A Comprehensive Analysis of Contemporary Issues Affecting Apple Inc.

This report delves into the contemporary issues confronting Apple Inc., providing a detailed analysis of three key areas: sustainable global supply chain issues, the economic impact of Brexit, and other contemporary organizational challenges. The report examines the effects of supply chain disruptions on Apple's sales, including issues related to raw material availability, patent violations, and modem supply. It analyzes Apple's responses, such as adjusting its operating model and finding alternative suppliers. The report also explores the impact of Brexit on Apple, including pricing and sales issues, and evaluates Apple's strategies to mitigate these challenges, such as price adjustments and exchange programs. Finally, it discusses other organizational issues and provides recommendations for Apple to address these contemporary challenges effectively, incorporating insights from media and stakeholder evaluations of Apple's strategies.

Running head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN MANAGEMENT
Contemporary Issues in Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Sustainable Global Supply Chain issue of Apple:.....................................................................2
Affection of Global Supply Chain issues on Apple:..............................................................2
Responding technique of Apple to Global Supply Chain Issue:............................................4
Evaluation of the Commentator on Apple’s responding technique:......................................4
Economic Impact of Brexit on Apple:.......................................................................................5
Affection of the Brexit issue on the Apple:...........................................................................5
Responding technique of Apple to Brexit Issue:....................................................................6
Evaluation of the Commentator on Apple’s responding technique:......................................7
Contemporary Organization Issue on the Apple:.......................................................................7
Affection of the Contemporary Organization issue on the Apple:........................................7
Responding technique of Apple to Contemporary Organization Issue:.................................8
Evaluation of the Commentator on Apple’s responding technique:......................................9
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................9
Recommendation:....................................................................................................................10
References:...............................................................................................................................12

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Introduction:
The contemporary issues are defined as any type of opinion, idea, event or can be a
topic within a specific type of subject which are relevant with the present time (Wellington
2015). This type of issues is discoverable in any type of matter. This type of issues can affect
the society of present days. This type of contemporary issues is faced by many big
organizations. One prior example of this type of organization is the Apple Inc. Apple is one
of the biggest organization in the world but still facing many types of contemporary issues.
There are total three biggest issue which are currently faced by Apple. The first issue is with
the sustainable global supply chains which has affected the supply chains of the Apple Inc.
vastly. The second and the third contemporary issues are the economic impact of the Brexit
and other contemporary organizations respectively. In these three issues the most problematic
issue is the contemporary organization.
In this paper the above mentioned three contemporary issues will be elaborated briefly
and how this issues impacted Apple Inc. will be discussed. Considering the issues how Apple
is responding to those issues will be evaluated in this paper. Following that how the media
and the commentators are interpreting the response of the organization will be discussed
briefly. Further some key recommendation will be provided to the organization to respond on
those contemporary issues.
Sustainable Global Supply Chain issue of Apple:
Affection of Global Supply Chain issues on Apple:
While examining the contemporary issues faced by the Apple Inc., the sustainable
global supply chain supply is one of the main issue of them. The main impact of the supply
chain issue is the on the Apple Inc. is directly related with the sales of the organization. The
global supply chain issue directly impact the sales because the production line is totally relies

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on the supply chain of the raw materials (Humphries 2013). One of the possible reason for
this issue is the revolutionary products of the Apple Inc. Due to this revolutionary product
line-up, the availability of the raw materials is less from the suppliers as the inventory of the
suppliers need to be updated according to the Apple Inc. Apple uses OLED displays for its
most selling products which are the iPhone and the iPad series and this OLED displays comes
from the Samsung and the LG Electronics (Li, Tran and Halfond 2014). Both of the
organization are the market rivals of the Apple Inc. and also, the Samsung and the LG
Electronics uses the OLED displays for their phones. Thus from my personal point of view
this makes the supply of the OLED screens for the Apple tighter and the sustainable global
supply chain for the Apple is not maintained.
Maximum of the iPhones of the Apple are assembled in the China, and recently the
Apple faced a ban issue on China due to some patent violation which has affected the supply
chain of the Apple Inc. in a broad way (Xing 2014). Also, another issue faced by the Apple
Inc. regarding the global supply chain is the business separation from the Qualcomm Inc. Till
the date Qualcomm was the modem supplier of the Apple for their iPhones but recent lawsuit
case has separated them and Apple is facing supply related issues regarding the modem for
their iPhones and iPads. The other challenges faced by the Apple regarding the sustainable
global supply chain is are the:
 Global economy affection.
 The total inventories of Apple exceeds the demand which is anticipated previously.
 There are very limited source for some components.
 Apple is dependent on the logistical services which is provided by some other
partners.

