Strategy and Leadership of Organisation

Question: Describe about the Organizational Strategy and Leadership Answer: Introduction: An organization is always defined by its mission, goals and objectives that need to be clearly provided in the organizational context. It should be clearly understood in terms of its business which is provided by the organization. Organizational Strategy can be defined as detailed assessment of tasks that is to be done and that has to be assimilated with proper planning and executing the plans thereof. There has to be a strategy that could state a benchmark for organizational effectiveness. Organizational strategy also involves implementation and evaluation of the strategies and to build on the weaknesses thereof (BusinessDictionary.com, 2015). Organizational strategy helps to achieve the objectives of an organization and also allocates resources to implement them. Leadership is a part of the Human Resource aspect where a leader takes initiatives to build on the accomplishment of task. A leader is a person who is followed in an organization by other employees. A leader has the ability to understand organizations strategic goals and can link daily performance to long term perspectives. A leader should also possess the ability of developing strategies to support the mission of the company (Jstor.org, 2015). Company profile of APPLE: Apple Inc. is a leading mobile communications company that was initiated in the year 1977 on 3rd January by Steven Wozniak and Steven Jobs. This company basically deals with designing and manufacturing of mobiles, personal computers, laptops, media devices, software services, peripherals. Some of its products include iPod, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Tv and other software applications based on OS and iOS. It also provides with various accessories and service support offerings. The company is headquarterd in Cupertino, California. In 1980 Apple II was introduced in the market for higher prospects in the market. Apple was tried to come up with Apple III but it failed because it could not compete with IBM. Apple was the first company to launch mouse driven computer called Macintosh. But it could not perform well and Apple lost its hold from the market (Apple, 2015). In 1998 Apple launched a new computer called IMac which gave a huge impact to the company and sold 800,000 units within five months instantly. Later on they came up with digital music player called Iphone. Today Apple has 317 retail stores that consist of 233 stores in the US and 84 stores across other parts of world. It is also drawn that Apple consists of 34300 full time employees through Apple 2010 Annual report. Analyzing Business Strategy and External Environment When we discuss about an organizations business strategy we discuss about the progress, faults and success of Apple Inc and evaluate them on the basis of SWOT analysis. SWOT Analysis: Strengths: This relates to the capability of the company of using its resources, products and capabilities effectively in the market environment. One of the biggest strength of Apple is that it has able to position its brand name globally in the market in spite of presence of tough competition from the challengers. Apple has positioned itself to be the only brand developing products that are updated with latest fashion and technology. For example it introduced mobile iPhone , MAC and Ipad and Ipod in this industry. Apple is one of the companies that provide original hardware in the market for manufacturing its own products. This company develops its own internal subparts and other components to launch a product in the market. Apple cater to receive high customer satisfaction because of delivering very high end products in the market. Apple works with a strong Research and Development team (RD) who uses eco friendly techniques to develop a product. Inspite of highly priced the company has a strong preference in the minds of its customers who are loyal to the company. Weaknesses: There is a tough competition in the market from its competitors who are producing similar tablets, mobiles and computers. Therefore it is a weakness for the company that they have to deliver their best and maintain consistency. The company also failed to promote two of their products, one is Mac Mini and the other is Apple TV. Even it is a weakness that Iphone mobile is a single network operator gadget in this industry. Pricing is a very important aspect for Apple as all customers cannot cater to premium rated products for luxury means (Jurevicius, 2015). Opportunity: One of The biggest opportunities for the company is that the company is under telecom sector which in todays world is constantly growing and developing. Thus it helps in creating high demand for its products and services. Apple has taken initiatives to launch eco friendly and energy saving products in the market. Apple has also introduced new line of products in the market for price conscious customers. Intel chip has been introduced with operating system to develop iTunes and music player technology to venture into the software technology as well. Threats: Apple is facing enormous threat from its competitor like Dell, IBM, Samsung, HTC, Nokia etc in Indian and international markets as well. The company is also facing a threat of substitute products