Instructions

Mission

Apple’s mission is to design the best personal computers in the world, namely Macs, iLife and OS X as well as professional software. It also endeavors to lead the digital music revolution through its iTunes and iPods online store. To realize this, it continues to reinvent the mobile phone with an innovative App Store and iPhones that define the future of computing devices and mobile media (Rowland, 2018).

Vision

The company’s vision affirms its belief in making great products focused on innovation. It believes in simplicity. It also believes in owning and controlling primary technologies involved in making its products while also participating exclusively in markets that make significant contribution. The company believes in working on few projects that are meaningful and important to its stakeholders. It believes in excellence founded on self-honesty where it admits when wrong and garners the courage to change (Rowland, 2018).

Type of Plan

Description

Type of Manager

Strategic Plans

Strategic plans refer to high level overview of the whole business, its objectives, values and vision. It is the foundation of the business. It dictates long-term decisions made by the organization. Strategic plans also influence organization culture and how the organization interacts with different stakeholders. Apple’s strategic plans are outlined in the mission, vision and value statements where it seeks to create innovative and differentiated products targeting premium markets. Apple’s long term goals include being environmentally sustainable, and supporting communities while simultaneously enhancing its technologies.

Top level managers

Tactical Plans

These are the procedures or tactics the organization intends to use to achieve its strategic plans. They are short-term and implementable within a year. It breaks down the mission statement. Apple’s tactical plans are made each Monday where managers discuss new products and projects, deadlines, budgets, funding, marketing and resource allocation.

Mid-level managers

Operational Plans

These are plans on the day to day activities of the organization. Such plans provide the roadmap to achieving tactical plans within the specified timeframe and on budget. Apple’s operational plans cover a range of areas including manufacturing, research and development, human resource planning, marketing and finance. Operational plans at apple are performed by experts to reduce costs and ensure flexibility in operations.

Supervisors and low-level managers

People

Apple prioritizes its stakeholders (people). For instance, the organization emphasizes the need for the employees to believe in themselves and help in making great innovative products that create a positive impact on the people. The company does not view itself as a technology company whole duties are limited to manufacturing phones and laptops, but rather, it has a broader purpose of creating differentiated and innovative products that make lives easier. This has helped it create a brand value that endears to the people. Their consistency in making great products has helped them win the trust and commitment of different groups of people.

Strategy

As much as Apple has a number of strategies ranging from product differentiation and premium pricing of its products, its most successful strategy has been marketing. The company has made multi-million investment in its marketing department where it works in collaboration with partners and contracted stores to deliver the best services and products to the customers. The marketing strategies are broken down to international strategy where the firm has intensely invested in conducting market research and responding to specific needs raised by customers. It has invested heavily in store design and installed them with art warranty management systems.

Operations

Operations at Apple are guided by “the Golden Circle Rule”. This rule is composed of three elements that answer the questions why, how and what. The question ‘why’ describes the purpose of the organization, ‘how’ defines processes and ‘what’ highlights the end goals and end products. The firms operations are divided into ten main areas. Design of products and services, quality management, process and capacity design, location strategy, layout design and strategy, job design and human resources, supply chain management, inventory management, scheduling and maintenance (Fawzy & Olson, 2018). Among its key operations that have been successful include research and development functions which continuously churns out differentiated products with a superior value proposition and marketing operations which ensure that products reach customers in local and international markets. An operation that has enhanced the brand value of Apple is its engagement in social corporate responsibilities as part of its mandate and commitment to the society and the environment.

SWOT Analysis

Company Name: ___Apple_______

Internal Factors (Inside Matters)

     Strengths

–          Unique talent and resources that enable it to design, develop and manufacture proprietary hardware, applications, software and services. This has enabled it to create differentiated products that are easy to use (Khan, Alam & Alam, 2015). They meet customer’s needs. The products are integrated into the Apple eco-system thus making them interconnected and interdependent on each other. This excludes users from using other brands. The superior value of the products also convince customers to pay premium prices for the products. This ecosystem is composed of the Apple TV, watch, Mac, iPad, and iPhone, with iOS, MacOS and other operating systems. Available services include iTunes, App Store, iBooks and Apple Music while application software include iLife and iWork among others.

–          Apple is a powerful brand with strong investment in marketing and advertising. The company allocates a lot of its resources and funds to marketing. This has helped it sell more and realize a net value of $184.154 billion (Jureviscious, 2018). The value is mostly derived from its brand recognition. It is among the world’s most recognized brands. It also has a strong reputation.

–          The current direction of the firm in regard to its strengths has been impressive as it continues to design superior products while enhancing its ecosystem to make it a better brand.

     Weaknesses

–          Lack of compatibility with other brands such as Android or Microsoft OS powered brands. The incompatibility with other ecosystems has made the brand less usable by the middle and low end consumer segments. This excludes them from purchasing and using the brand. This has led to Apples association with a premium segment of the market who can afford most of its other brands and services offered in the ecosystem.

–          The premium image associated with Apple has also become its main weakness especially as it seeks to expand and grow its global market share. The brand is mostly sold in international markets with high disposable incomes. This has excluded it from emerging markets which have a high number of youthful millennial in the middle class income segments.

–          Apple is considering the option of manufacturing different versions of its products to make it affordable to a larger group of customers.

External Factors (Outside Matters)

     Opportunities

–          There are massive opportunities in internationalizing into emerging markets especially the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). These markets are growing at a fast rate and they will determine the future of most of the global brands (Khan et al., 2015). This is because of the favorable demographics of the countries especially India and China. They have a large youthful population.

–          Launch new products or enter into partnerships with other global brands. This will enable Apple to strengthen its ecosystem and make it more mainstream in the lives of its customers. This includes partnering with car manufacturers to provide premium in-car entertainment products and services.

–          Currently, Apple has invested in research and development of future technologies such as autonomous car technology but it could do more in entering partnerships with automakers to cement its influence in in-car entertainment.