Applied Principle for Responsible Business: Apple and Tesco Analysis

This report presents an analysis of two key business elements: human resource management (HRM) and marketing, using Apple Inc. and TESCO as case studies, respectively. The report begins with an executive summary and table of contents, setting the stage for a detailed exploration of HRM practices at Apple. It delves into strategic HRM models, identifying strengths such as effective recruitment and fair compensation, and weaknesses like strict and non-transparent policies. The report then shifts to a marketing analysis of Tesco, employing a SWOT analysis to evaluate its strengths (customer service, financial position), weaknesses (financial profit levels), opportunities (alliances, online shopping), and threats (economic recession, competition). The analysis considers how Tesco has adapted its marketing strategies to maintain its market position. The conclusion summarizes the importance of both HRM and marketing for business success, highlighting how Apple's HRM enhances productivity and product quality, and how Tesco's marketing approach, particularly the SWOT analysis, helps maintain customer trust. The report references relevant academic sources to support its findings and recommendations. The report is prepared as part of the BUGEN 3711 course, Applied Principles for Responsible Business Practice.

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Applied Principle for Responsible Business Practice
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Applied Principle For Responsible Business Practice
Executive summary
This report is presented to discuss two different elements of the course work that are human resource
practice and marketing context of different businesses. In this report the human resource management
practices are discussed in the context of Apple Inc. and the marketing elements is discussed with the help
of SWOT analysis of TESCO. In the discussion made over these two elements different perspectives of
both the elements respective to their organizations are identified and analyzed to understand the course
work in detail.

Applied Principle For Responsible Business Practice
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Human resource management at Apple.......................................................................................................4
Models of Strategic Human Resource Management................................................................................4
Strengths..............................................................................................................................................5
Weaknesses.........................................................................................................................................6
Marketing....................................................................................................................................................7
SWOT analysis of TESCO group................................................................................................................7
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9

Applied Principle For Responsible Business Practice
Introduction
Human resource management basically deals with staffing, employee stipend and settlement and
defining job roles in any organization. HRM or Human Resource Management comprises of a set
of formal system and various other process which deals with the management of employees in a
particular organization (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). These factors and set of rules varies with
organization and various situations prevalent in those organizations. In today’s increasing
competitive world, various companies are suffering because of the failures in human resource
management policies. Many companies are held back due to this. In this report a brief discussion
over the Human resource management practices and its preparation for marketing strategies is
presented. In this report there is a detailed discussion of strength and weaknesses of human
resource management at Apple and a detailed SWOT analysis of TESCO organization to
understand its marketing stand in the international market.
Human resource management at Apple
Apple is world renowned Multinational Corporation with its headquarters situated in California.
Recent days, there are several reports which shows that Apple as a company implement the best
approaches in the human resource management policies in order to manage its employees
(Bohatala 2018). But even after putting such efforts into these policies, there are still certain
drawbacks in the overall human resource management system.
Models of Strategic Human Resource Management
The key role of people working at Apple Inc. is to focus on marketing, staff positions and
various other technical aspects. The main objective of Apple as an organization is to attract more

Applied Principle For Responsible Business Practice
and more employees and retain them. To attract various skilled professionals, the company has
adopted various strategic human resource management strategies (Bach & Edwards, 2013). The
company invests in the skills of the employees so that they can get the maximum output out of
the talents of workforce employed there. For overall competition, the company considers human
capital as a vital element. The essential driving force for the company is its human resources; it
helps in the formulation of development strategy. In order to achieve competitive advantage in
the market, the company has invested in the skills of employees; this being its primary objective.
The company has emerged as a most innovate firm in the market for its costumers electronics
industrialization, all the great talents and people emerge due to this over the years (Costen,
2012).
The human resource department at Apple works with the primary principle of reducing the risks
and maximizing the returns on the investment. The HRM department at apple is stimulated with
various responsibilities and is fulfilled with great passion (Beardwell & Thompson, 2014). These
responsibilities are selection, leadership development, enticement compensation, staff relations,
employee development and conscription. All these responsibilities and tasks are carried in a very
effective manner; there is consistency in the work done. There is various strategic human
resource functions included in this in order to carry out these tasks.
In this article there will be a detailed discussion over the strengths and weaknesses of the human
resource management system of Apple, which are as follows:

Applied Principle For Responsible Business Practice
Strengths
Apple in its human resource management system mainly focuses on the maximizing the return
on investment from human capital and minimizing any financial risks in order to achieve all its
objectives (Boxall & Purcell, 2011).
The main strength of the company as a whole is that the resource managers of the company put
their best efforts so that all the responsibilities at Apple are conducted in a very effective manner.
There is effectiveness, consistency, fair mannerism in the work done and the responsibilities
fulfilled. There are various factors of HRM of the company described below:
One of the strength is of recruitment, all the people who are hired by Apple they are involved by
assessing their computer knowledge first. The prior focus while employing people is not their
experience, but whether they fit well according to the culture of the company, that matters.
People are hired irrespective of their experiences (Caldwell, Truong, Linh & Tuan, 2011).
The company provides everyone with equal platform and opportunities and that is what
contributes to the diversity of the organization (Bratton & Gold, 2012). There are fair policies for
employee compensation. The employees working at the organization are provided with a large
number of benefits. The compensation on offer is highly compatible.
There is recognition for great talents working for the company. In 1995, the company created a
fellow program and in that the most hard-working and successful employees are recognized
talents.
Weaknesses
As it has been earlier mentioned, that there are certain drawbacks in the HRM system of the
company. The poor HRM practices prevailing at Apple, have created unrest among employees