because taste and preference of the consumers are changing rapidly. Introducing new regulations and rise in the rate of trade barriers are also imposing threats to the company as a whole. There is a chance of global recession which can leverage as a threat to the company. PEST factors of Apple: Political: Half of the companys sales of their products and services come from America. We can infer that there are bad political relations between US and other countries which could provide bad output to the company. It was concluded that 52% of sales were not within America. Also we know that Apple produces many of its products which is not within USA. There were issues of political conflicts among places like Korea, Ireland, and China etc. Economic: UK has the worlds economic power in terms of prices going high and low. Therefore Apple got the added advantage with three main important factors: recession, currency and inflation. Customers gave low importance to Apples products because it was highly priced and catered to business level people of the world who could afford them. Also the value of US dollar keeps on fluctuating in the market therefore the economic effects on the company can be minimized. The economic depression can also pose an impact on the sales turnover and it could hinder the improvements of the company as a whole. Apple could increase its revenue only because the prices of dollar have gone down in current market scenario. Socio-Cultural: With globalization Apple has been able to socialize itself around the world. Today because of latest technology Apple has able to withstand its current position as one of the leading brands in the market. Apple has also penetrated its brand into the music segment and cyber world which is a very essential part in everyones life. There are classic examples of leaders from all over the worlds who portrays Apple as a class apart brand in individuals mind. Also recently the purchasing power of people have gone up which have shifted the peoples preference over Apple most likely. Thus Apple is considered as a status symbol in todays world (Ukessays.com, 2015). Technological: Apple needs to keep its pace along with its competitors and continuously upgrade their products with the latest technology. Over the past years Apples technologic al environment has synonymously increased in the globalized market. Today people give more preference over the latest modern gadgets and this factor is continuously encouraging the competitors for further improvement and Apple is doing so. Moreover Apple is sitting with most strong Research and Development team which no other brand has. There are well known engineers, technical personnel and IT professionals associated with this brand since years. Leadership and People Theories: Leaders associated with this company are considered to be major risk takers. They have the vision to account for companys profitability and hold a strong presence over emotional stability. They are adapted to change and are very highly focused in their work and open to experience such challenges easily. They are passionate towards their work and are fully dedicated to give best to the company. Analyzing the resources and capabilities of the company: The company discussed upon has a very healthy bunch of resources. Apple Inc. has many resources tangible as well as intangible. The resources that accounts for tangible resources are:1. The Human Resource: The human resource of the company comprises of the world class people with a great deal of experience as well as expertise in the job. Apple is known for its excellent design and its innovative and creative engineers.2. The hardware: The hardware that they use in their gadgets have brilliant show and its beauty adds to the value of the software that they use.3. The Software: Apple is known for the sophistication of its software, which is not available anywhere in any product. The software is of immense quality and has a long lasting feature without any corruption.4. Retail stores: Apple has many stores worldwide; these stores carry forward its reputation and make it more popular amongst the customers (Inc.com, 2015).Intangible Resources:1. Expertise of the employees: The employees of Apple Inc. are world-class engineers and developers who have innovation and creativity in mind. They design all the products in such a fashion, which can never be created by any other company. The company takes the pride of being the seller of the most beautiful gadgets in the world.2. Powerful Brand image: The name of the company is its biggest asset. The company is known in every nook and corner of the world. It is matter of high pride to own a Apple gadget.3. Customer Database: Customer is a matter of high priority to the company. They take care of the employees and maintain a strong database. They have outsourced the customer care facility available to the customers. So that the queries of the customers are solved very easily and they dont face much problem with the product.4. Unique design capability: As mentioned above the company manufactures very stylish and strong gadgets. These gadgets are well known in the world for their unique designs and these are why they have cult customers. These customers do not buy any other product once they start using Apple gadgets.5. Cash: The gadgets are the