Apple Inc. is one of the most progressive technology companies today ( Clarke et al., 2017) . In terms of supply chain, it has also been praised for putting in place infrastructure and instituting strategies that significantly increase supply chain efficiency. On its supplier relationship management practices, however, although the company claims to implement best practices that ensure a symbiotic relationship between the company and its suppliers, claims have emerged in the recent past to show that the company’s SRM practices are undesirable. Some of the SRM practices the company utilizes are equity for all suppliers, institution of strategies that ensure a high standard of interaction and trading between the company and the suppliers, implementation of supplier code of conduct and working in accordance with the supplier diversity program among others( Clarke et al., 2017) Some of the other old school practices that have been brought into the limelight are the use of the win-lose approach in procurement undertakings and a significant focus on commodity prices. Besides, other than a strong relationship between the company and suppliers, less collaborative approaches, pitting of suppliers against others, putting in place unrealistic deadlines, talking advantage of strategic suppliers, among others have been cited as undesirable.
Ensuring a high level of collaboration between the suppliers and the company is one of the most significant improvements that can be instituted. At the same time, the organization should strategize on ensuring a win-win approach in different dealings. Moreover, the company should also ensure it does not have unrealistic expectations on the suppliers, and it does not exploit the suppliers that they term as strategic. This way, better relationships that benefit all the stakeholders are likely to be realized.
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Apple Inc. has been using different CRM strategies for almost a decade now to ensure customer satisfaction. The company frequently emails its customers to gauge their satisfaction with Apple products. Also, it enhances its relationship with customers by enhancing customers’ experience. Besides the above, Apple has created a cloud-based CRM tool that further improves the customer’s shopping experience and interaction with the company’s products. Data obtained from the software is used to refine products and services and at the same time, tailor them with customers’ needs ( Kaur, 2016) .
Although Apple has instituted highly effective CRM practices, improvement in some areas will reinforce the current approaches. The company needs to strategize on face to face customer interaction. This helps in taking care of clients concerns in an exhaustive manner. At the same time, it should also significantly focus on coming up with CRM based advertisement and more specific target emails. This way, individual customer experience will be realized. Clients can easily dismiss generalized emails because in most cases, they do not address unique problems by particular clients.
Key areas that require improvement in an organization can be identified only using the appropriate tools and techniques. Risks can be measured using tools such as risk radar, risk matrix and RiskNav. Organizational capacity assessment (OCA) tool can be used to measure capacity while a capability assessment tool can be used to gauge a company’s capacity. For workplace condition, employee safety, environmental impact and security, surveys among employees and significant stakeholders in the work environment can be carried out. An example of a survey technique is the use of questionnaires that address pertinent issues in the above areas.
The key areas, depending on how an organization strategizes around them positively or negatively affect the supply chain. Business risks, capacity and capabilities, for example, if not well handled, could derail a business from meeting a supply for a commodity it deals with. On the other hand, however, safety, security and workplace condition could ensure the entity can meet supply-demand requirements, eliminates any supply chain bottlenecks and at the same time compete favorably in the market niche it operates. This is, however, only possible if maximum efforts are instituted to ensure high security, safety and less negative environmental impact.
References
Clarke, T., & Boersma, M. (2017). The governance of global value chains: Unresolved human rights, environmental and ethical dilemmas in the apple supply chain. Journal of Business Ethics , 143 (1), 111-131.
Kaur, J. (2016). Customer Relationship Management: A Study of CRM Policies of Different Companies. Global Journal of Finance and Management , 8 (2), 153-159.
