Organisation Strategy and Leadership

This document discusses the concepts of organization strategy and leadership, with a focus on Apple Inc. It covers Apple's generic business strategy, organizational culture, and organizational structure. The document provides insights into how Apple sustains its competitive advantage and fosters innovation.

Organisation strategy and leadership
0
Organisational strategy and leadership
Apple Inc.
Student’s Name
5/28/2019

Organisation strategy and leadership 1
Introduction
The business strategy is the roadmap that guides the actions of the company and
helps in sustaining the competitive advantage. It describes the actions to be taken
and ensures that the actions are in line with the goals of the organization ( Burns,
2016).
Apple Inc. was incorporated in the year 1977 in California. The company designs,
manufactures, and markets mobile communication and media services and sells a
variety of software, accessories, services, and accessories. The company sells its
products through online stores, retail stores, direct sales force and also through the
third-party cellular network. The products and the services delivered by the company
includes Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch and Apple TV and the software
applications includes iOS, macOS ®, watchOS®, and tvOS™ operating systems,
iCloud ®, Apple Pay ® and also provides a variety of services and support offerings.
The company sells its products to customers, government enterprises and
consumers, small and middle size businesses and education and sells its product
worldwide (Apple Inc, 2019).
The company focuses on making continuous innovations in its product and the
service to sustain its value in the competitive environment and majorly adopts the
direct and the indirect channels to supply its products. The quarterly revenue in the
year 2018 was reported $62.9 which increased 20% from the last year (Apple Inc,
2018). The increase in the revenue was observed due to the continuous innovations
served by the company. The company is highly dedicated to its employees and
embraces diversity. The further paragraphs will cover the generic business strategy,
the culture and the structure of the organization (Apple Inc, 2018).
Generic Business strategy
Porter’s generic business strategy allows the firm to sustain its competitive
advantage and ascertain the position in the market. It includes the three different
strategies that a firm applies to sustain the competitive advantage in the complex
world. These strategies include cost leadership, product differentiation, and focus

Organisation strategy and leadership 2
strategy. The company applies the combination of the strategies in order to increase
the profitability of the business (Salavou, 2015).
It is analyzed that Apple considers its generic strategy as the major determinant to
fight against the competitors and sustain the competitive advantage. The company
adopts a broad differentiation strategy to stand out in the market and attract potential
customers towards the brand. The key to the products delivered by Apple helps in
differentiating the products from the other brands. The company provides seamless
connectivity and cutting-edge aesthetics in the design (Singh and Mather, 2017).
The distinctive features allow the company to charge premium prices for its product
and it has a wide market reach to increase the profitability of the business. To
differentiate the products from the other brands the company makes a huge
investment upon the research and development to drive the innovation that attracts
the customers worldwide. It fosters to bring continuous innovations in the brand and
makes the product reachable to the wide market. The products of the brand are
designed elegantly and are user-friendly to make the brand differentiate from others
(Stott et al, 2016).
Apple views innovation as a critical factor to achieve success. It makes continuous
innovations in its products and develops new products to attract customers. It makes
continuous innovations in iPhone, iPad and apple watch and launches new products
and models that help the business to earn higher revenues and sustain its
competitive advantage. The company combines its intensive growth strategy with a
generic strategy to make innovations and increase the profits of the firm
(Badenhausen, 2019).
It focuses on promoting the current products in the market to establish its position
and provides entirely new products to the market. The company captures the market
by using the market penetration strategy. The products designed by Apple are
matchless and has excellent technology. Its premium products allow the company to
charge higher prices than its competitors and become the market leader. The look
and the operating system of Mac differentiate it from the other brands and attract
potential customers. The company launches the entire series of its inter-compatible
goods and the technology and the quality of the products are far from the
competitors (Wheelen et al, 2017).