most expensive gadgets in the market. It is as if they sell value, some sort of state of art, which has no match with any other gadget. The company has generated huge revenue in the last one decade. The buying capacity of the people has increased and luxuries are dwelling in all sections now. People tend to buy products that are more luxurious and maintain standards. The internal capacities of the company: These threshold internal capabilities have made Apple the most desirable product in the market. In the absence of these capabilities, it is impossible for any company to exist in the market. Apple has the smartest engineers of the world. The unique style of the ex-CEO and founder of the company Mr. Steve Jobs has curved a different way to manufacture the products. The products are not only very beautiful but also very competent. The company itself designs the software. The engineers have produced products like OS X operating system. The products like iphone and ipod exploded in the market, the Macs are the excellent personal computers in the world. The Apple app has more than 300,000 applications in the app store. Apple store located anywhere are its distribution centres as well as they act as advertisements. The stores are wonderful place and they bring the best to the customers. Apple retail stores are the main sources of their success. Competitive edge of the company: The unique capabilities make the company gain an edge over other companies in the market. Other resources matter to the company but the core competency of unique designing makes Apple very desirable in the market. They target upper segment of the market who can afford it. Apple has its prime focus on the quality and demarcation for attractive products. The functionality of the products goes through many tests and the company spends a lot of capital in Research and development. Innovation with quality is the main objective of the company. Some years back Motorola, Nokia, Samsung acquired the cell phone market, but when Apple hit the market with its innovative products, the shine of all other product faded away. Apple creates more value to its customers and enhances the market growth with its product and services (Contents, 2015). Acquisition and Alliances of Apple Inc.: Apple has acquired as many as 21 companies till now. The companies that it acquires are mostly software companies. The company believes in developing technology within the house and takes no risk joined with integration of other companies. It is necessary for the company to believe in acquisition because they are producing more technologically advanced products. The reasons of strategic alliances of Apple are to gain knowledge from its competitors, managing the risks involved and to exploit the economies of scales. Apple also has its alliance with ATand T in the production of the Apple iphone. There were risks involved in the alliance of maintaining secrecy but the companies took the alliances and the market exploded with those beautiful and mind blowing phones. Market also saw the strategic alliance of Apple and Microsoft in developing software for Mac books on which Apple offered to put internet explorer to its computers. Apple also has its alliances with Intel for their core proce ssors into their products. It was for those customers who preferred Intel over windows processors. In the year 2004, Apple started its alliance with Hewlett Packard and developed software for its ipods. That software is itunes (Merriam-webster.com, 2015). Conclusion: After doing this intense study on the competitive strategy of Apple Inc. it is seen that the company does every possible function to make the product look very beautiful and technologically advanced. These products are much received and it has an inbound capability to produce cult customers. These customers do not go to any other product in the market once they start using the apple products. The apple product is a chain of values that are sold in the market. People are ready to buy the product with a high value, much more than all other competitors product. The customers find a satisfaction that no other product can deliver. The deliverance of the product is so high that it serves more than what is expected. Meeting the customer`s expectation is what the company does. The high end products of apple are targeted for the esteemed class of the society who are ready to pay the price for its functioning. The future of the company is assumed beautiful and successful. It has many alliances and acquisitions that have helped to come up with some of the best and innovative products of the world. The best part of Apple is that it believes in learning, learning with every pace. The company does not believe in stagnancy and is always in motion of its development. The development of Apple Inc is motivated and influenced by the leadership of its Ex-CEO and founder Mr. Steve Jobs. References: Apple, (2015).Apple (India). [online] Available at: https://www.apple.com/in/ [Accessed 18 Feb. 2015]. BusinessDictionary.com, (2015).What is organizational strategy? definition and meaning. [online] Available at: https://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/organizational-strategy.html [Accessed 18 Feb. 2015]. Chandler, A., Hagstrom, P. and Solvell, O. 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