Apple Inc. - Strategy Evaluation and Implementation

Pearson BTEC Level 5 HND Diploma

in Business (QCF)

Unit 7 (Y/601/0796): Business Strategy

Assignment 1

Assignment Title: Strategy Evaluation and Implementation

Student Name: Sin Wai Tung

Class: Business A

Assessor Name: Eric Wong

Date issued: 11st October 2017

Completion date: 20th December 2017

Submitted on: 20th December 2017

Table of content

Table of content------------------------------------------------------------------------P.2

Introduction-----------------------------------------------------------------------------P.3

Background information-------------------------------------------------------------P.3

What is strategy-----------------------------------------------------------------------P.4-7

The vision, mission, objectives of Apple Inc. ----------------------------------P.8

Compare and contrast three levels of strategies------------------------------P.9-12

Strategic planning---------------------------------------------------------------------P.13-15

The strategic planning techniques------------------------------------------------P.16-18

The organization audit for Apple Inc. --------------------------------------------P.19-22

Value-creating activities-------------------------------------------------------------P.22-25

Core competencies of Apple Inc. ------------------------------------------------P.25-26

PESTLE analysis---------------------------------------------------------------------P.27-31

Porter’s five forces-------------------------------------------------------------------P.31-37

Competitive advantages of Apple Inc. -----------------------------------------P.37-38

Key factors of Apple Inc. ----------------------------------------------------------P.38-40

SWOT analysis----------------------------------------------------------------------P.40-45

Apple Inc.’s strategic position----------------------------------------------------P.46-47

Stakeholders of Apple Inc. -------------------------------------------------------P.47-49

References---------------------------------------------------------------------------P.50-54

Introduction

As a business development analyst of Apple Inc., we are going to develop a plan for the running in the next 10 years. Due to the current vicissitudes in environmental and public expectation in the industry. Besides, the report provides a review on the objectives, vision and mission of Apple Inc. Furthermore, this report provides the comparison of different types of strategies. For instance, corporate, business and operational strategies. In addition, the processes of strategic planning and strategic formulation techniques are discussed in this report. On the other hand, the report provides an analysis on the internal audit and external audit of Apple Inc. by utilizing a range of tools. For examples, PESTLE, the Porter’s 5-forces model. Finally, the report utilizes the SWOT analysis tool to analysis the strategic position of Apple Inc.

Background information

Apple Inc. began in 1976, it is a computer company. However, in the past decade, Apple Inc. has expanded into a very complex company. It specializes in computer more than just computers. In 2001, the Apple iPod broke the barriers and eventually become the dominant leader in the music player market. Meanwhile, in 2007, Apple Inc. has been wildly successful and joined the mobile phone industry.

Apple Inc. is a consumer goods company, so assess its value needs to understand its products and consumers. This may be difficult for apple, because Apple Inc. competes with many different companies in different industries. Apple Inc. has established a unique reputation in the consumer electronics industry as a result of its comprehensive aesthetic design concept and its unique advertising activities. And the most unique thing about Apple Inc. is that it has a very strong customer base. So Apple Inc. can succeed in the mobile phone and computer industry

What is strategy?

There is no generally agreed definition of strategy, however, there are two diverse opinions of defining strategy.

‘’Strategy is the pattern of major objectives or goals and essential policies or plans for achieving goals, stated in such a way as to define what business the company is in or is to be in and the kind of company it is or is to be.’’ (Andrews, 1971)

In the words of Alfred Chandler, the first modern business strategy theorist, strategy in the area of business is defined as ' the determination of the basic, long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for those goals' (Chandler, 1962:13).

“A strategy is a set of actions through which an organization, by accident or design, develops resources and uses them to deliver services or products in a way which users find valuable, while meeting financial and other objectives and constraints imposed by key stakeholders.’’ (Haberberg and Ricple, 2001)

A strategy is concerned with major resource issues. For instance, rising the finance to build a new factory or plant. Besides, the strategy is also concerned with deciding on what products to allocate major resources to. On the other hand, strategies are concerned with the scope of a business activities, for instance, what and where they produce. BIC’s scope is focused on three main products which are pens, lighters and razors. They have developed super factories in key geographic locations to produce.

All in all, strategy is a coordinated series of actions which involve the deployment of resources to which one has access for the achievement of a given purpose.

The objectives of strategy

1. Place the organization into a position that to carry out its mission effectively and efficiently.
2. Integrate an organization’s goals, policies and action sequence (tactics) into a cohesive whole.
3. It must connect with the vision, purpose and likely future trends of organization.

Strategy divides into two main categories which are Generic (general) strategies and Competitive strategies.

• Generic (general) strategies

The main types of generic strategies that organizations can pursue are:

1. Growth is the expansion of the organization to purchase new assets, including new businesses, and develop new products. For examples, The Inland Revenue has expanded from being just a tax collector to other functions such as collecting student loan repayments and pay tax credits.

1. Internationalization/globalization

It represents the organizations are moving their operations into more and more countries. For example, companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s are major multinationals with operations across the globe.