The Impact of Sustainability on Apple Incorporated - Assignment Example

?Table of Contents Page Question 2 Introduction 2 Sustainability defined 2 The impact of sustainability on Apple Incorporated 4 Key activities of Apple Incorporated that are affected by sustainability issue 5 Conclusion 6 Question 2 7 Introduction 7 Apple’s defence mechanism 7 Creating opportunity our from rising economy 8 Other important considerations 10 Conclusion 10 Question 3 11 Introduction 11 Competitive advantage as important business theme 11 Apple’s focus on product innovation 13 Differentiation 14 Overall cost leadership 14 Conclusion 15 References 16 Question 1 Introduction This section explains the concept of sustainability and its implication on the chosen organisation. The chosen organisation is Apple Incorporated. Furthermore, a discussion of the key activities affected by the impact of sustainability in the chosen organisation is included. Sustainability defined Sustainability can be defined in different aspects which include political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental concerns (Summer, 2007). Based on the definition presented by Summer sustainability is about trying to keep something ready in times of needs particularly in an uncertain future. Sustainability therefore is an integral part of an act that tries to create something better for the future. It is clear from this definition that sustainability is about sustaining or maintaining resources, wealth and any other human needs that will give security in times of needs and great demand. Sustainability therefore is about trying to create a well defined future for each individual, organisation or the entire country. For example, it is good to maintain biodiversity because it is through this that the balance of nature will be sustained. In the advent of global warming, part of sustainability issue is to go for alternative energy sources that will emit less green house gases. Thus, concerned countries are trying to make environmental policies that will address sustainability issues. In fact, some countries try to make use of biotechnology, and other alternative energy sources such as wind energy and solar energy that promise less amount of green house gas emission. On the other hand, many companies are trying to involve in corporate social responsibility just to be able to sustain their market share and promote their company in a different but somehow effective way. It is therefore clear that financial aspect or economic consideration to save or generate revenue for the future is an integral part of economic sustainability. Every profit organisation wants to be economically sustainable in order to continue operation. Based on the above examples, it is shown that sustainability is not just a process but it is a responsibility of each individual, an organisation or the country in general. Aside from this, sustainability is a broad concept and its definition requires full understanding of the different aspects underlying it. Particularly in this paper, the proponent tries to emphasise sustainability based on an economic perspective of a certain organisation. That organisation is renowned for its cutting-edge technology and substantially higher product quality. The company is Apple Incorporated. The impact of sustainability on Apple Incorporated In the case of Apple Incorporated, economic sustainability issue is one of its important concerns. This is due to the fact that competition is everywhere and even getting fierce everyday. Every organisation tries to compete with the other and to the extent that formulations of strategic moves have become a must. This is evident in the case of Apple Incorporated and such move to compete is tantamount to its high regard on its company’s economic welfare. As much as possible, it has to gain remarkable market share and be the leading service provider in its industry. This is evident in its website where it tries to explain its ability to create competitive strategies for its products and services offered which resulted to increase revenue and economic sustainability at the bottom line (Apple Incorporated, 2011). It is clear that Apple is creating much focus on its economic sustainability because it is by making this that its ability to compete in the market will continue and at the same time its market share will be sustained. Apple has been renowned for its iPod technology for many years and such gives it the opportunity to economically sustain its existence in the market. The economic sustainability in the case of Apple is to endure in the competition so as to continue perform its way to stimulate needs for its line of offerings. Thus, its product offerings with cutting-edge technology are its assets. Key activities of Apple Incorporated that are affected by sustainability issue It is clear that in the case of Apple, obtaining its economic sustainability is substantially created by product innovation, excellent service, cutting-edge technology and competitive strategies. As stated earlier, sustainability has many aspects. The economic aspect of sustainability is clear enough at Apple Incorporated due to the following impacts. Apple tries to closely evaluate its line of products and even try to become the leader in innovating possibilities for its line of offerings. Apple needs to do them because in a competition, economic concerns are always the centre points. This creates an idea for Apple to substantially evaluate its market share and consider the current economic trend not just in the market but including its competitors’. This leads Apple to strategically focus on specific moves, become the overall cost leader and create highly differentiated products (Apple Incorporated, 2011). Thus, in order to preserve this identity, the company puts great emphasis on its intellectual property rights, product innovation, and total quality management so as to maintain its ability to preserve its identity in the market (Apple Incorporated, 2011). In other words, Apple is trying to sustain its ability to operate business and achieve its corporate goals by achieving economic sustainability. This ability of Apple to strategically compete