Apple Inc.’s Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Assignment requirement
The goal of your engagement in this assignment is for you to develop a deeper understanding of a company's internal organization, its resources, capabilities, core competencies, and how they contribute to competitive advantage. To get started:
Select a company that you are interested in and research its internal organization, resources, capabilities, and core competencies. You may choose any company from any industry, but it is recommended to select a well-known and established company.
Identify the company's resources and determine if they are valuable, rare, difficult to imitate, and non-substitutable (VRIN). Use the VRIN criteria to determine the company's potential for a sustainable competitive advantage.
Identify the company's capabilities and determine if they are considered as a core competency. Explain your opinion and justify your reasoning.
Analyze the Company's Business-Level Strategy and identify its competitive advantage. Determine if the company is using a differentiation or cost leadership strategy. Explain how the strategy contributes to the company's competitive advantage.
Based on your analysis, develop recommendations for the company to improve its competitive advantage. The recommendations should be feasible and supported by evidence.
The paper should be between 4 to 5 pages, double-spaced, in APA format, including a title page, abstract, and reference page. Be sure to cite your sources!
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Apple Inc.’s Sustainable Competitive Advantage
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Apple Inc.’s Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Introduction
Apple Inc. is one of the most competitive companies in the technology industry. Since the return of Steve Jobs as its CEO in the mid-90s, it has experienced significant internal organizational restructuring that helped it accelerate its competitiveness. Its visionary leaders have also ensured it maintains its global leadership in product innovation and customer experience. Despite the technology industry being fast-moving, competitive, and encountering rapid disruptive innovations, Apple's continuous adaptability and innovativeness keep it ahead of its competitors, such as Samsung and Microsoft.
Internal Organization
Before Steve Jobs' return to Apple in 1997, the company struggled and was on the verge of bankruptcy. The CEO identified the company's conventional management structure as its major flaw since managers were in charge of departments and responsible for their respective profits and losses. Jobs fired all those managers and merged them into one functional organization, with department vice presidents overseeing product developments in their respective areas of expertise. According to Podolny and Hansen (2020), this unconventional organizational structure left the CEO as the only individual in the managerial position, ensuring various company functions, including management, marketing, and innovation, were accomplished. The vice presidents have technical expertise in the products they head, focusing on improving functionality. This has been the structure even after the CEO, Tim Cook, took over from Steve Jobs, which has helped Apple in sustainable innovation and consumer service.
Resources
From finances to intellectual property, Apple has valuable resources that give it a competitive advantage. For instance, the company has won the confidence of investors who enjoy a substantial return on investment from the company's success. These financial resources enable the company to invest heavily in innovations, marketing, and acquisitions. Over the years, Apple has expanded its capital investment, helping it pursue growth opportunities to sustain its leadership in the technology industry.
Intellectual property serves as a valuable resource in Apple's competitiveness. For instance, it has several patents, trademarks, and copyrights protecting innovations made by its team of experts over the years of technological evolution. According to Diderich (2019), one key importance of having intellectual property is to rid the industry of unhealthy competition from rivals who imitate products and designs. Consequently, Apple has focused on differentiation by investing in innovations that only its customers enjoy. Sachs (2020) notes that it has helped it maintain its position in the prestige consumer market for a range of Apple products, including Macs, iPhones, iPads, and IOS, that give its consumers a unique experience.
In addition, this differentiation helps Apple achieve its other valuable resource of a strong brand image. The company enjoys considerable customer loyalty since it presents itself as a distinctive brand in the technology industry. Consumers and other industry players consider Apple devices the most prestigious globally. However, Apple has worked toward maintaining the high quality of its brand, making customers hold it with the highest value of perception.
Apple's research and development capabilities give it a competitive edge since it can keep up with trends and industry requirements. In the fast-moving technology world, it is essential to invest in R&D capabilities to constantly innovate and deliver the desired consumer experience (Hitt ...