Apple Inc Globalization Initiatives Have Contributed to Essay
- Length: 4 pages
- Sources: 6
- Subject: Business
- Type: Essay
- Paper: #68172905
Excerpt from Essay :
Globalization initiatives have contributed to the need for many companies across the globe to expand their businesses beyond the local or domestic markets. The focus of this article is to analyze Apple, Inc., an American multinational that operates in several countries in the world. It begins with an analysis of the strategies for competing in international markets and how the firm is organized to gain regional or global advantage while remaining responsive to local conditions. This is followed by a summary of how the firm is organized internationally, its structure, and modus operandi, and whether it has resources to compete globally. The final part of the paper provides specific recommendations for Apple Inc. To become a market leader in the next five years throughout its operations.
The Case of Apple Inc.:
As globalization and rapid technological advancements have become common characteristics in the modern business world, organizations and companies are expanding into international markets. A company considers expanding its business beyond the domestic market and into foreign markets because of various factors or reasons. The most common reasons for such strategies include gaining access to new customers, to capitalize on its major competencies, to extend its business risks throughout a wider market base, and to enhance the firm's competitiveness. The company's strategic options in the international markets are shaped by various factors like cross-cultural differences, the need to obtain a local-based competitive advantage, and the threat of adverse exchange rate shifts. Since these factors also include political risks, the choices are shaped by the effect of the host government policies on the local business culture. There are several strategies for entering and competing in international markets including maintaining a national production base and exporting products to global markets and licensing foreign companies to use the firm's technology or distribute the firm's products (Hunger & Wheelen, 2006, p. 391). The other strategies include the use of a franchising strategy, a multi-country strategy, a global strategy, and strategic alliances or joint ventures.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational company that operates and competes in various markets across the globe. As a company's business strategy tends to be a reflection of its leaders, Apple Inc. has differentiated itself through the adoption of an elegantly simple design. Throughout the years, Apple has been able to amass huge success and profitability, which is attributed to it's the relentless hard work of the people associated with the firm and their ability to forecast and react to the ever-changing market trends (Gholap, 2012). Despite of this, the single most important factor that the company can attribute to its success is simplicity. This factor has enabled the company to develop a strong relationship with customers throughout the years and increase its market share considerably in the mobile industry. The company has adopted an efficient marketing strategy for its products based on presentations, brand loyalty, and effective advertisement. The success of Apple Inc. is also attributed to the way its organized globally in order to exploit regional and global advantages while remaining responsive to local conditions. Actually, the company's business strategy revolves around three major elements i.e. leveraging momentum with scale, extending the wall garden geography and IOS foundation, and investments in new directions through innovation of new product platform.
The recent profitability of the American multinational corporation can also be attributed to way it has been organized in the past five years to promote the development and introduction of new stores that help the firm in enhancing its global business initiatives. Throughout its international operations, Apple Inc. is organized around functions instead of divisions. As a result, the company's business operations revolve around a command-and-control structure in which ideas are shared at the top. The ability of the firm to develop innovative products is associated to being organized as functions in which its workers are not exposed to responsibilities that are beyond their area of expertise (Baxter, 2011). This kind of organization doesn't mean that most suitable person handles a specific task but it implies that the firm is interwoven and enables employees to work together. Therefore, the company integrates the process of designing, engineering, and marketing from the onset of product development.
In the past few years, understanding the structure and modus operandi of Apple Inc. In relation to its objectives in exploiting regional or global advantages while remaining responsive to local conditions has been a relatively difficult task. This is despite of the numerous attempts that have been made to scrutinize…