is a prior move to achieve its economic sustainability in a market where competition is very tough and every organisation is willing to strategically create moves just to be a cut above the other. Such competitive strategies are clear enough to be in line with stimulating needs for Apple’s line of offerings in which the bottom line is to address the needs of buyers through innovation and a timely delivery of services or offerings (Apple Incorporated, 2011). In doing this, Apple has remarkably created a significant economic impact for its value in the market in general. Thus, sustainability in this case is not just about trying to meet the needs of the customers but it also talks about its bottom line. Conclusion Customer loyalty and trust are clearly among of the best points that Apple has reached in order to obtain its economic sustainability. Economic sustainability therefore does not just talk about any other monetary related matters. In today’s highly competitive environment, there is a need to go further for competitive edge, far from monetary considerations in order to reach economic sustainability as with the case of Apple. Therefore, value creation of the company’s worth which is beyond the context of monetary aspects is another important move prior to economic sustainability. Question 2 Introduction In this section, the proponent discusses how Apple Incorporated needs to react on the rapid growth of developing countries like China in order to take advantage of the resulting opportunities or avoid potential dangers. Apple’s defence mechanism Apple is widely known for its highly differentiated line of products due to its cutting-edge technology, innovation and excellent customer service. The existing products in China for instance are certain challenges for Apple. This is due to the fact that China is capable of producing the same line of products and at most cheaper price due to cheap labour cost. The country is home to majority of people in the world and there is no reason that the country cannot produce goods as many as possible at a cheaper cost because there are enough supply of man power and the raw materials can just be found somewhere for as long as there are clear sources for them. Apple was able to foresee this situation that is why it was possible for it to highly differentiate its products because of its ability to pursue its intellectual property rights for its line of products (Apple Incorporated, 2011). This is one of the ways that people can genuinely identify the genuine product produced by Apple Incorporated from those products coming from China. That is why Apple is also very concise with its marketing effort especially on its product distribution. Apple does not just allow anyone else to dispose its products but there are specific outlets that it has designated for its offerings. In this way, Apple is ensuring that its products are highly differentiated and that this is also to ensure consumers that what they got from Apple are genuine products and not just another version. In this way, China can create the same line of products but the entire package cannot be completely guaranteed just like with Apple. This is due to the fact that Apple Incorporated has made considerable marketing efforts that will essentially be consistent enough in differentiating its products and line of offerings. Creating opportunity out from rising economy On the other hand, China with its cheap labour is a great opportunity for Apple Incorporated. Apple is relying on the third party for the manufacturing of its line of products (Apple Incorporated, 2011). This means that it does not bother anymore on where to get raw materials, outsource manpower and other related activities in manufacturing activity. This gives Apple an ample opportunity to demand on quality and focus on it so as to ensure higher standard among any other line of products in its industry. However, China is another opportunity for Apple Incorporated considering the nature of labour in the country. Apple can substantially outsource Information Technology Companies in China as another third party for the manufacturing of its line of products. This means that Apple may be able to get a lower price for final products which particularly would ensure profit at the bottom line. The booming economy of China is a great opportunity for Apple as well. This only shows that opportunity depends entirely on what perspective it has to be looked at. India on the other hand is composed of manpower with more technical know how particularly in communication and electronics. This is another opportunity for Apple to outsource manpower because of cheap labour issue. Other than this, Apple can substantially demand higher quality products in the country knowing its current share in the market and exemplary leadership in product innovation, marketing strategies and other related activities. This is the cutting edge of Apple to demand substantially higher quality and will particularly lead to more positive market advantage. Apple may be able to offer substantially higher labour in developing countries like China and India but such may not be higher than those it can provide in developed countries. Such of this level of strategy brings a good opportunity to outsource manpower and in return the final product may have final cost that is highly competitive in the market. Other important considerations However, the issue in this case is not only about on the significance of outsourcing manpower. There are other important considerations and this in particular should include other substantial issues in globalisation. Globalisation is concerned about integrating different economies in the world (Berghman, 2005). Thus, since this involves about integrating economies between countries then there are some important policies that need to be followed which may be governed by the role of international institutions for instance. Conclusion Apple has to consider these business policies and at some point there are some important issues it needs to have taken in great detail of considerations. For instance, China may have employed business policies that may go against the motive of Apple even