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Responding technique of Apple to Global Supply Chain Issue:
As this supply chain related issues impacted the sales of the Apple Inc. they must take
some appropriate actions to address the issues. To mitigate some of the issues related with the
global supply chain Apple is adjusted operating model of the OEM (Lacerda, Xambre and
Alvelos 2016). In this new operating model the manufactures are now only responsible for
the productions where as in the previous cases the OEMs were responsible for the both
procurement of the materials and the parts and for the production. This new model has given
Apple more control over their production line and they are able to manage their production
line perfectly. While considering the modem supply issue with the Qualcomm, the Apple Inc.
has found an alternative partner which will now supply the modems for their iPhones and
iPads and this new modem supplier for the Apple is the Intel. To address the ban issue in the
China Apple has made some small changes to the software of its iPhone and iPads. This will
substantially help Apple to remove the bans from sales and will normalise the supply chain.
Besides that one of the main techniques which are used by the Apple to respond to the global
supply chain issue is the promoting products. As per me promoting the products will help the
Apple to attract new customers on the market which actually improves the overall supply
chain management. For promoting the products Apple can adapt the marketing styles such as
digital ads, facilities instalment and offer strategy which are potentially attract most of the
customers in the market, thus the supply chain management will be improved as the
consuming end will be active all the time.
Evaluation of the Commentator on Apple’s responding technique:
As per the interpretation and the evaluation of the major stakeholders and the media
the Apple Inc. has chosen a correct way to address the issues of the sustainable global supply
chain. By changing the operative model of the OEMs, Apple is now capable to control its
own supply chain and the production lines. Also, the stakeholders has evaluated opting Intel

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as a modem supplier in positive way because Intel is one of the most reliable modem supplier
in this segment and this company is also capable to provide next generation 5G modem to the
Apple (Nekovee 2014). Thus the overall decision made by the Apple Inc. to mitigate the
issues of the global supply chain was good enough. The stakeholders of the Apple is also
very much impressed with the current strategy of the marketing as this attracts the new
customers which keeps the flow of the supply chain perfectly.
Economic Impact of Brexit on Apple:
The Brexit is a term which is used for describing the exit of the United Kingdom from
the European Union (Goodwin and Heath 2016) in the year of the 2017.
Affection of the Brexit issue on the Apple:
The incident of the Brexit has impacted various countries and various organizations in
the world which includes the Apple Inc. also. The Brexit is a serious concern for the Apple
because Apple was having the several U.K. based offices for smooth operation in the
European territory (Khan, Alam and Alam 2015) but the brexit separated U.K from the
European Union which was huge loss to the Apple. Due to this reason Apple faced various
issues in the United Kingdom territory which are the pricing issues and the sales related issue.
Pricing Issue: According to my analysis pricing issue occurred within the Apple Inc. due to
the brexit because the British Pound was all time low in 30 years on that time (Hobolt 2016).
As the value of the British Pound decreased the overall economy of the United Kingdom is
also decreased. Thus it also impacted the economy of the Apple in the region of the United
Kingdom. Apple was facing losses due the declination of currency in the United Kingdom.
Due to the brexit the value of the euro also fell down which again affected the pricing of the
Apple devices in the European Countries.

