels to be success. Strategic plans can go astray, but a formal control system helps keep strategic plans on track. In the strategic management process general managers who adopt a strategic management perspective appreciate that strategic plans require updating and fine-tuning as conditions change. Given today's competitive pressures, management cannot afford to let strategic plans sit as is. A strategic orientation encourages farsightedness. Sun Microsystems Inc. is one company that developed a strategy to become the competitive leader and become the most reliable in the net business. I will explain how Sun's strategy integrates their marketing, management, technology, and service functions into one effective strategy. First I'll discuss who Sun is and what encouraged them to develop their strategy.
Throughout the global economic environment the desire to out-perform the competition is always present. In every situation, the companies who do better are the ones with superior strategy (Rothaermel, 2013). Strategic management is therefore important in every company, no matter what industry or market they operate in; and as stated by M. Carpenter and G. Sanders, 2013, is described as "The process by which a firm manages the formulation and implementation of its strategy". Strategic management is a constant topic under discussion with different schools of theorists with different beliefs and attitudes which is described as "A tense array of disagreement" (Rees, 2012).
Hitt, M., Ireland, R. & Hoskisson, R. (2010).Strategic Management: Competitive and Globalization, Concept and Cases. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning
According to Ideavist (2011), due to the increase in competition as rival companies try to capture a piece of the market share leads businesses to employ various tactics to handle such situations. Some of the strategies used by companies and that Apple could find very constructive could include the below marketing strategies to be used for future success.
On 5th October 2011, after the untimely passing of the former Apple founder, the future of the technology giant was anything but definite. The former CEO had brought back the company from the verge of bankruptcy twice to make it one of the most valuable companies in the world. Therefore on Jobs’ departure a huge onus lied in front to the new CEO, Tim Cook, to follow in his footsteps and ensure that the company stays aligned on the path that his visionary and charismatic predecessor had marked for it.
emerging or new market. It can originate from new technology or new market opportunities (Eliashberg, J., Lilien, G. L., & Rao, V. R. 1997). Literature defines product development as exploiting an untapped market opportunity and turning it into a value product for customer satisfaction. Development and introduction of a new product requires extensive research on understanding customer needs, market structure, emerging trends and analysing the internal & external competitive market environments. To evaluate customer satisfaction previous researches provide strong relationship between customer satisfaction and product quality, product features and value for money. ***
From 1980 to 1996, Apple’s competitive range in the PC industry was rocky. Although Apples products were unique and well built, they were overpriced compared to competing products from IBM and others. As competitor prices dropped, Apple prices stayed the same and the company saw a decline in sales as customers opted to purchase from its competitors. John Sculley, former CEO of Apple, took many steps to improve the company’s competitive advantage. One of those steps was to compete with price by producing a low-cost computers that appealed to a mass-market. The second step was to form an alliance with rivals IBM and Novel in order to create new operating systems and applications...
Strategic management is a disciplined effort or control to make necessary decisions that have an effect on a business or an organization; the aim of strategic management is mainly to develop new, innovative or diverse ideas and opportunities for potential or development, and facilitates or assists an organization to achieve its goals (SM, 2010). In reality, strategic management not only can be used or applied to determine mission, vision and values or objectives, but it also establishes roles and responsibilities or timelines in a business (David, 2009). In the following sections, this study will focus on and examine the nature of strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation activities, and analyze the potential pitfalls or risks in using a strategic-management approach to decision making.
Introduction and Background Apple, Inc is a well known name in the computer technology world; Apple, Inc leads the computer industry in innovation thanks to the award winning desktop and notebook computer known as OS X operating system (Yoffie & Slind, 2008). This paper will focus on Apple Inc., strategic management and why is it critical to the success of the organization in meeting its goals and mission. It is therefore important to define strategic management, according to Certo, Peter & Ottensmeyer, (2005), strategic management is a continuous process that directs an organization to be appropriately suited to its internal and external environment. Strategic management benefits organizations by providing personnel, capital, helps to set standards and most importantly activates people. For an organization to have a successful strategic management plan, the mangers must learn to think strategically and have the ability to evaluate their environment and develop new ideas.
What I benefit from this course strategy management class is knowing. The strategic management is consisting of the analysis, decisions, and actions an organization undertakes to create and sustain competitive advantages. strategic management analyses. concern with overall objectives, involves multiple stakeholders, incorporates short and long term perspectives, recognizes tradeoffs between effectiveness and efficiency. The strategic management analysis, formulation, and implementation the challenge managers face of both aligning resources to take advantage of existing product markets as well as proactively exploring new opportunities.
Strategic management is the way of implementing different business strategies and plans to attain certain specific aims and objectives. It involves collection of decisions and different rules and policies that tend to define the results that are generated in the form of better business performance. For undertaking these activities, management should possess an in depth understanding and be able to assess the general and competitive external and internal business environment to take proper business decisions (Cornelis, 2010). McDonalds is an organization that offers a range of products and services in a very effective manner that makes it a market leader in providing fast food services all over the world. By enforcing suitable strategies, McDonalds can increase its level of sales and will also help in upgrading as well as sustaining the market by acquiring competitive advantage (Schoenberg, Collier and Bowman, 2013).
The strategic management process works to achieve a strategic competitiveness over other organisations within the same industry. This is done by successfully producing a value-creating strategy. (Hanson, Dowling, Hitt, Ireland & Hokisson et al, 2008)
Apple Inc. is a multinational company, based in America, which innovate, develop and sell personal computer its software named Macintosh and various other products like the iPhone and the iPad. In 1976, Steve Jobs started the apple era and the business has grown rapidly to one of todays’ iconic inventors of consumer electronics. Despite the company operates in a wide field of products, Apple is handling every of their products as a separate business unit, but with a similar and recognisable design. This report will focus on Apples last invention, the iPad, and analysis its position within the market and future perspectives (Apple Inc., 2012).
Strategic management is the process where organization managers reach the goals and aspirations of the organization on behalf of its owners. This is done through formulation and implementation of ways and methods to fulfill the organizational goals and objectives (Brian, 2011). This is done with in-depth consideration of both the internal and external environments that the organization operates in, in order to allow the organization make the right decisions. Strategic management is an important element that firms must put together through strategic thinking as well as strategic planning (Nag, R., Hambrick & Chen, 2007).