Organisation strategy and leadership 3
It combines market development strategy with the generic strategy to become the
global brand and provide the products in all the areas. This expansion strategy is
combined with a generic strategy to increase the profitability of the business and
become the market leader. The company also adopts the focus strategy based upon
differentiation. Apple designs the computers based upon the professional
requirements and the complexities they require in the computers. It focuses on
meeting the exact needs of the professionals (Burns, 2016).
Apple has never wavered upon the pricing strategy. The company does not shift the
pricing of its products in comparison to its competitors. It focuses on its unique value
proposition. The company designs its product beautifully and uses smaller packaging
to differentiate its product from the other brands. It provides a variety of options such
as enhanced features and larger screens. The innovation in the products keeps the
firm high from its competitors and helps in sustaining the competitive advantage. The
generic strategy gets the support of the intensive growth strategy and brings an
innovative product to develop the market and penetrates its products to the
developed markets (Forbes, 2019).
The company develops products that are unique and provide value to the customers.
The products designed are user-centric and the company focuses on bridging the
gaps that are unseen by the competitors. It re-uses the existing product designs and
develops a few sparkling innovations in the products. This innovation helps the
company to control the cost and attain higher profits. The computers of Apple are
completely different from the competing window computers and the hardware and
the software are in control of the company which in turn reduces the technical errors
and provides the best operating system to the customers (Daykin, 2018).
It provides a highly differentiated and unique integration of hardware and software
gadgets to specify the diversifying needs of the customers and allows the company
to charge premium prices for its products. It delivers value to the customers. The
company is able to deliver innovative products by employing scientific research to its
business process and employs highly skilled and creative product development team
to design its high-quality innovative products. The differentiation strategy adopted by
Apple has a broader aspect. It differentiates its product through exceptional design,
superior quality, and best customer service. It provides personalized services and

Organisation strategy and leadership 4
targets a broad range of customers from unsophisticated beginners to high profile
professionals (Dilger, 2018).
It focused on low budget customers and designed iMac computers and iBook
computers to satisfy the needs of the low budget customers. The cost of these
computers is quite low. It provides the products at the best prices and under single
packaging. In the adoption of the focused strategy, the company has designed the
computers for the beginners which are less complex and also designed the
computers for the high professionals in accordance to their needs (Dilger, 2018).
It is analyzed that Apple adopts the differentiation strategy to sustain its competitive
advantage and considers innovation as the fundamental success factor. It focuses
on making constant innovations to deliver unique and high-quality products that are
far differentiated from its competitors and for which the consumers are ready to pay
premium prices. It also focuses on delivering personalized service and target a huge
market (Lee et al, 2017).
Organizational Culture
Apple has a corporate culture that allows the human resource to support the
business objectives. The cultural traits of the business are aligned with the driver of
innovation. The company views innovation as a critical factor in the success of the
business and inbuilt the culture that focuses on bringing innovation. The company
shapes the corporate culture in such a manner that it maximizes the support of the
human resource towards the business objectives. It adopts the corporate culture that
strengthens the company to sustain its competitive advantage over its competitors
(Dekker, 2018)
The company has an organizational culture for creative innovation. It involves the
business process that focuses on maintain innovation and focuses on adopting
cultural support to inbuilt creativity in its operations. The organizational culture of the
company focuses on adopting top-notch excellence. The company hires the best
employees and expects excellence among the employees. It expects that the
employees have top-notch excellence and has designed various reward and
recognition programs to motivate the employees. Excellence is considered as the

Organisation strategy and leadership 5
major factor for advancing the growth of the business and bringing the innovations in
the products and services (Warrick, 2017).
The company expects that the employees must have creative skills, knowledge, and
abilities. This characteristic of the employees will help the company to bring
innovation and design new products for the company. The company expects the
employees to be creative specially the product design and development team. Apple
is considered as a famous rapid innovation company. It views innovation as the main
source to sustain the competitive advantage and become the market leader. To
inbuilt the cultural trait the company focuses on training the employees and
motivates them to continuously improve their performance by implementing
innovation in the product development process. This cultural trait allows the
company to bring constant innovations and increase the profitability of the business
(Hickman and Silva, 2018).
The employees in the organization are expected and ensured to maintain the
secrecy of their business information. It has developed various employment
contracts, policies, and rules to reinforce the trait of secrecy and protect the private
information of the company. This strategic management approach allows the
company to protect its information and helps the company to lead the advantage
against its competitors (Horibe, 2016).
The company adopts the culture where there is moderate combativeness. Under the
leadership of Tim Cook, the company focuses on me more social and inculcates
moderate combativeness. Under this, it provides challenging job roles to the
employees to make them feel more values as they are getting higher responsibilities
and provides greater satisfaction to the employees of the organization. The
expectations of top-notch excellence and creativity help the employees to be ahead
of its competitors. It allows the firm to be the market leader and widely recognized as
an innovator in the product designs. This corporate culture allows the firm to sustain
its competitive advantage and become the market leader. It helps in strengthening
the brand in comparison to its competitors (Smither et al, 2016).
The company adopts the culture where it embraces diversity. The company focus on
hiring the employees that have different experiences and skills to drive innovation in
the products and the services delivered by the company. The company hires more

