Conducting Internal Environmental Scan And Organizational Assessment

Developing a SWOT Analysis and a Balanced Strategic Scorecard

Analyzing the business opportunities in right manner has become necessary for the current scenario. Due to increasing competition in the market, understanding own strength and weakness have become necessary. The purpose of this study is to highlight the internal environment of Apple Inc. By highlighting the values chain analysis and SWOT analysis, the internal environment and opportunities have been identified in this study. At the end of the study, using balanced strategic scorecard the growth of the company has been measured.

The mission of Apple is to develop the performance standard of the employees so that it will be able to maintain standard quality of products. The mission if Steve Jobs is to contribute to the globe by introducing the mind tools that can bring the advancement in mankind (Pousa, 2016 ). In this process, the technological development as well as the financial growth is included. It cannot be denied that in the current competitive industry customer satisfaction has become the major concern for the companies. In this situation, it has become necessary for Apple inc. is to introduce effective performance standard for maintaining the customer retention process. Therefore, the vision of Apple Inc. is to develop effective leadership practices in the organization so that the changing needs of the customers can be satisfied and business operations can be done in proper manner. On the other hand, the company also aims to maintain the employment standard in workplace so that the competitiveness can be improved. The core value of Apple Inc. is to introduce principles, qualities, company believes and standards in the workplace. By understanding the values of this organization, it can be said that company aims to maintain the proper interaction between suppliers, customers and employees across the world so that it can fulfill its promises to the customers (Ferris et al., 2014).

While taking the interview of the senior manager of Apple Inc., it has been identified that it aims to introduce effective transformational leadership practices in the workplace so that the internal environment can be improved (Blenko et al., 2016). Aim of the company is to expand its business all over the world and increase its sales revenue 6% within coming 2020. During the interview, it has been analyzed that the company aims to expand its ecommerce for establishing its strong brand image in all over the country. In the global industry, Samsung, Tesla motors, Dell, Sony and Bose are the major competitors of this company (Apple.com, 2018). If the market position is being analyzed, it will be identified that in the year 2017, the business revenue of this company was 22,923.4 crores USD, where the Samsung was 22,345 crores USD, Bose was 380 crores USD, Tesla motors with 1,175.9 crores USD and with the similar target market (Piao & Kleiner, 2015). Therefore, it can be said that the Bose and Samsung are the major competitors of Apple Inc.

The Internal Environmental Scan or Organizational Assessment

Analyzing the political and economic situation in US it has been identified that due to the increasing opportunities of the market, large numbers of organizations have got the chance to develop business in the competitive industry. In this situation, maintaining the loyal customers has become major concern for the company ((Mitrofanov, Krutikova & Parsheva, 2016)). In this situation, Apple Inc. has decided to introduce its product and service related information to the people so that transparency can be maintained. By implementing this strategy the company has aimed to increase the number of loyal customers. On the other hand, it is also true that depending on this strategy the customer relationship can also be improved, which can help to deal with the external competitiveness.

Value chain analysis is being considered as the effective way in which the business activities of an organization can be analyzed. It is true that depending on the value chain analysis, the competitive advantage can be gained.

                                                                   (Source: Gereffi & Fernandez-Stark,  2016)

In case of value chain analysis, both the primary and support activities have higher level of contribution in case of gaining the competitive advantage. Among the primary and support activities, the company may focus on improving the inbound and outbound logistics. This strategy can help in case of expanding its business. It cannot be denied that Apple Inc has expand its business in both the developing and developed countries, however, it needs to focus on improving its logistics so that in other countries it can expand its business.

It can be summarized that the company named Apple Inc. has decided to improve its performance standard and uniqueness for maintaining its quality. Bose and Samsung are the major competitors of Apple Inc.

Strength: The major strength of Apple Inc. is it has established its unique brand image in the market. It is also true that using the innovative products in the market it has developed the large customer base. The company has brought innovation in hardware and software and introduced it in the market. By using the strong designing process, the company has maintained its brand popularity in the market (Khan, Alam, & Alam, 2015). Apple Inc. has developed effective promotional strategies for grabbing large number of customers’ attention. If the company will be able to establish is strength in between manner, it will be able to create tough position for its competitors.

