Mgt100 Introduction To Management Of Assessment Answers

Answer:

Description of Company

The chosen company is Apple Inc., which is famous for the Apple computers, iPhone, tablets etc. The company started in California USA and has been able to become one of the best multinational company. The company mainly works and deals with the perspectives of the consumer electronics, software and the servers. With the invention of iPod, Apple was able to become the leader in the industry where the biggest technology was appreciated by the common people. The identifiable product and the simple designing helped Apple to maintain the growth of the company with the leadership in the education sector. (Bayani et al., 2017). The target has always been with the loyal customers who would work on the education sector in California. The idea was also to donate the Apple LOGO software package to the schools so that the children are aware of the technology and are able to keep a upper hand in the market. The nature of the company is mainly to deal with the commercialised products where the technology is to introduce from the time they first launched till there are operating system that are set for not only the user friendly but also to work on the identifying of the issues in an effective manner.

PESTEL Analysis

Political Factors:

The extent to which the profit maximalisation is possible is based on the different political factors. Here, the focus is on the battle with US Federal Bureau of Investigation, where Apple dispute about the hacking of an iPhone that was used by the terrorist of San Bernardino. This turned into the political debate. (Castro, 2016). Hence, the amount of political lobbying by the company determined the PESTEL analysis. Here, the company is also work on increasing the annual political lobbying with reaching to the limit of USD 4.67 million in 2016.

                                                               Lobbying of Apple done annually

Economic Factors

The revenue could be a major impact on the macroeconomic situation where the company reported that there is a decline in the sales of the first quarter of 2016. Hence, for this, there are issues with the deterioration of the real economy. Apple has recorded to generate 65% of the total sales mainly from the international market. The rising cost of the labour is major issue and the implications on the revenue of Apple. (Brito et al., 2017). The company is based mainly on the units of manufacturing in China which is due to the lower efficiency of the cost of resources and the human resources.

Social Factors

The Apple products have been marked with the presence of the international market where the power of purchasing is mainly common to the rising of the markets in the world. The purchase of the luxury products has been considerably gone up with the possessing of the items that are considered to be the status symbol for the societies.

Technological Factors

With the technology change, Apple needs to work on the upgradation of the products which will be able to outdo the competitors. Apple Inc., has been able to invest in the research of products and the development field to a larger extent where the products are also set to the top for the new innovative ranking of the products. The innovative and the advancement of the products like the iPod is market as a major demise to Walkman.

Legal Factors

Apple Inc., has been considered as one of the major participants in the different proceedings from the time it started its operations. (Adinaviciute et al., 2016).As per the records, in 2009, the company Nokia sued Apple for the infringement of the patent of Nokia which relates to the wireless technology. Apple has been in sync with the other cases as well with other companies like HTC and Samsung.

Environmental Factors

The reporting of the carbon footprint is to find about the ways to mainly reduce the footprint. Apple also has been able to work on the approach for the environmental responsibility and commitment to the environment. This includes the fact that there is a proper disposing of the electronic equipment that is set along with the responsibility of recycling the company with displays. The on-track towards a goal is to empower Apple facility with the energy that comes from the renewable sources like the solar, wind, hydro and the geothermal energy.

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis 

The company works with the employing of the different countless strategies that are for the competitive advantage over the other competitors. For this, the approach generally entails with the customised designing and to make sure that the company is able to handle the environment under which it operates. The firm strategy also depends on the market share where there are bigger or smaller market shares to make sure for determining the formulation of a better business strategy. (Cardoso, 2017). A low-cost provider, differentiation and focus strategy is important to craft the details which are based on:

1. The low-cost provider strategy appeals customers with low cost providers for the particular product or service. Apple has been working on the computer market which is identified for the specific designing and tailoring to meet all the needs. The designing of Mac computers and iBook is for the basic buyers where the cost of the model is kept relatively low.
2. The broad differentiation strategy is mainly to seek for the customers with more value that will be important for incorporating the excellent product attributes to the customer at an appreciable cost. Apple is able to work with differentiation of the product and services from the competitors. The differentiation of the products focusses and produce the market segment, consumer and the professional market. This has been designed for the beginners which is not important for the complex functions. (Hasan, 2013).
3. The best cost provider is to give the customers a better value for money with incorporating the good-to-excellent product attributes generally at a lower cost. Apple works on the differentiated incorporation for good-to-excellent product attributes. (Ying, 2016). Example, the incorporation through the iPod digital music player, iTunes website for the sales and then downloading the music in the computer also provide the users with the best value for money.
4. The focus strategy is for the low cost concentrating mainly on the narrow buying segment and then offering all the unique products at a lower cost only. Apple has been able to work on differentiated products focusing mainly on the professionals and the production of the computers that are tailors to meet the professionals. The computers have been designed to have all the complex functions that would meet the needs of today.
5. The focus strategy for the differentiation mainly includes the narrow segment that offer the unique products and the customised range of attributes. They are important for meeting the taste and the requirement of the buyer other than the competitors. Apple is focusing on the marketing segments with low cost products for the same. The company has also been able to work through the production of different iBook computers for serving the different sections of customer. (Khan et al., 2015).