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Sales Related Issue: I have also found that this brexit issue has impacted the sales of the
Apple products in this reason. As the value of the British Pound become less the purchase
power of the British citizens automatically lowers (Clarke et al. 2017). This has again
impacted the economy of the Apple as sales percentage becomes lowers in this region. A
large group of the consumer was making delay in purchasing the gadgets of the Apple as they
were waiting for brexit situation to be normal. Apple was having total 39 operative retail
store in the United Kingdom which has faced losses in this short period of brexit due to the
lower sales issues.
Responding technique of Apple to Brexit Issue:
Responding to Pricing Issue: The pricing issue of the Apple due the brexit was a huge
concern. The Apple Inc. was running through a loss due to the lower value of the British
Pounds. To address this issue there was only a single way available to the Apple which was
increasing the prices of their products. Still, increasing the pricing of the products was not the
ultimate solution for the Apple to address this issue. It was very much vital for the Apple to
find a perfect balance of the price hike and the demand of the customers which can manage
the bottom line after the issue of the brexit. Though the price hike was the only solution for
the Apple, they approached it in a different style. Instead of raising the price of the existing
products Apple smartly increased the price of the App Store which doesn’t affected the
consumers in broader way (Lee and Raghu 2014). Also, they launched new products with
higher price tag instead of increasing the price of the existing products. Actually, this strategy
helped Apple to avoid the criticism of the customers.
Responding to the Sales related issue: To fix the sales related issue the Apple was totally
dependent on the United Kingdom government as Apple was not able to do something
directly for increasing the sales percentage. The only thing they could have been done is the
lowering the prices of the product but lowering the price will be a loss for the Apple

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(Sanchirico 2014). So, it was not an optimal solution. Instead of that they started the
exchange program in which someone can exchange their old products with new products by
adding some money. This strategy helped Apple to increase the sales percentage slightly.
Evaluation of the Commentator on Apple’s responding technique:
As per the media and the stakeholders, the strategies taken by the Apple was good
enough to respond to the challenges. The pricing issue of the products due to the brexit was
bit challenging for Apple as they needed to increase their profits without disturbing the
current market price. The media was interpreted the current strategy taken by the Apple and
evaluated it as a good strategy as Apple didn’t hiked the price of their existing products in the
market even after the economic issue of the brexit (Hern 2017). The stakeholders were also
evaluated it as a good strategy as Apple was able to still generate profits by increasing the
prices of the App Store without increasing the prices of the existing products which may can
be reason of the customer dissatisfaction.
The strategy of fixing the sales related issues is evaluated by the commentators and it
was kind of satisfactory as the sales percentage increased slightly. Though the sales
percentage increased slightly, considering the market situation of the brexit it was still a good
idea.
Contemporary Organization Issue on the Apple:
From my personal experience the Apple Inc. is facing a huge contemporary
organization issue which is the rise of OnePlus in the smartphone industry. Due to the
OnePlus Apple is now facing huge competition in the market which is affecting their sales
percentage.

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Affection of the Contemporary Organization issue on the Apple:
The contemporary organization issue which is entry of the OnePlus in the smartphone
industry is mainly affected the iPhone sales of the Apple (Sharma 2018). As the iPhones is
the most selling device of the Apple it is one of the main concerned issue as the OnePlus is
directly competing with the iPhones of the Apple. The market consumers are preferring the
OnePlus smartphones over the iPhones in the current market situation as the brand OnePlus is
offering more powerful hardware and features in a reasonable price tag when compared with
the iPhones. Thus the in such type of competitions the iPhones are lagging behind due to the
high price tag of its devices (Ames 2013). This directly affecting the sales percentage of the
Apple and its iPhone line-ups. With the OnePlus there are also other contemporary
organizations like the Samsung with many innovations which is again affecting the sales
percentage of the Apple products.
With the OnePlus and Samsung there is another contemporary organization which is
Qualcomm. Qualcomm is not the direct market competitor like the Samsung and the OnePlus
but Qualcomm managed to directly impact the market of the Apple by taking legal action
against them (Shrout 2018). The Qualcomm recently beaten Apple in some patent lawsuit
cases in Germany and China which lead to ban on the iPhones sales in this two countries.
Again in some different way the sales of the Apple products are affected. Thus the
contemporary organizations are mainly impacting the sales of the Apple Inc.
Responding technique of Apple to Contemporary Organization Issue:
According to me, Apple Inc. needs to take some serious step with their product line-
ups to respond to the contemporary organization issue which are the OnePlus, Samsung and
the Qualcomm. Apple can respond to this type of contemporary issues in two way. First they
can lower the prices of their devices or secondly they can implement some innovative ideas
which can finish the market competition for a while. In this situation Apple did not opted the