Creating Your SWOT Analysis

Weakness: The major weakness of the company is it is maintaining its strong position in the market since 1980 (Khan, Alam, & Alam, 2015). Due to this reason matching the increasing customer expectation has become big challenge for the company. Incompatibility is being considered as another important weakness of the company. It has been identified that some of the products of Apple Ice are not compatible with the third-party accessories. It influence the decision making process of the customers. Due to this reason, the sales rate of the company can be affected. By taking the advantage of this situation, the competitors can introduce its products in lower ranges for grabbing customers’ attention.

Opportunities: Availability of technological advancement in the current industry can be considered as the important opportunities of Apple Inc. On the other hand, with increasing growth in GDP, people have started showing their interest towards consuming the luxury brands (Inabinett & Ballaro, 2014). These opportunities can help to maintain its business growth. Maintaining the performance standard the company will be able to get loyal customers.

Threats: Market penetration by the other companies is biggest threat for Apple Inc in the Smartphone industry (Khan, Alam, & Alam, 2015). It cannot be denied that Mac book is the best product in the laptop segment, but increasing popularity of HP, Dell and Lenovo has increased market competition.

                                                                    (Source: Akkermans & Van Oorschot, 2018)

In the year 1990, David Norton and Robert Kaplan introduced Balanced Scorecard. It helps to clarify the mission and vision of the company in right manner. There are four groups in this Balanced Scorecard such as financial, customer, internal process and learning and growth, which helps to achieve the goals and objectives of the company (Gibbons & Kaplan, 2015). In the below table the balance scoreboard of Apple Inc. has been identified.

Conclusion:

In this study, it can be concluded that Apple Inc. has established its strong brand image in the market so that the company will be able to gain the competitive advantage. However, due to increasing competitors in the market, the company is dealing with several challenges. Id the organization can use its opportunities in proper manner; it will be able to achieve its goals and objectives.

Use the Balanced Scorecard or Another Similar Tool

References and bibliography:

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Apple.com (2018). Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/us_kiosk_53068/shop. [Accessed on 18th Sep, 2018]

Blenko, D., Waldron, K., Cornelius, J., Nespoli, G., & Lee, D. (2016). ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS: APPLE RETAIL STORES.

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Ferris, G. R., Harris, J. N., Russell, Z. A., Ellen III, B. P., Martinez, A. D., & Blass, F. R. (2014). The role of reputation in the organizational sciences: a multilevel review, construct assessment, and research directions. In Research in personnel and human resources management (pp. 241-303). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Gereffi, G., & Fernandez-Stark, K. (2016). Global value chain analysis: a primer.

Gibbons, R., & Kaplan, R. S. (2015). Formal Measures in Informal Management: Can a Balanced Scorecard Change a Culture?. American Economic Review, 105(5), 447-51.

Inabinett, J. M. & Ballaro, J. M. (2014). Developing an organization by predicting employee retention by matching corporate culture with employee’s values: A correlation study. Organization Development Journal, 32(1), 55-74.

Khan, U. A., Alam, M. N., & Alam, S. (2015). A critical analysis of internal and external environment of Apple Inc. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, 3(6), 955-961.

Mitrofanov, A. P., Krutikova, A. A., & Parsheva, K. A. (2016). Research of Physical and Chemical Processes Occurring in the Interaction of Stainless Steel with the External Environment Elements Used for Impregnating the Aabrasive Tools. Russian Internet Journal of Industrial Engineering, 4(3), 46-49.

Piao, M., & Kleiner, B. (2015). Excellence in the Electronics Industry: The Comparison of the Organizational Culture among Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics and Google Inc. Conflict Resolution & Negotiation Journal, 2015(1).

Pousa, C. (2016). An Initial Assessment of Measurement Invariance in Sales Force Coaching: Comparing the French and Spanish Versions of Ellinger’s Coaching Measure. In Celebrating America’s Pastimes: Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Marketing? (pp. 767-772). Springer, Cham.

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Smith, B. D. (2007). Strategy-making: What works is what fits. ******opean Business Forum, 28, 32–37. (ProQuest

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