Business-Level and Corporate-Level Strategies - Essay Example

Business-Level and Corporate-Level Strategies Introduction Business strategy can be considered as an integrated and harmonized set of actions through which an organization performs to achieve a competitive advantage through exploiting its major competencies with regard to a particular product or service market. Business strategies fundamentally involve various internal strategies through which the organization ascertains its organizational goals and objectives related to offering its goods and/or services. However, corporate strategies refer to the elementary purpose and capacity of the organization to meet the expectations of the stakeholders. Corporate strategies of an organization revolve around definite aspects such as value, sustainability along with loyalty with regard to its products and or services in a specific business market (Scott Gallagher, 2004). With this concern, the discussion would intend to focus on various business-level and corporate-level strategies of Apple in its global market. Moreover, the discussion will also be highlighted with an analysis of the competitive environment to determine few of the significant competitors and their businesses. An assessment of the corporate level strategies and evaluation of relevant and successful strategies for the considered organization in the long term business operations would also be included in the discussion. Business-Level Strategies of Apple About Apple Apple Inc. is a well known Multinational Corporation (MNC) which significantly deals with manufacturing, designing along with marketing related to a large number of personal computers (PCs); media and mobile communication devices; digital media players along with offering a range of products related to software, hardware, services, networking solutions, peripherals and third-party digital content accompanied with an array of application programs. The products and/or services of the organization involve iPad, iPhone, iPod, Macintosh (“Mac”) computers, Apple TV, an assortment of software applications for both consumers and professionals. The organization provides its multifunctional products as well as services through its own retail stores, direct selling and online stores along with wholesalers, value-added resellers, retailers and third-party cellular network carriers. To focus on the facet of innovation and to endorse a creative product line for its prospective customers are identified to be amongst the major business strategies of Apple. The organization has been learnt to dedicate its best practices and experiences through its products and services to its potential buyers (Apple Inc, 2011). Business Level Strategies The business-level strategies of the organization significantly refer to differentiation strategies through involving exclusive features, support and services related to its offered products. The exclusive stores of the organizations can also be considered as few of the key operational strategies of Apple with regard to its global operations (Apple Inc, 2011). Product Innovation and Development Strategy Apple seeks to focus on innovative and creative features in its product lines. The organization highly involves developmental strategies of various features and contents within the existing products. Creativity and manufacturing decent products is measured to be one of the major business-level strategies of Apple. The organization has been concentrating on producing benchmarking products with creative designs along with strong marketing strategies for a wide variety of products ranging from personal computers interrelated software, network solutions, portable music players, peripherals along with various other accessories. The product portfolio of the organization also includes Mac computing systems, iPads, iPhones, iPods and servers which have been measured to be quite competitive and competent in efficiently satisfying customers’ requirements in the 21st century (Apple Inc., 2011). Sales and Distribution Strategy Apple associates with both the direct as well as indirect divisions of its distribution channels including retail stores, direct sales staffs along with its third-party cellular arrangements as well as retailers, wholesalers and value-added resellers. The organization considers direct selling as an effectual strategy to persuasively communicate the product benefits to its customers and provide high-quality services in order to earn a greater degree of customer loyalty (Apple Inc., 2011). Research & Development (R&D) The R&D segment of Apple can also be considered to be another chief strategy that is made use of to ensure its sustenance among other leading computing service providers in the global market. Notably, it can be well deciphered that with the aid of its virtues of R&D initiatives, the organization has been able to inculcate such superior degree of innovation in its operations (Apple Inc., 2011). Corporate-Level Strategies The corporate strategies of an organization refer to various activities that are believed to offer valuable support in terms of increasing the number of its stakeholders. The corporate strategies are supposed to be significantly interrelated to enhance the organizational values and level of sustainability within the global market. The corporate-level strategies of Apple can be considered to exist in the form its brand equity, financial performance and various developmental approaches which are measured to be directly proportionate to the increasing level of loyalty of their customers’ and stakeholders (Apple Inc, 2011). Brand Image The brand image of an organization is one of the foremost strategies that tend to assure an increasing business portfolio in every step of the business transactions. With this concern, Apple has successfully established its position in the computer industry since the last few decades and has been quite well-known for its creativity and innovative trade activities. Hence, the organization possesses quite a strong brand image amid its customers’ worldwide by providing superior and advanced products through its revolutionary steps in the field of technology and computer development (Apple Inc., 