Introduction
Apple is one of the companies that has stood apart from the rest in the industry and can be counted as market leaders. From the organizational approach, Apple Company stands apart from other in their approach to product development that enables the organization to become product leaders. From the beginning, Apple Company has proved its ability to produce high-quality products that differentiate it from other products. The breakthrough to their success has been consistent innovation. Evidently, Apple Company has tried to come up with improved technology prior to its competitors thereby creating a trustworthy relationship with its customers. Notably, many companies have pursued different ways for product development to try be the product leaders in the industry. However, their approach did not make because Apple Company tends to explore futuristic technology while on the other hand improving the existing ones. Therefore, the organization promises its customers of better technology before the competitor gets to it. This paper examines how Apple Company maintains product leadership over all other companies in the industry. The paper will also examine major problems and secondary issues that the organization face in the process. It will also examine strengths and weaknesses of the company and recommend alternatives. Arguably, product leadership does not guarantee a company success without challenges. Else, the company faces major problems and issues while still maintaining its strengths in the industry.
Major problem and secondary issues
Among the strategies that Apple use to maintain its head above all the other companies in the industry is clarity of purpose and resolve. This is one of the best strategies that a company can adopt. However, the same strategy can be a cause of the major problem to a company. For example, according to some past and current workers at Apple Inc., there have been products that have undergone costly renovations just to advance one simple aspect. In the fight to acquire clarity of purpose, the company wastes a lot of resources when trying to improve a minor feature in the gadget. As a result, the company ends up charging higher prices for its eventual product to cover up the expenses used to improve that particular detail. In my point of view, the organization should consider selling the already manufactured gadget with the missing detail and then make arrangements to produce a different model with the detail. In that case, no extra cost will be incurred by the company (Saylor). The company should also make sure no product manufacturing is cancelled entirely.
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The other major problem is infrastructure development. Apple Inc. has improved its infrastructure starting from its head office which looks like a normal office of a big company. However, employees live in different locations in the town renting living space on their own. Meanwhile, they are supervised keenly with regard that they can leak information to the outside world. Maintaining secrecy for apple has been a problem that has in the past led to the death of one of its foreign supplier's employee who committed suicide after suspicion that he had leaked an iPhone prototype to the outside world. Apple's approach is hardly one size fit all as there are many employees who feel insecure about the directives given to them by the management concerning secrecy (Saylor). Maintaining secrecy has therefore been a major challenge to the company which has led it to give strict directive to its employees with hard punishments that some of its employees cannot withstand.
On the other hand, there are major and secondary problems in Apple's strategic clarity approach to attaining product leadership. Over time, the organization has been building seasonal management team to support bold new product initiative. Some of the approaches that the organizations come up with are somehow a challenge to the company. For instance, Apple made up an ultra-expensive, ultra-thin, Air laptop to fill the challenge posed by the netbook. In the trials to offer a bigger margin between their gadgets and those offered by the competitor, Apple makes a super product but the pricing is very high such that it does not do well in the market. The other major challenge under strategy clarity is that Apple Inc. pays less attention to competitors and market research (David, 2011). Even if the company may not bother with their competitor because they may assume that they are always above all in the market, there is a great need for the company to pay great attention to the already proven research and to the ongoing research to make sure that they are doing excellent in the marketplace. The company should also be involved entirely in supporting the ongoing research and find a way that they can benefit from the findings. On the competitors' side, Apple should consider being up to date so that the competitor who is working tirelessly to lead the market could not pass them on the way. Under this roof, there are also the privileged personnel's in the industry and who apple secures than nothing else in the entire world. The group of employees known as the creative group responsible for Apple's product glossy and distinctive look are the most secured people confined behind unmarked, restricted access doors. This group of people make the gadget until completion when it is let out by a few members of the executive for approval before it is shown to the rest. Privacy and secrecy are some of the factors that Apple have invested beyond necessity.
On the other hand, a look at Apples Inc. management one could say that Apple has the best leadership in the world (Saylor). However, a deep look in the leadership one would tell that the leadership in the organization is a major problem. Notably, Apple Inc. without its longtime chief executive officer is a failure. One can argue that Apple Inc. is well organized but the head Steve Jobs seems to be irreplaceable. The job has structured the company like his personal venture in that everybody has to follow his instructions to the dot. Other competing companies have celebrated other workers success among them. To Apple, all the praises are accrued to one Steve Jobs who pioneered the company and has been running it. This seems to be a problem to the organization since if an unexpected situation strikes the C.E.O the company can crawl to its knees with the new management enable to take it back to its heels. Jobs has entirely concentrated on promoting the large company name other than its products which are different from other companies which promote their products at the same time promoting their name.
Organizational Strengths and Weaknesses
Although Apple has been faced with many problems and challenges both major and secondary, the company have different strengths that have assisted it to overcome weaknesses and threats and that has made the company exploit the opportunities available effectively. The analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company helps it to strategically plan itself on how to strategically overcome the challenges (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2012). A good understanding of dynamics of external and internal strategic factors helps investors evaluate the value of the business and helps the company's management to make practical decisions.