Organisation strategy and leadership 6
women’s and underrepresented minorities. It encourages the workforce to be
representatives at all levels of management. It has received a top ranking for the pay
equity to ensure that all the women and men receive equal pay and compensation.
The company is committed to paying equally all across the globe. It gives the
opportunity to the veterans to apply all the skills and knowledge to the business
(Salama, 2016).
Apple is a multigenerational company that comprises the workforce from age
group18-87. The company focuses on providing welfare to the employees and make
them learn more through the Apple journey. The company experience high retention
of the employees because it designs various programs that provide the opportunity
to the employees to grow as individuals and become the merging leaders. Under
45% of leaders, 30% represents the women and 17 % are the underrepresented
minorities. The company is deeply committed to make the emerging generation more
representative leader than before (Apple Inc, 2019).
The company is dedicated to empowering the students and educators and has
partnered with the community colleges and universities to empower students and
educators at all the levels. It has developed the programs like AppleCare College
and our Apple HBCU Scholars internship program to reach to the diverse population
and empower them. The company welcomes all the voices and all beliefs and fosters
the team culture where the diverse people share their experiences and leadership. It
fosters the culture of belonging and creates a team culture that is transparent and
open. It comprises of more than 25000 employees in diversity association networks.
(Apple Inc, 2019)
Apple encourages people to feel pride in their culture and develops the feeling of
belonging. The company believes that including diverse workforce will drive
innovation and will help in making the brand stronger. However, it focuses on hiring
the workforce that is more committed and has the capacity to bring creativity and
innovation in the products of the company. It leverages technology to prevent bias
and increase leadership in the company. However, it is analyzed that Apple focuses
on the corporate culture that fosters creativity and innovation. It expects Top-notch
excellence and creative skills among the employees to drive innovation in the
company (Wang, 2019).

Organisation strategy and leadership 7
Embracing diversity at the workplace allows the company to gain knowledge from
the share experiences and motivates the employees to become better leaders. It
provides equal opportunities to all the male and female members and ensures equal
pay. This culture motivates the employees and helps the company to increase its
profits (Salama, 2016)
Organization Structure
Apple Inc. follows a hierarchical organizational structure with divisional
characteristics and weak functional matrix. The company follows the traditional
structure and the divisions are done on the basis of product category. It involves
inter-divisional collaboration and the hierarchy of the company is preserved (Cohen,
2015).
Under the leadership of Tim Cook, the company has undertaken slight changes in
the traditional hierarchical structure. Earlier all the decisions were under the control
of Steve Jobs but now the company has given more autonomy to its vice presidents
and has observed more collaboration among the hardware and the software teams.
The structure of the company is less rigid but still embraces spoke and wheel
hierarchy under which Tim Cook is placed at the center. The innermost circle of the
spoke and wheel hierarchical structure has functional based grouping and highlights
the functional type structure of the company. In the hierarchy, the top business
leaders address the needs and the problems of the business in terms of functional
areas (Dudovskiy, 2019)
The company experienced divisional structure under the upper and the lower tiers of
the hierarchy. The divisions are based upon the products. The company has senior
vice presidents and president to address the functions of the business. Every
division consists of different presidents to solve the issues if their departments and
ensure efficiency in designing of the products and the services (Noe et al, 2017).
The company incorporates a weak functional matrix under which the direction of the
project is given by the top management but different divisions have given the
autonomy to collaborate together to achieve the efficiency in operation and bring
innovations. It allows an easy flow of information and helps the company to respond

