Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Apple Inc commonly known as Apple has effectively managed to be a successful company in a
very competitive consumer electronics industry by been innovative and differentiating the
companys products with similar products in the markets by offering high quality products and
good customer service while the actual manufacturing of the products is outsourced to trusted
third party suppliers. On a wider perspective, the company has set high standards that even the
company itself has to be on its level best to maintain the standards that it has set.
Over the last few years, the consumer electronics market has become heavily commoditized
which as a result has seen intense completion from competing firms in the industry where price
has become the main aspect of the competition. By making use of the talented research and
development team, Apple has been able to position its products as the best in terms of
innovativeness, performance and reliability while compared to similar products in the market.
However, Apple needs to continuously review its strategies to make sure that the company
maintains its position in the industry for many years.
This strategic plan review Apples performance and environment from various perspectives
before strategic recommendations are made on the conclusion section. Among others the Internal
Factor Matrix, External Factor Matrix, SWOT strategies and SPACE matrix have all been used
in order to establish Apples current position in the market. In order for Apple to retain its
position, the report recommends that the company increases its presence in markets where it is
yet to have any presence, increase its social corporate responsibility initiatives and spend a lot of
money in research and development so that new products with unique features can continue been
developed.
Overview of Apple
Apple Inc is a multinational company that is based in America and headquartered in
Apple California located in California, U.S. Apple was established in April 1976 by Steve Jobs
and Steve Wozniak and was incorporated in January 1977. The company designs and later sells
consumer electronics, personal computers and computer software. The Macintosh range of
personal computers, iPod, iphone and the iPad are among the Apples best known products.
Some of the software sold by the company includes Final cut studio that is a music and video
production suite, Aperture which is Proffessional photography software, iTunes media browser,
Mac Os X operating system and Logic studio which is a music production suite (Apple, 2012).
As of May 2012, Apple (2012) indicates that the company has over 300 stores located in more
than ten countries in additional to the online store. Banton (2011) describes Apple as been among
the largest technological companies in the world as far as companies traded in the world by
market capitalization are concerned. According to Banton (2011), some analysts have even
suggested that Apple has more cash than the US government. Apple (2012) states that, the
company has more than 60,000 employees employed on permanent basis and 2,800 temporally
employees worldwide.
Regardless of the success that the company has enjoyed, it has at times received extensive
criticism for the way it treats its contractors as well as the impacts that the companys operations
have on the environment. Some of the heavy criticism that the company has received recently
has been that workers working for Apple suppliers in China leave in unhealthy conditions where
they are also paid meager wages.
The aim is this report is to review Apples performance in reference of the environment within
which the organization operates in and as a result of the review, develop a good three year
strategic plan for the company.