2011). Financial Performance According to the present financial stature of Apple, it has been observed that the annual sales growth have significantly elevated from 32.48 billion (35.30%) in 2008 and 42.6 billion (31.17%) in 2009 to 65.07 billion (52.73%) in 2010. In the year of 2011, the annual sales revenue was recorded to be 108.6 billion with a robust growth rate of 66.90%. These figures depict an apparent considerable growth rate which can be attributed as a major strength of Apple (MarketWatch, Inc., 2012). The financial augmenting performance of the organization is supposed to be one of its major corporate strategies in terms of acquiring a large number of stakeholders. Retaining Flexibility According to the increasing pace of the global competition, the amount of flexibility is regarded as a considerable factor in terms of attaining growth and sustenance among the leading global competitors. The reputable global position along with efficient business culture of Apple has been possibly acquired owing to its flexible strategy of fulfilling the emerging desires of the global customers’. The organization highly concentrates on developing its corporate strategies through retaining and ensuring flexibility in its global operations (Campus Activism. Org., n.d). Competitive Analysis The competitive analysis of Apple relates to the various operational and strategic factors of the competitors dealing with related kind of products as well as services in a similar market. In the context of competitor analysis, the competitive strategies of SONY make it one of the major competitors in computing products as well as services segment (Lam, Chow, Dabboussi & Lei, 2005). From the perspective of innovation, both Apple and Sony are found to be highly focused in order to boost the number of innovative products and services available to their customers’. Apple strategically considers frequent development of creative and efficient products with multifarious features. It has often been observed that the organization tends to hamper the longevity of other products belonging to the same category by a considerable extent. For instance, Apple’s iPad have declined the sales of the products in other categories such as, ‘iPod Touch’, notebooks and other similar manufactured goods which in turn increases the challenges for the organization in its long-run domination (Lam, Chow, Dabboussi & Lei, 2005). However, Sony provides fresh products with fresh features with exceptional promotions and new brands for its customers’. Moreover, the product line of Sony considers electronic equipments, durable goods along with a series of gaming products and a large number of application software. Therefore, with reference to the above context it can be significantly determined that SONY enjoys a wider product assortment in comparison to Apple (Tang, Misra & Shanholt, 2012). Moreover, in the context of business strategy, Apple significantly follows product innovation and development along with increasingly emphasizing on developing brand equity and its numbers of stakeholders. However, the business strategies of Sony are comprehensively developed for the purpose of producing new products with higher features (Apple Inc., 2011). Competition in Slow-Cycle and Fast-Cycle Market With reference to the emerging competition in the computing and mobile service segment, the major competitors of Apple can be identified to be Sony, Dell and Hewlett & Packard (HP) in the computing segment. Moreover, Apple is also known to play a leading role in the field of mobile and entertainment gadget service provider amongst other competitors such as Blackberry, Samsung and Nokia. Therefore, it can be stated that the organization significantly adheres to effective business-level and corporate-level strategies for its worldwide operations (Apple Inc., 2011). Apple also possesses various business as well as corporate strategies both in the slow-cycle and fast-cycle market. The organization strives to develop its diverse business operations in accordance with the pace of the trends which make it quite successful in contrast to the other competitors within the similar market (Apple Inc., 2011). Conclusion According to the present day context, Apple has been considered as one of the most admired and well-known brands due to its effective and successful business-level and corporate-level strategies (Cable News Network, 2012). In keeping up with the increasing pace of globalization, the organization greatly makes endeavors to initiate advanced business strategies in order to be at the summit amid the various competitors within the similar marketplace. With due consideration to the aspect of creating a successful business image, the business-level and corporate-level strategies are believed to be the major characteristics for the reason of accomplishing significant growth both in the domestic as well as global market. However, the business and corporate-level strategies also entail other factors such as, leadership quality, direction setting, along with concentrating on resources and maintaining consistencies which are also considered necessary to construct a successful and dominant business structure in the global business environment. References Apple Inc. (2011). Form 10K (Annual Report). Retrieved from http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AAPL/1352035942x0xS1193125-10-238044/320193/filing.pdf Cable News Network. (2012). Worlds most admired companies. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostadmired/2010/ Campus Activism Org. (n.d). Four core elements of strategy. Retrieved from http://www.campusactivism.org/server-new/uploads/elements_of_strategy.pdf Lam, O., Chow, R., Dabboussi, S., & Lei, C. (2005). Apple computers. Retrieved from http://www.bmak.com/Ray/AppleComputers.pdf MarketWatch Inc. (2012). Apple Inc. Retrieved from http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/aapl/financials Scott Gallagher. (2004). Business level strategies. Retrieved from http://educ.jmu.edu/~gallagsr/WDFPD-Business.pdf Tang, H., Misra, R., & Shanholt, E. (2012). Sony Corporation. Retrieved from http://economics-files.pomona.edu/jlikens/SeniorSeminars/Likens2012/reports/Sony.pdf Read More