Apple strategic plan

Document Type:Research Paper

Subject Area:Business

Document 1

As a global, company that manufactures and merchandizes computer software and hardware, along with phones, it needs a good strategic plan for the next three years. The strategic plan, in this case, will help the company continue its innovation process, its growth and eventually enable it to compete in the already competitive high-tech market and industry. Essentially, in its planning process, Apple Inc. should create and maintain a match between the company’s resources and objectives and the ever-changing market opportunities. Description of the Company Apple Inc. whereas the rest, 234, are in other nations (Levy, 2019). History of the Company Specifically, the three founders of Apple Computers intended to form a company to create and sell Apple I PC, which had been developed by Wozniak (Levy, 2019).

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According to Levy (2019), however, Wayne would sell his share back within just 12 days. The remaining two (Jobs and Wozniak) had been friends for long and both had just dropped out of college. Immediately after the company’s incorporation, its sales for both Apple II and I grew rapidly. to reflect the company’s shift in focus towards the line of consumer electronics. In the same year, they launched the iPhone. Steve Jobs resigned due to health complications and Tim Cook replaced him as the new CEO (Levy, 2019). Presently, it is the largest tech company in terms of assets and revenues in the world (Apple, 2019). Apple Inc. The cloud services enable the customers to access and store their data and to use software like iWork.

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This element shows that the company has really evolved when it comes to its product line, whereby the main emphasis is on IT. The place component of the 4Ps entails where the company’s products are sold. It involves selecting the best places and venues to distribute the company’s products. Apple sells its products in its company-owned store locations and through third parties whom they have authorized to distribute their products. makes use of various communications tactics to reach targeted consumers. In his promotional efforts, Apple Inc. emphasizes on the exceptional quality of its products as well as the premium image (Olson, 2018). One of the ways through which the company promotes its products is advertising. This is done on some technology news websites as well as digital advertising network provided by Google.

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By using premium pricing, Apple Inc. sets the prices at a very high point especially when the product is being launched. This makes its products, mostly iPhones, to be more expensive compared to Samsung smartphones. By using premium pricing, the company is able to maximize its profit margins. Although such high prices also serve as a drawback or weakness to the company operations, the company uses it creatively by combining it with creative innovation and premium branding. Both the mission and the vision statement for this company have been changed and rephrased several times, to reflect new changes (Zhang, Garrett, & Liang, 2015). a. Mission The above statement is the Company’s mission statement and it offers specific information about the company’s outputs.

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The corporate mission also emphasizes the company's use of digital distribution channels in product promotion. Overall, the mission serves to inform consumers about the company’s concentration on online services and computing devices. Strengths Apple enjoys a strong brand image. The premium brands image helps the company to realize high-profit margins through premium pricing strategy. Even when the sales volumes are low, the company is able to make huge profits due to its premium prices supported by the premium brand (Olson, 2018). Effective rapid innovation also enables the company to be on the forefront when it comes to emerging technologies. This boosts the company’s competitive power. c. Opportunities The company can exploit the opportunities of expanding its distribution network to expand market outreach.

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It can as well continue to leverage on its ability to make use of advancing technology to continue to develop new lines of products. There is an increasing demand for mobile businesses and the company can maximize this opportunity through aggressive marketing to grow its sales volume. d. Porter’s Five Forces Porter's model is used as a strategic management and planning tool to evaluate how the five forces in the form of consumers, substitutes, competition, suppliers and new entrants affect companies. Using the porter’s framework, the intensities or strengths of external forces to Apple’s industry environment is as shown below: a. Competition or competitive rivalry-strong force b. New entry or threat of some new entrants- moderate force c.

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Suppliers bargaining power-weak force d. From the above analysis, Apple should put more focus on buyers' bargaining power and competitive rivalry. This, however, is in line with the company’s focus on continuous and rapid innovation. There is also the need to make use of intensified R&D to develop some other novel products that can complement the existing premium brands like iPad and iPhone. Apple’s International Performance Apple Inc. has an opportunity to expand its market outreach internationally by taking advantage of numerous free trade policies being created in various developing countries. 697B. This represented a 15. 97% upsurge from 2017. For the year 2017, the annual operating expenses amounted to $167. 89B, representing a 7. 2 percentage increment from 2016. For 2016, it was $60. 024B and it represented a 15.

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73% decrease from 2015 (Apple, 2019). a. Which is a favorable ration since it is below 4. The ratio has been increasing over the last 3 years, which can be explained by the company’s capital requirements for growth and investments in research and development. b. Debt To Assets Ratio The debt ratio is gotten by dividing the company's total debt by the company's total assets. It shows the company's leverage level. The corporate or organizational structure can be described as the combination of the workforce groups and the resources and how these teams are interconnected to facilitate business operations (Daft & Marcic, 2017). The structure should be hierarchical with product-based divisions. Collaborations should be made possible among different layers of the organizational hierarchy, including the topmost ones.

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The CEO should be the topmost but should also collaborate with other executives below him. By allowing the hardware-engineering department to coordinate with the software-engineering department, for instance, it can allow for easy information dissemination and facilitate rapid and effective innovation processes. In all its plans, the company must seek to protect and conserve the environment. They should also ensure that they minimize complaints of poor working conditions for workers at their contracted manufacturer firms. Strategic Goals The following are the strategic goals ranked in terms of ease of achievement and time of completion: a. To intensify our marketing efforts and expand the distribution network by 10% to achieve growth in sales of 20% within the next 1 year. b. Another great opportunity would maximize their sales by expanding the distribution network to reach more customers.

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How to Measure Strategic Plan The main goal of for-profit businesses is to make profits. Thus, the first measure of the effectiveness of this strategic plan would the use financial KPIs such as growth in revenue, EBITDA, inventory turnover, gross profit margin, operational cash flow, and current account receivables. Marketing efforts can be assessed by measuring growth in sales and market outreach. Growth in operating cash flow can also be used to measure the strategic plan of automating the production process. Apple Inc. ’s Website. Apple, Inc. Apple - Investor Relations - Financial Information. Retrieved from https://investor.  Understanding management. Boston (MA) [etc. : Cengage Learning. Kao, R.  Disruptive Leadership: Apple and the Technology of Caring Deeply--Nine Keys to Organizational Excellence and Global Impact.

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