Strengths
Strengths are the internal strategic factors that enable the company to withstand threats in the business environment. Some of the notable organizational strengths in Apple Inc. include strong brand imaging which has been the key thing that the C.E.O has been working on. The strong brand image has earned Apple customer equity. Being the most valuable brand name in the industry, many people would like to be associated with the brand. Therefore earning customers loyalty which is a hard thing to achieve. Additionally, the company has maintained its premium pricing strategy which comes with high-profit margin. The company's ability to acquire customers' loyalty has enabled it to set pricing premiums which incorporate high-profit margins and customers still go for the product. This factor gives the firm an advantage of adjusting prices to their desired amount ensuring sufficient profits. Lastly, the company is known for its rapid innovation on its company's intensive growth strategies. The company has recorded huge investments in the innovation of new technology making it maintain its leading position in the market. In essence, rapid innovation enables the firm to keep abreast with the latest technology to make sure the organization has a competitive advantage over its competitors (Smithson, 2017). Being on the top of innovation also creates a point in earning customer's equity as they believe they will always be at top of technology. Based on their strengths, the company is tuff to compete with, thereby supporting the company's industrial leadership.
Weaknesses
Apple Company is on the other hand affected by some of its weaknesses. Even if it is one of the strongest company in the industry, it has some weaknesses affecting it still. These weaknesses affect the internal strategies and they serve as barriers to business growth. Some of these weaknesses include limited distribution network which limits the market of Apple's products. The company's policy for exclusivity limits distribution network affecting the market size. For instance, Apple Inc. is said to have carefully selected authorized sellers of its product. If for instance a certain place none of the residents meets the set criteria for selection, the area stays without any Apple seller and maybe there are potential buyers in the area. Notably, their approach may support control over the distribution of products but on the other side limit market reach for the company. Secondly, the pricing strategy is not an advisable one because it kicks out many of customers making the company get most of its sales revenue from the high-end market. Therefore, premium pricing strategy is part of Apple's notable weakness in the market. The company sets the bigger market for the middle class and lower class customers free because they are unable to purchase the higher priced Apple products (Smithson, 2017). Therefore with regard to weaknesses analysis in Apple Company, the company's pricing strategy and distribution approach impose weaknesses and limitations to the company.
Recommendation
According to Apple's strengths and weaknesses analysis, it is notable that the company possesses huge strengths that if used effectively can be sufficient to cover up the weaknesses associated with the organization. Evidently, the company can make use of the strength associated with it to exploit its distribution network which has been illustrated as the key weakness. Notably, the company can also use its strong brand image and its ability to have rapid innovation processes to effectively develop and launch new product lines which will in many ways gain the company competitive advantage. The company should also seek a suitable course of action to address the threats that are facing it. I would recommend the company to develop a strong portfolio to support the recommended continuous innovation to ensure the competitive advantage of the company's products even when competitors are aggressive to catch up.
Conclusion
To sum up this discussion, Apple Inc. is one of the biggest companies in the technology industry striving to maintain the top ranking status. From the beginning, Apple has tried to lead the industry which has many other big companies' posing competition challenge. Nevertheless, Apple has always been able to maintain its position and to secure its competitive advantage. However, Apple has been experiencing major problems and secondary issues in its management. Through its way to product leadership, Apple incorporated clarity of purpose and resolve which in some terms posed challenges to the company. The company could incur very high cost to improve a simple detail in its gadget or even cancel the whole manufacturing process. The other problem was infrastructure development. It has become a challenge to maintain employee's secrecy and privacy as they live outside the company. In addition, strategic clarity approach in to attain product leadership has also been an issue in the company. Lastly, the issue of leadership has been highlighted as a problem such that the company relies entirely on Job who has been a C.E.O for long and has been in full control for longtime hindering others to exercise their leadership qualities. Notably, apart from major problem facing Apple, there are also strengths and weaknesses that affect this company. Some of the strengths are the high brand image that Apple has created, high-profit margins associated with its premium pricing and effective innovation process which could assist the organization to grow past its competitors always. However, the company is also faced with a number of weaknesses including limited distribution network, high selling price which majority cannot afford, and sales limitation to high-end market. There are however recommended ways to overcome the weaknesses after analyzing strengths and weaknesses. The company should use the strengths highlighted to cover the weaknesses. The company should also exploit the opportunities and expand the distribution network. Lastly, the company should consider its strong brand image and rapid innovation process to develop and launch new brands successfully.
References
David, F. R. (2011). Strategic management: Concepts and cases. Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2012). Strategic management cases: competitiveness and globalization. Cengage Learning.
Saylor. Fundamentals of global strategy. Minicase: How Apple Maintains Product Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.oercommons.org/courses/fundamentals-of-global-strategy/view
Smithson, N. (2017). Management. Apple Inc. SWOT Analysis & Recommendations. Retrieved from http://panmore.com/apple-inc-swot-analysis-recommendations
