APPLE'S BUSINESS STRATEGY

Apple's Business Strategy



Table of Content

Apple's business strategy, and how it affects the development of new products & services development in the organization3

Differentiation3

Operations Management strategy4

Input-Transformation-Output Diagram of the Activities5

Explanation of the Diagram6

Operations Performance Objectives6

Quality7

Speed10

Dependability10

Flexibility11

Cost12

How an Information System Can Improve the Product/Service Performance13

New Product/Service Development Project14

Apple's Business Strategy

Apple's business strategy, and how it affects the development of new products & services development in the organization

Differentiation

Apple has applied the concept of differentiation to use it to its advantage and in order to increase its profitability and enhance its competitiveness. Apple aims to achieve this by designing and producing products that are so unique and of such a high quality that it is impossible for its competitors to imitate the technology and features of its products (Jones & Robinson, 2012, pp. 56). By the time the competitors are able to come at pace with the technology used by Apple, it has already come out with a newer version of its products, and thus this causes the company to continuously maintain its differentiation level and have competitive advantage over other companies in the same industry (Apple, 2012, pp.n.d). Apple uses effective advertisements to ensure that the customers can differentiate its products from the competitor products. Even though differentiation causes the company to incur costs that are high, it allows the company to differentiate itself in terms of products and services compared to those made by competitors.

It is pertinent to note that this strategy of differentiation has enabled the company to make products that are unique in their appearance, and offer features and services that are unmatchable and thus attract higher markets. Apart from that, it is because of the diversity, uniqueness and quality of Apple's products that people are willing to pay a higher price for them since they know that they will not find the same products and services anywhere else in the world. The company, however, makes sure that it does not increase costs too much while it still maintains its differentiation levels, which result in enabling it to sustain competitiveness (Apple, 2012, pp.n.d).

Operations Management strategy

The strategy that the company uses to enhance the management of its operations is to have maximum control of its operations. This allows the company to maintain its efficiency and effectiveness when it comes to functions and operations, and ensures that the company is able to identify and correct the mistakes whenever they come up, which in turn saves time (Jones & Robinson, 2012, pp. 47).

Apple gives special attention to attain control over most of the aspects related to; the development of their products, sales, distribution, marketing, service and usage. Having control over all these functions allows the company to keep track of how the operations in the organization are going and correct flaws in due time as soon as they get identified (Heizer et. al, 2009, pp. 92). Keeping this strategy in mind, the company has acquired its own stores, an ecosystem and a software platform that is locked-down, and product service ...