Apple has been able to work on the computer industry along with gaining advantage over the market segment to offer a unique product and a customised attribute as well. In this manner, Apple computers stand a chance to setup through the hectic change in industry with time. The company is able to meet the strategies along with all the different challenges that lead to the strengthening and unique competency. The strategy of competitiveness in Apple is deployed through the managerial problems with deploying the market penetration strategy to expand the market share. Example, to effectively apply the generic strategy, Apple is working on emphasising the innovation with proper research and the development. (Ott et al., 2016). Along with this, there is a proper development of the innovative products that the firm can easily stand against the other competitors. The competitors are able to catch with the different products so that the broad differentiation is able to work with the innovation pattern.

Recommendations

There is a need to focus on:

1. The aggressive expansion mainly into the new and better markets which are seen to be emerging.
2. The signs of Apple announcement in 25 stores in China.
3. The pursuing of the minimal effective products with differentiation in price would help in a better product marketing range that will be for more attractive yet emerging markets.
4. The company should explore all the other retail channels which are to maximise the potential sale with minimising the risks that are related to the growth of the markets.
5. There is a huge opportunity which is noticeable to mainly build the brand reputation and loyalty.

Considering the management base of Apple Inc., the company can focus on the major strengths which are for addressing or setting the organisational weakness. The company can also work on using the strengths and then exploiting the opportunity for expanding to the different distribution network. Apple is used as the strong brand image and for the rapid innovation where the processes are to develop and launch better product lines. With this, it is also seen that the firm faces the threats of the aggressive competition and imitation, which are the major challenge that affects the industrial growth. Hence, an important action need to be taken to address all the threats with the strong patent portfolio along with working over the continuous innovation to make sure that all the competitive advantage of the Apple products is set even when the competitors are trying to catch up. Considering some of the points:

1. Apple should move away from the traditional power culture and focus on the greater risks. The company need to also work on the culture which offers a higher and a greater level of freedom and flexibility for the employees, decision making with a better level of speed. The creation of room and the creativity of employee and innovation is always helpful.
2. Apple CEO need to work on adapting the promotion in the task culture within the company through properly communicating to all the organisational stakeholders. This will help in improving the role of change agent with the shift from the power to the task culture.
3. Innovation and creativity should be preserved and worked out at all costs, which is important for Apple to preserve the corporate culture.

Conclusion

With the change in the marketing concept, Apple Inc uses and makes it successful in the long run to collaborate with the customer oriented, organisation objectives and the coordinated marketing activities. (Rothaermel, 2016). The customer attraction is mainly through advertising with different media which is appealing for the customers, and provide a better delivery of services. Hence, the steps are also taken to reach to the customer oriented concept, where the organisation objective is to set the target for the employees to reach with the time that is moves closer to the goal and improve the product quality. Apple works on the marketing management with acknowledging the customers’ needs and their wants. (Weiss, 2017). Hence, Apple Inc., works with the people and the figures that works on including the daily lifestyle. The major motive of Apple is to think differently and to make sure that it is able to create the better state of art products. The other computer manufacturers have also tried hard for copying the ideas but nothing has been a success. Apple has been able to bring it differently for the user-friendly laptops and computers.

Reference

Adinavicïute, M., Goldner, P., Mihu, A., Nzong, C., & Sisak, M. (2016). YouTube Red.

Bayani, M., & Dakila, C. (2017). Repositioning in Furtherance of Future Strategic Direction: An Analysis of Cobra Beer. European Journal of Contemporary Research, 6(1).

Brito, T. L. D., & Harkiolakis, N. (2017). Influence of UK economic and market policies on a small wine merchant. International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 8(1), 29-45.

Cardoso, E. A. R. P. (2017). Examining the differences of the internationalization strategies of two of the major brands in the smartphone industry-Apple inc. versus Samsung electronics (Doctoral dissertation).

Castro, R. B. (2016). Apple Inc.–A Marketing Success Story.

Castro, R. B. (2016). Apple Inc.–A Marketing Success Story.

Hasan, M. R. (2013). Apple Inc.-An Analysis: PESTEL analysis, Porter’s 5 Forces analysis, SWOT analysis, Comprehensive analysis of financial ratios, and Comprehensive analysis of share performance of Apple Inc. GRIN Verlag.

Khan, U. A., Alam, M. N., & Alam, S. (2015). A Critical Analysis of Internal and External Environment of Apple Inc. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, 3(6), 955-961.

Ott, M., & Hagedorn, S. (2016). Business Plan and Analysis of Nest (Google's Smart Home Company).

Rothaermel, F. T. (2016). Competitive Advantage in Technology Intensive Industries. In Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results (pp. 233-256). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Weiss, A. (2017). Corporate Intelligence. In The Palgrave Handbook of Security, Risk and Intelligence (pp. 373-392). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Ying, F. (2016). Samsung's international strategy. An Analysis.