though a promising labour cost is a wonderful opportunity. In this case, Apple has to abide by the rules in China. This in return has to be critically considered in the part of Apple because it may sound as threat to whatever it would like to come out later that would affect its corporate strategic moves. Question 3 Introduction In this section, the proponent tries to discuss another important business theme in the global business environment. Corresponding examples from Apple is given and based on them, the proponent has elaborated some significant impacts on the stakeholders. Competitive advantage as important business theme Competitive advantage is another important theme in a business. According to Porter (1980) there are three generic important strategies that every organisation should consider and these include focus, overall cost leadership and differentiation. Combining the impacts of globalisation and the issue of sustainability makes company nowadays to still go to the bottom line and that is to formulate competitive advantage because of fierce competition. This is to ensure that a company can play its part in the globalisation and to achieve sustainability. Porter is trying to imply another important business theme that every company must possess. Through understanding competitive advantage companies can substantially create strategies that will make them a cut above the other. In the case of Apple Incorporated, competitive advantage is a must knowing that there are other key players in its industry that it needs to outweigh. In the same way, these competitors are busy enough to outweigh their counterparts in the industry. Thus, the bottom line is that they are able to formulate strategies that will create an advantage on their part. Since this includes about the entire organisation, everyone involved in it should consider doing their parts so that their operation may be able to compete in the industry. Marketing managers for instance of Apple Incorporated should substantially create active moves every now and then so as not to be outweighed by sophisticated and fast-paced transformation in its industry due to on-going intense competition. Modern marketing strategies are present which are highly sophisticated in the stimulation of needs (Kotler et al., 1999; Boone and Kurtz, 2006). Apple Incorporated was able to include in its strategic moves the three generic strategies introduced by Porter. This only means that as far as competitive advantage is concerned, the idea of Porter still applies even today particularly in a high level of competition in industries like where Apple Incorporated belongs. Apple’s focus on product innovation Apple as stated earlier is trying to become the leader in its industry. This can be manifested by the level of its focus it has given for its product innovation and cutting-edge technology. Apple has substantially created its edge by trying to maintain a certain market segment that is far from the touch of its competitors. This is an important strategy because in this way, its competitive advantage is ensured knowing that there are no other key players focusing on where it has focused its attention. In this level of activity, stakeholders of Apple are encouraged to create a unified approach in dealing with circumstances and other related moves that the company is willing to take in the future and in times when there is a need to do so (Apple Incorporated, 2011). In fact, this is evident in the company’s very crucial system where there is a strong need for cooperation among stakeholders. The reason is that it would be hard enough to implement focus strategies if the entire vision is not thoroughly shared and understood among shareholders. For instance, it would be hard to implement company’s vision in the first place if not every involved has a wide view at it. Differentiation Another generic strategy of Apple is its creation of highly differentiated products. Managers must ensure quality and uniqueness of the company’s products in order to be consistent in its image in the market. This must be clear enough among stakeholders especially in the case of Apple since one of its basic strategies is differentiation. This has become so effective for Apple because of their consistency to deliver highly innovative products and services on time which have been substantially defined with cutting-edge quality. This means product leadership in the industry and every stakeholder’s parts are on the level to maintain market power and improve it even better. Overall cost leadership Finally, the focus market segment of Apple gives it an ample opportunity to demand overall cost leadership. Since it is not relying on its own manufacturing activity but from the third party, there is no need to focus heavily on issues in line with manufacturing costs. What it only needs to focus is substantial quality for product outputs to be shared with certain market segment which demands high value of products. Conclusion As it can be observed, competitive advantage is a specific formula in the global market especially for multinational companies. The Apple Incorporated is a specific case on how competitive advantage works together for the benefit of the entire organisation. Thus, this gives reasons among managers and other stakeholders to give emphasis on their efforts prior to reaching such competitive advantage as another important corporate objective in today’s globally competitive economy. References Books Berghman, J. (2005) Social protection globalised. Belgium: Leuven University Press. Boone, L. E., and Kurtz, D. L. (2006) Contemporary Marketing. 12th ed. USA: South-Western. Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J., and Wong, V. (1999) Principles of Marketing. Milan: Prentice Hall. Porter, M. E. (1980) Competitive Strategy. USA: Free Press. Summer, J. (2007) Sustainabiliy and the Civil Commons: Rural Communities in the Age of Globalization. Toronto: University of Toronto. Website Apple Incorporated (2011) ‘Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results’. [Online] Available at: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/10/18results.html (Accessed: 16 January 2011). Read More