Organisation strategy and leadership 8
to the changing needs of the customers. Adoption of this structure allows the firm to
bring rapid innovation and advances the growth of the business (Cohen, 2015).
The adoption of the hierarchical structure allows strong management control and
empowers the leader to control the operations of the business. The decisions are
taken by the higher authorities and the CEO. The weaken functional matrix allows to
communicate among the different divisions and the communication flows from the
top the lower hierarchy. It allows easy coordination and effective implementation of
the strategies to control the operations of the business (Noe et al, 2017).
Implementing the hierarchical structure in the organization clearly defines the roles
and responsibilities of each member. It motivates the employees to undertake higher
job roles and be more committed to the goals of the organization. The hierarchical
structure allows the employees to be specialist in their departments and be more
loyal towards the job. The employees become the expert of their specialist and
design innovative products for the company. The authority and the responsibility of
the employees go hand in hand (Young and Ghoshal, 2016).
Apart from the strong management control, the adoption of the traditional
hierarchical structure lowers the flexibility at the lower levels of the management. It
prevents the lower levels to respond to the changing requirements of the
environment. The product-based divisions have to wait for the higher levels to
respond towards the changing needs and in turn, reduces the flexibility and leads to
delay in the flow of information from the higher levels. Under the leadership of Tim
Cook, it has made slight changes in the traditional hierarchy that provides the
flexibility to take the decisions that benefit the organization (Noe et al, 2017).
The organization structure of Apple is collaborative in nature and follows a vertical
organization structure. In this structure, all the decisions are made by the managers
of each department. The structure looks complex but it is simple under which the
lower level employees are allowed to interact with the middle and top level
managers. The top manager delegates the responsibility to the middle managers
and the lower level employees are accountable to the middle managers. There is a
proper chain of command and ensures proper coordination among all the
departments of the company (Bridgman and McLaughlin, 2017).

Organisation strategy and leadership 9
The structure of Apple is robust and allows the managers to manage its specialized
segment. The resources are effectively allocated among the departments and the
CEO expects that each product based division will bring innovative products and
services. This allows the department managers to use the resources efficiently and
able to realize economies of scale. The integrative organization structure ensures
the proper span of control and higher unity of command. Apple Inc practices
centralized decision making under which it permits the employees to make the
decisions and helps the company in analyzing its strength and weakness. This
flexibility helps in motivating the employees and makes them more committed
towards the objective of the company (Daft, 2015).
(Source: Dudovskiy, 2019)
The organization structure of the company helps the workers to promote the
collaborative abilities and achieve the goals of the organization. The organization
structure of Apple is considered as the surest way that helps the company to obtain
success. Under the leadership of Steve Jobs, he provides extra hours for the
workers to develop innovative ideas for the company and contribute towards the

Organisation strategy and leadership 10
success of the company. They were given the autonomy to take the decisions and
contribute to fostering innovation in the company (Daft, 2015).
However, the collaborative nature of the structure allows the company to achieve the
operational efficiency and ensure the timely flow of information. This structure places
the CEO at the center and has strong management autonomy. The product based
divisional allows employees to become expert and specialize in their functions.
There is a proper chain of command that reduces the confusions and each employee
is clear about the roles and responsibilities to be performed by them. This structure
contributes to combining the creative and top-notch experience of its employees for
continuous innovation in the products and the services offered by the company. It
allows achieving efficiency and sustaining the competitive advantage in comparison
to its competitors (Bridgman and McLaughlin, 2017).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is crucial to note that Apple Inc. is considered as the
market leader in the mobile industry because it focuses on adopting the
differentiation strategy and delivers the products that are user-friendly and unique in
style. The operating system of Apple is far better from the competitors and has
reduced technical errors. It differentiation strategy allows the company to charge
premium prices for its products. The company focuses on targeting the
unsophisticated beginners and high profile professionals and make continuous
innovation its product to deliver new models and attract potential customers.
It is analyzed that Apple adopts an inclusive culture and fosters innovation. It expects
the employee to have the creative skills and abilities to make rapid innovation. They
expect that the employees have top-notch excellence and will bring continuous
innovations in the product and the services offered. The company embraces diversity
and provides an equal opportunity to all the males and females and
underrepresented minorities. It ensures that all the employees receive equal pay and
develops the rewards the recognition program to motivate the employees and make
them more committed towards the organization. It provides the opportunity to grow
as leaders and make innovations.

Organisation strategy and leadership 11
Apple Inc. follows the vertical organizational structure that is collaborative in nature
and ensures that all the employees bring innovation in the company. The divisional
structures are made on the basis of product and provide equal opportunity to the
managers of all the departments. It ensures collaboration and cooperation among
the company and is considered as the main success factor of the company,

Organisation strategy and leadership 12
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