Free Custom «A Case Study» Essay Paper

Technology has changed the way we live and carry on our daily lives today. Everywhere one looks there is an aspect of technology that is in use to assist people and make their work easier, to assist people get from one place t the other, for entertainment purposes and mainly for communication purposes. Many companies have taken it upon themselves to reap from this insatiable hunger for something better that people around the world have for these techno gadgets. One of the leading technology companies is Apple, Inc. This is a company that was founded around 1976 when the market and need for computers begun being felt in America and the world at large. It is a company that has been nurtured for all this time by a very dedicated team of people who saw the potential for a computer software, hardware and later applications company to thrive whilst delivering the best products to the customer while taking in good profits. Over the years the company has grown in leaps and bounds thanks to its innovations and well executed strategies.

 

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The food industry had been the industry that had been leading for years when it came to making very impressive returns and in the profits margins that these kinds of companies made. This is long gone since technological advancement has changed the playing field. As from the early 1990’s companies that dealt with computers and technology were topping the lists of the most profitable companies list. Apple Inc had been doing quite well and its performance on the market has been quite impressive. This is the company to watch and it is on the lips of everyone the world over, cutting through all the barriers possible to reach all kinds of people with their products. It is a company that noted early in its growth that to get their products to people they must make an effort of reaching the masses rather than sit and wait for the masses to come to them. This is why as of September 2011, Apple Inc operated 317 retail stores in ten countries. This is a move aimed at bringing the Apple company products closer to the people through a genuine and original company store. This also meant that any new product launch could be done around all the stores simultaneously to ensure that all the company clients felt part of the launches and did not have to wait for days or even weeks before a product launched in The United States got to them in say, China.

Apple, Inc has been in the front line in the development of new and innovative products that have become synonymous with the company. This has earned them die hard clients who rely on only the company’s products when it comes to fulfilling their technology needs. This is because over the years the company has proven itself in being a force to reckon with and it has come up with ingenious programs and products that have caught people around the world like a storm. Technology keeps growing by day and people have become more and more reliant on these technological gadgets that we now use in almost all aspects of our daily lives. As such this company saw the need to be more creative and think outside the box and this has paid off over the years. A lot of growth has occurred within the last three years that has seen the company surpass a rival company to become the most valuable consumer-facing brand in the world in market capitalization in 2010 with an increase of 84% to reach $153.3 billion.

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The company has perfected the art of marketing its products and now operates a monopsony, where there is one buyer many seller outlooks. This ingenious idea that is practiced in all parts of the world and in all its stores enables the company to dictate its terms to its suppliers. The company thus manages t monitor its sales from an integrated point from all the stores that it has. This enabled the company to have so much money such that at one time in July, 2011, its financial reserves became bigger than those of the United States of America government. As of September 2011, Apple Inc became the largest publicly traded company in the world by market capitalization and the largest technology company in the world by revenue and profit. This phenomenon achievement came along due to the leadership and logical thinking of the companies executive who followed to the latter all the goals and expectations that had been placed on the company. The company boasts of having a really unique reputation in the consumer electronics industry. This includes a customer base that is devoted to the company and its brand and this is particularly found to be true in the United States. Top business magazine like the Times magazine went on to name Apple as the most admired company in the United States in 2008, and also in the world in the years 2008, 2009, and 2010.

One of the major challenges that Apple Inc as a company faces is the never ending and ever growing competition from other companies that deal in the same things as Apple does. This is because as more and more people crave for something better than the last one put in the market, there is a lot of pressure for the company to become innovative in coming up with new items and applications for the consumer. The taste of the consumers in this sector is very important and any slight changes in the product may as well serve as the best or the worst company decision for that particular product and company. In this respect, it is important that the company’s designers and tech whiz people do not tire in coming up with items and products that will keep the company clients happy and satisfied and thus they will not have to seek allegiance in other company’s products.

Apple has also had to contend to criticism for its contractors' labor, environmental, and business practices that have gone under a lot of scrutiny. The company outsources a lot to Chinese contractors especially in the production and manufacturer of the world famous iPhone. It emerged that some of the companies that were contracted by Apple had sweatshop conditions in their factories whereby more than 20,000 people were found to be living and working for more than 60 hours a week together. This elicited a lot of criticism and the then company Chief went there personally to assess the situation. As much as dealing with a contractor is difficult considering that Apple did not have control of the other company, the issue was sorted and those that did not comply were left out of the contractors.

Environmentalists have also campaigned against the Apple as a company on various environmental issues. These issues include a global end-of-life take-back plan, non-recyclable hardware components and toxins withiniPhonehardware. The world famous environmental protection body Greenpeace has campaigned against Apple's chemical policies, in particular the inclusion of PVC and BRsin their products. For this reason the company was forced to look for alternative parts and this eventually bore fruits since they found newer, cleaner and greener alternatives that have as a change become the turning point in the cleaner production of phones, accessories and computers. Eventually in June 2009, Apple announced that its iPhone 3GS was free of PVC, arsenic, BFRs and had an efficient power adapter.

