Strategic Management
Ca Study: APPLE
Discussion Questions:
1. What are key forces in the general and industry environments that affect Apple’s
来那度胺说明书choice of strategy?
2. What internal resources and asts does Apple have that may give it a
competitive advantage?
3. What are Apple’s core competencies? How should Apple compete?
4. What is Steve Jobs’ role in Apple’s strategic management
1. General and Industry Environments
Pick up from the ca only specific examples to include under general environment and Porter Five Forces
Regarding the general external environment, Apple must consider the political/legal, economic and global, sociocultural and demographic, and technological forces that might affect the ability of the firm to get its product to market and sustain sales.
Demographic: Certainly the demographics had changed. Baby-boomers were getting older, while the youngest generation was much more “wired”.
Sociocultural: Customers were growing increasingly sophisticated. They knew what they wanted and didn’t want to pay a lot for it, but could be duced by a “xy” design. Increasing globalization meant borders didn’t matter so much any more – American products did not have any particular edge. As long as products were high performance and high rvice, the customer didn’t know or care where they came from. Technological: Technology, especially the growth of the Internet, had created new opportunities for delivery of content and for promotion. Companies like Intel and Samsung were making many advances in memory and display technology. The pace and direction of change required considerable monitoring and possibly risk-taking. Political-Legal: Political-legal issues, especially the issues around copyrights, monitoring of content distribution (digital rights management), environmental waste, and the possibility of global trade monopolies. U.S. regulators from Federal Trade Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission continued scrutiny of trade a
nd stockholder issues.
General Obrvation:
Bad on the external environmental factor analysis, the consumer electronics business has many competitors trying to carve out a piece of the “profit” pie. However, Apple is the only one with a well-diversified product line - able to compete in many product categories
U the Value Chain Model to illustrate your answer:
A sample value chain analysis is below:
Value chain activity How does Apple create value for the customer?
What challenges does Apple have in its value
chain?
Primary:
吃什么推迟月经Inbound logistics (distribution
facilities, material control
防溺水征文
systems, warehou layouts)
Hard to access. Information not readily available.
Operations (efficient work flow design, quality control systems) No evidence that this has ever been a weakness. Taken for granted, even assumed to be a strength.
Outbound logistics (consolidation of goods, efficient scheduling, finished goods processing) Distribution efficiency hard to asss, but appears effective, except for certain product availability.
Marketing and Sales (motivated sales people, innovative advertising & promotion, effective pricing, proper ID of customer gments & distribution channels) Multichannel distribution through Apple retail, third-party rellers, Internet, direct mail, word-of-mouth. Sales supported through creative advertising. Attention to design elements means it’s easy to recognize an Apple product. This is a major strength.
Service (ability to solicit customer feedback & respond) Consistent quality guaranteed by long-time relationship with Mac urs. Many blogs and Apple-related websites provide lots of commentary and feedback. Retail “experts” – Genius Bar – provide custom support.
Secondary (or support):采莲曲的诗意
下唇厚Procurement (win-win relationships with suppliers, reduced dependence on single supplier) Relying on multiple international partners for sourcing of some components allows for hedging against potential shortages. Negotiation and partnership with others such as Samsung creates barrier for competitors.
Technology development (state
of the art hardware & software,
innovative culture & qualified护士用嘴为我取精
personnel)
Absolutely one of Apple’s great strengths.
Human resource management (effective recruitment, incentive & retention mechanisms) After major shake-ups in the 1990’s, and Jobs’ recent illness, current employees and management appear focud and effective.
General Administration (effective planning systems to establish goals & strategies, access to capital, effective top management communication, relationships with diver stakeholders) Jobs, and especially COO Tim Cook, em to excel at this. Witness September 2008, in the midst of economic crisis, Apple had record year-end profits, $25 billion of cash, zero debt; and then over $10 billion quarterly revenue in January 2009.
Also asss the resources bad on VRIN framework (e below)
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Also u the Resource Bad View approach?
Explain the three key types of resources: tangible resources, intangible resources, and organizational capabilities.
Also, determine whether the internal resources are valuable, rare, difficult to imitate, or difficult to substitute (VRIN) can help a firm sustain a competitive advantage.
Tangible Resources:
Financial: Financially sound. Possibility of cash rerves to fund more R&D. Physical: Hard to asss, but certainly historically adequate.
一封回信Technological: Biggest ast here is Apple’s human resource – capable, motivated and highly technologically creative employees insure Apple will keep up with technology innovation.
Organizational: Jobs strategy of focusing on the digital “lifestyle” opens up what may have been functional “silos” in other companies.
Intangible Resources:
Human: Job’s focus on innovation appears to continually revitalize the workforce.
Innovation and creativity: One of Apple’s major strengths.
Reputation: This is one of Apple’s most significant strengths. The Apple brand is known world-wide.
An important issue to focus on here is the importance of intangible resources like innovation and reputation. Especially in mature brands, sustaining reputation is esntial. Look at resources that are controlled by Apple that might enable it to develop and implement value-creating strategies.
Organizational Capabilities
Specific Competencies or Skills: Jobs’ initial focus on the design professional, and education consumer ems to have gotten Apple its loyal customer ba. Apple’s additional skills include speed to market, brilliant design, creative marketing, and the ability to watch margins. This last highlights the importance of good operational skills, evident in COO Tim Cook.
Capacity to combine resources: How to combine the above competencies to continue to revitalize and grow the brand depends on Apple’s ability to focus on performance and innovation, and leverage its intangible asts
