Introduction
Apple is the largest corporation in the United States, with a market capitalization of more than two trillion dollars. The company’s market value and revenues have grown immensely, especially since the introduction of the Apple smartphone device and other handheld mobile devices. The company’s mission statement is “to bring the best user experience to its customers through its innovative hardware, software, and services”(Meyer, 2019).
Strategic Goals
Apple’s strategy is the main driver of the company’s competitive advantage over other manufacturers of consumer electronics such as Samsung, Microsoft, and others. Since its founding, the company is known for leading in product development and innovation. Each year, Apple releases new and improved products that keep its customers engaged and their revenue streams flowing. It is no coincidence then that one of Apple’s strategic goals is the devolvement of products that enrich people’s lives (Meyer, 2019). To realize this goal, Apple innovates new products frequently and invests in continuous improvement of the product through research and development.
The second strategic goal of the company is differentiation where the company creates unique products from those of its competitors. Following this strategy, the company focuses on creating user-friendly products with high-end branding that effectively differentiate between Apple products and those of its competitors. The company’s strategic goals align with Apple’s mission by seeking to create innovative and differentiated products that offer their customers the best experience.
SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis of an organization identifies its strengths, weaknesses, opportunity, and threats. One of Apple’s strengths is the company’s advanced research and development which has enabled the company to pioneer top technology that keeps the company highly innovative and profitable. A weakness for the company is that its products are highly priced, which makes it impossible to sell the product to some categories of people. The company’s highly innovative products mean that they are also several times more expensive than products offered by competitors. The high prices mean that even within the United States, Apple products are affordable for middle and high-income groups only.
Apple’s opportunities include the chance to expand its smart wearable devices’ technology. Currently, Apple has two smart wearable devices (smartwatches and AirPods) which are not enough to capture the market. On threats, the company faces intense competition from companies such as Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Google, and other device manufacturers. Thus, as the competition intensifies, Apple will either have to innovate more or reconsider its pricing strategy to maintain its competitive advantage and maintain its market dominance.
Organizational Structure
Apple’s organizational structure is decentralized and functional which allows the company to be innovative and make decisions faster. A decentralized structure means that some divisions of the company enjoy quasi autonomy which hastens decision-making. The decentralized structure is organized around functional expertise. A decentralized organizational structure with an emphasis on functional experience and expertise means that individuals with an understanding of a topic decide for the functional departments with minimal or no interference from other functional departments or senior managers and executives.
Conclusion
Apple is the largest corporation in the United States by market capitalization. Its mission is to provide the best user experience through innovations in software and hardware. Consequently, the company’s strategic goals include the creation of highly differentiated products and the development of products that enrich people’s lives. To effectively achieve its mission and strategic goals, the company has a decentralized organizational structure that focuses on the functional expertise and experience of decision-makers (Podolyn & Hansen, 2022). Therefore, the company’s mission, goals, and organizational structure are aligned to support one another.
References
Meyer, P. (2019). Apple Inc.’s generic strategy & intensive growth strategies. Panmore Institute. Web.
Podolyn, J., & Hansen, M. (2022). How Apple is organized for Innovation. Harvard Business Review. Web.