Apple Value Chain Analysis

968 Words2 Pages

There are four main areas of support activities: • Infrastructure: The systems of planning, finance, quality control, etc. are crucially important to an organization’s strategic capabilities in all primary activities. Infrastructure also consists of the structures and routines of the organization which sustain its culture. • Human Resource Management: This is a particularly important area which transcends all primary activities. It is concerned with those activities involved in recruiting, training, developing, and rewarding people within the organisation. • Technology Development: All value activities have a technology, even if it is simply “know-how”. The key technologies may be concerned directly with the product, a process, or with a particular resource. • Procurement: This refers to the process for acquiring the various resource inputs to the primary activities. The term ‘Margin’ implies that organizations realize a profit margin that depends on their ability to manage the linkages between all activities in the value chain. In other words, the organization is able to deliver a product / service for which the customer is willing to pay more than the sum of the costs of all activities in the value chain. Apple's Value Chain: Below is an example of Apple's value chain. As shown in the graphic, Apple values new product generation, product design, product creation, distribution, sales, marketing, and customer service. New Product Idea Generation: Apple has been able to perfect the chain of activities in innovation. Apple begins with new ideas of product design, designs the product through its own resources and funding, manufactures the product, and finally markets it wholeheartedly. Apple has an invent-and-reinvent mind... ... middle of paper ... ... Apple believes in wanting to keep a special place in the customer’s heart. The strong relationship between the company and its customers is credited to the company’s customer service and the nature of products which fulfills the need of today’s stylish people. Apple created a superior rapport with their customer base by delivering technically superior products (iPods vs. other MP3 players, Macs vs. PCs, etc.), and aggressively pursuing hardware and software updates. Apple integrated their primary activities so well that it is transparent to the consumer where one activity begins and the other ends. A great example of this is Apple’s willingness to develop software to run Windows XP on its new Intel-based iMac and then post it online free to iMac users. In such an environment, customer service merely becomes the realization of receiving a little more than expected.

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