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first option as it can lower their profits, instead of that they responded to this issue by
implementing some new and unique ideas in their products which actually finished the
market competition for a while. Apple first introduced notch display in their phones which
made the phone more attractive and it was the main attraction for many customers (Tsujimura
2017). Also, Apple introduced 3D facial recognition system which is considered as the next
gen security systems (Drira et al. 2013). Apple has successfully eliminated the bottom bezel
of the phones by implementing curved OLED screen which other manufactures failed to do
(Smith et al. 2014). This innovating things has made the iPhones different from the other
phones and Apple has gained good position in the market by responding to those
contemporary organization issue (MacKinnon and Fiala 2014). To address the ban issue,
Apple has taken legal steps. In such cases Apple has done minor changes to their business
procedures according to the court order which resulted termination of the ban and Apple was
able to execute its normal business processes.
Evaluation of the Commentator on Apple’s responding technique:
As per the media and the stakeholders the responding technique of the Apple to the
contemporary organization issues are great. Using the innovations Apple has successfully
eliminated the market competition of the other brands. The stakeholders evaluated this
technique as a very well developed idea. This is because Apple was able to hold its high price
tag in an extensive competitive market and this is the main reason behind the huge profit of
the Apple. The stakeholders also evaluated that the Apple needs to continuously implement
this type of innovative ideas to their products otherwise it will be problematic for the Apple
to sustain in this competitive market with high price tags.

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Conclusion:
From the above discussion it can be concluded that the contemporary issues are very
much vital for the any type of organization. This contemporary issues can create problems for
the organization in the several sectors which includes supply chain issues, pricing issues and
sales related issues. This type issues also affects the economy of the organization. To analyse
the problems regarding the contemporary issues Apple Inc. is chosen here. From the Apple
Inc. it is assessed that this organization is currently facing three main contemporary issues.
This three main issues are the sustainable global supply chain related issue, economic impact
of the Brexit issue and the contemporary organization issue. The contemporary issue
regarding the supply chain has created problem in the supply chain of the Apple Inc. The
main reason behind the issue with revolutionary products is the availability of the raw
materials was less, which impacted the production of the Apple. Apple successfully tackled
the issue by altering the working model of the OEMs. In the case of the Brexit issue Apple
faced problem with the pricing and the sales of their products. Apple smartly managed the
pricing issue by increasing the price of the App Store which avoided the customer
dissatisfaction. The Apple also faced some issues with the contemporary organization which
has impacted the sales of the Apple. Apple implemented innovative ideas to boost their sales
though they are carrying high price tags. This technique helped Apple to finish the market
competition and gain a good position in the present competitive market.
Recommendation:
The Apple Inc. faced various types of contemporary issues within their organization
and they were also able to successfully address those contemporary issues. Though the Apple
Inc. has successfully addressed the challenges still some recommendation can be given to
them to mitigate this issues in the future more effectively. The recommendation are follows:

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 To maintain the sustainable global supply chain it is recommended to implement top
management support. In this management support, integrated resource allocation
system will be present. Also, shared information system and financial support system
will be integrated.
 Another key factor for maintain the global supply chain is focusing on what the
market wants. Thus it is recommended to focus on the demand of the market.
 Due to the Brexit issue Apple faced sales and pricing related issue in the United
Kingdom. To mitigate this type of pricing issues it is recommended to implement the
dynamic pricing which will automatically adjust the price of the products depending
the market situation. As the dynamic pricing will be activated, the consumers will be
able to understand the reason behind the price hike or the price cut. Thus it will be
able to avoid unnecessary dissatisfaction of the customers.
 Contemporary organization issue vastly affects the sales of the Apple products. In
such cases Apple might consider the perfect mixture of the pricing with the
innovation. Thus it is recommended Apple to continuously implement innovations
within their products with effective pricing for outclass its market competitors.