International Business- Apple | Report

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International Business- Apple
Name
(Affiliation Institution)

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Part 1
Background and competitiveness of Apple Company
Brief profile of Apple Company
Apples Inc. is a multinational technology company based in America with its
headquarters at Cupertino, California. Apple Inc. was founded by Steve Jobs, Robert Wayne and
Steve Wozniak in 1976 as Apple before its name changed to Apple. Inc (Lusted, 2012 p.1). The
company develops and sells various hardware and software products such as computer software,
consumer electronics in diverse markets. The hardware products offered by Apple Inc. include
the iPad tablet computer, iPhone smartphone, the Apple TV, Airpods as well as Mac personal
computer. The software products offered by the company include tvOS, WatchOS, iPads iOS
and mac iOS operating systems. The company also offers online services such as Apple store,
iCloud, Mac App Store and Apple pay cash.
Core resources and Capabilities of Apple Company
Core Capabilities
According to Agha, Alrubaiee and Jamhour (2012 p.192), core competencies are the
capabilities and skills of an organization that offers a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
The analysis of core competence is essential in an organization it helps in identification of
strengths that can be utilized to maximize profits and key areas that needs improvement. The
major core competencies of Apple Inc include strong positional assets, financial capabilities and
human and physical resources, technology and support systems capabilities, organizational
structure, business process, leadership and governance, diversification and leveraging of
products due to innovation as well as knowledge and skills.
Financial capability- Strong financial background of Apple Company is one of the
greatest competitive advantages. Since 2003 to 2008, Apple Company has bombed the market

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with products and services that were more appealing to customers hence the company tripling its
sales to $3.5billion from $24 million (Heracleous and Papachroni, 2016 p.1). The financial
background has enabled the company to pouch skilled employees from their competitors.
Besides, with financial capabilities, the company has effective compensation and reward systems
which supports a high degree of employee retention. The company also can use its financial
capabilities to expand into profitable markets such as China and other parts of the world.
Technical capability (Innovation): Apple Company has been a very innovative
company for the last two decades with the company developing the iPhone, Mac and iPod from
2006 to 2008 (Wang, Wu & Bakker, 201). The organization gained valuable brand valuation due
to the innovation and production of electronics, video, movie as well as music. The company is
still differentiating its products at a regular period in the market.
Leadership and governance: Apple has strong leadership and governance which guides
and directs the workforce effectively. The leaders of the company followed a variety of
leadership styles such as transformation and democratic which influences employees to perform
exceptionally as well as being more engaging and committed with the organization. A research
conducted by (Sundaray 2011 p.53), shows that when employees are engaged and committed in
an organization, they are likely to be innovative and contribute significantly towards
organizational success. Therefore, the leadership of Apple is a backbone to its success in various
markets with high and low context cultures such as the US and China.
Business process and Perfections: In terms of perfection, products from Apple Inc
varies in quality, designs and usage when compared to their competitors. Besides, the products of
Apple are user friendly with iPhone, iPod and iPad being simple to learn. The company is also
very consistent in the portfolio of product development. A research conducted by Teece (2016

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p.202) shows that an organization with consistent products and often diversifies its products
regains customer loyalty as it tends to satisfy every customer. Therefore, the consistent in
Apple’s product line enables the company to maintain its product line.
Diversification and leveraging of products: Apple gains a competitive advantage in the
changing markets through diversification strategy. Diversification strategy involves an
organization offering a wide range of products across diverse market sectors and products (Nath,
Nachiappan & Ramanathan, 2010). Since Apple produced Apple 1, the company has offered a
variety of products in the market such as power cd, Macs, mouse, keyboards, printers and
operating systems. Diversification of products has further enhanced the financial capability of
Apple. The company is also very responsive to the competitors’ changes in the market that
competitors brought. For example, when Samsung developed Galaxy S3 and dell introduced
tablet, Apple Company responded by launching iPhone 5 which had more features and
specifications as compared to iPhone 4 and most of competitors products (Sadeghi, 2012 p.1).
Core resources
Core resources of Apple Company have offered a competitive advantage over its
competitors in the market. Core resources are classified as tangible and intangible. Tangible
resources involve assets which can be quantified and touched such as formal reporting structures,
equipment and facilities (Surroca, Tribó & Waddock (2010 p.463). Intangible resources include
assets which cannot be touched, accumulates over time and are incorporated in the organizational
history. Examples of intangible resources include reputation, trusts, knowledge and capabilities
(Suciu, Piciorus & Imbrisca, 2012 p.233). In terms of knowledge and capabilities, Employees of
Apple Company are very skilled and knowledgeable with the engineers being very creative and
producing products that meet the current and future customer expectations. Furthermore, Apple