By replacing the cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlit LCD displays with mercury-free LED backlit LCD displays and arsenic-free glass, Apple upgraded the iMac and Mac Book This move means all Apple computers have mercury free LED backlit displays, arsenic-free glass and are without PVC cables and they like Apple computers also have EPEAT Gold status.

There are numerous Apple consumers around the world and all this people would desire to be able to get an original accessory from a real Apple,Inc store. As much as there are so many stores around the world there still are some big countries that lack the necessary infrastructure to see the materialization of an Apple store in all major towns and countries around the world. When the number of stores become too much then there will be a lot of problems in the setting and monitoring of the company standards between all the stores. As such sacrifices had to be made and the Apple consumers still do have a choice and still do get the Apple phones and other accessories though not through a lot of vigilance and camping outside an original store as such is done outside the stores during a new product launch.

This firm’s success has grown tremendously and there seems to be no limits as to the potential of this company. In measuring the success of the company one may want to look at the company’s books of accounts where it is clear to discover that the company has kept growing over the years in its sales and revenue figures. As of 2010 the company’s revenues stood at a staggering $65.23 billion while the company’s profits rose to $14 billion. This is a good indication of a business that is in sync with all the other aspects of business management and it represents a really big potential that the company still has showing that there is still room for more growth and thus more money. Technology is what is guiding us today in all that we do thus it still is a viable business that will be around for the longest time to come in the future.

The customer is the main factor and is of the biggest essence in the running and the success of Apple as a company. The guest relations should be streamlined and all staff in all the Apple stores have to attend a compulsory customer care training sessions to ensure that they are well trained and have the necessary customer relations and interaction skills to offer the client the best services. This training is important since it gives a client the chance to experience a genuine Apple experience when they visit any Apple store in whatever part of the world. This good rapport with clients and the high standards practiced will eventually attract more clients and maintain the already existing ones. The true measure of the customer growth is by the amount of money that clients spend in a store. This is easily calculated as the amount of money that the company registers as revenues meaning that more and more people are visiting the company stores and doing their purchasing.

There does not seem to be a near end or satisfaction in sight for the technology hunger that the world population has now. This is a wake-up call for a company like Apple to ensure that there are always new innovations and improvements on the company products to keep up with the ever changing and increasing needs that the clients have. There is no end in sight to the possibilities that are available when it comes to technology. The company should thus harness new and raw manpower that can come up with new and even better products and services that will keep clients interested in the company products. Success in this area is in being the market leader in the production and delivery of the latest and most technologically savvy gadgetry in the world.

For a company to gain the respect of the financial sector and the market then it has to have people of high integrity that are in the management positions. This is because people who do hold the image of the company in high esteem will always strive to make logical and goals oriented decisions for the well being of the company. It would be sad for someone in the management of Apple to make a decision on behalf of the company without the well being of the company in mind since it would cost the company a lot. Considering that Apple was started in very humble beginnings, thus critical care is needed to maintain the good image that it has built over the years.

Apple’s strengths are on being a design innovator that is ahead of the trends, creating ergonomic electronics that fit people's lives. Over time, Apple has been able to invest significantly in the research and development of its new products and services with investments totaling to $80 million in the quarter ending in June 2010.

Apple acknowledges that its profitability is dependent on the thriving of the global economy. Significant negative effect on the company can however occur due to economic downturns and fluctuations in foreign currencies make profit margin predictions in foreign markets uncertain leave alone the effects on the local currency. This is the major company’s weakness

Technology demand keeps growing and there is no end in sight yet thus Apple is still expected to introduce a new mobile advertising platform for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and also other innovative products. The introduction of this advertising platform represents an opportunity for new revenue sources for the company besides direct sales revenues.

The company is involved in several legal actions, including lawsuits alleging patent infringement and antitrust violations. Though many of the suits are from smaller companies, notable plaintiffs include Nokia. These lawsuits do present a threat because of the possibility of unfavorable judgments and the ongoing costs associated with legal defenses. The company also has to come up with other cleaner ways of getting power to their production plants to stop the public from complaining about the company’s use of unreliable energy sources.

From a business kind of face point, Apple as a company is headed to the right direction when it comes to money making. It has proven over the years that it is the market leader in the world of high end phones and accessory manufacturer. It is important the company takes a survey and does a good market research to find out the feedback that the company can get from clients to know exactly what the demand in the market is before embarking on something blindly. The client is always right and as such any complaint should not be taken lightly but rather it should be appreciated as being part of the contribution to grow the company into higher levels. Talented individuals in the development of new software and other systems should be harnessed early to ensure that the company gets the first chance to scoop all the bright people from schools and other companies since these are the people who will eventually come up with new and winning innovations to keep the company competitive in the ever competitive world of computer and other electronic device sales and services production.