Applied Principle For Responsible Business Practice
and raised several questions in recent times (Bratton & Gold, 2012). There are many reports
which suggest that human capital at Apple is not managed effectively, all this is due to the HRM
policies which are too strict and not transparent at all. The business and personal objectives are
not communicated clearly to the staff and employees, which is very necessary. Not only the
business objectives, but there is lack of clarity about the strategies of the company also. This
hinders in creating a healthy work environment.
It also happens that good ideas are stolen at Apple Inc. and someone else gets the credit for them.
There are no specific policies in HRM that the deserving person gets all the credit and awards;
there is sufficient provision for this (Buller & McEvoy, 2012). This weakens the morale of that
employee and in the large run; it hinders the progress of employees working in the organization.
This causes abrasion in the company.
Marketing
This article deals with the marketing strategy of TESCO and how it has helped the company in
prospering. A wrong move in marketing can lead to decline of a company. Any wrong move not only
affects the brand image of company but also hinders its bottom line. The Tesco as a brand is a
tantamount with shopping in UK. The company has faced multiple scandals in 2013 and 2014 and it
reduced the confidence of costumers in the brand. The company faced various losses. After such loss
also managed to make things better and recovered all the financial gains. All this has been possible due
to the improvised marketing strategy of the company. This shows how effective marketing strategy
helped the company to rescue such grave situation.

Applied Principle For Responsible Business Practice
SWOT analysis of TESCO group
Tesco group has established itself as a global retailing powerhouse. In the past, the company has faced
enormous competition in the business world such as stakeholder’s pressure. They had to change the
marketing strategies in order to stabilize it and move forward (Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker &
Brennan, 2015). This SWOT analysis will analyze company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats. This will lead to formulation of effective marketing strategy and business strategies.
Strengths:
Tesco has received various awards for its customer service and retail experience. The company
has emerged as the most profitable supermarket in the world, which many other competitors
have tried to imitate. The company owns a significant amount of cash reserves and at the same
time it has many underdeveloped properties in its range. This gives the company a very strong
financial position and it can withstand all the economic cycles very easily. Due to its quality and
services, the company has a considerable global position which helps very often. The company
appeals to local and cultural needs. The company has managed to enhance its services by
improvising the use of technology (Baker & Saren, 2016). The company provides a more
personalized service experience in UK which attracts more and more costumers. The company
has a great history in United Kingdom’s, which helps the costumer to believe that it has bright
future in the long run.
Weaknesses:
The company had an adverse effect on its financial profit levels and it has yet to recover from it
at the global level. Due to the rise in competition in the market, there are various price wars
which go on. The company needs to find new ways to get some competitive advantage. In certain

Applied Principle For Responsible Business Practice
countries Tesco has not performed very well, this may be due to the lack of marketing research.
The costumers are not ready to buy those products which have less disposable income which
leaves high cost of inventory. The company is mainly dependent on its sales in UK.
Opportunities:
The company can have alliances with various other companies or brands. In this way, it can
attract more and more costumers and it will reach the target markets. The countries where Tesco
is underperforming, there it can form joint ventures with the local companies, it can compensate
for the lack of market research. In this way there can be certain improvement in performance in
those areas. The company can evolve with the help of online shopping, which is the trend in
recent times. There are also new opportunities opening up in the private label markets. There are
various offers in emerging market which can help Tesco.
Threats:
Around the world, there are threats like economic recession and credit crunches which will
continue to threaten Tesco. There are various global giants which offer the product at much
lower prices than Tesco. There are also better networks for transfer of goods in the other
companies because they have access to better and new technology. There are also labor threats as
they demand very high wages which contradict with Tesco’s cost strategy, there is also pressure
of government regulations and political landscape on Tesco. Rising costs of the raw materials are
also posing great threats for the company. There is pressure related to environment and various
other social responsibilities in front of the company.

Applied Principle For Responsible Business Practice
Conclusion
The above report concludes that both the human resource practices and marketing strategies are essential
for an organization to grow its business successfully. In the context of Apple the human resource
management of the company uses best practices to enhance the productivity as well as quality of
products. At the same time the marketing agenda of TESCO concludes that tis marketing approach
identifying the critical elements through the SWOT analysis of the company helped the organization to
win the trust of its stakeholders and customers over the company products.

Applied Principle For Responsible Business Practice
References
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. & Brennan, R., (2015). Marketing: an introduction.
Pearson Education.
Armstrong, M. & Taylor, S. (2014) Handbook Of Human Resource Management Practice. 13th
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Bach, S. & Edwards, M. (2013) Managing Human Resources. Oxford: Wiley.
Baker, M. J., & Saren, M. (Eds.). (2016) Marketing theory: a student text. Sage.
Beardwell, J. & Thompson, A. (2014) Human resource management: a contemporary approach.
Pearson Education.
Bohatala, (2018) Strategic human resource activities at Apple Inc. [Online]. Retrieved from:
https://bohatala.com/strategic-human-resource-activities-at-apple-inc/.
Boxall, P., & Purcell, J. (2011) Strategy & human resource management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Bratton, J. & Gold, J. (2012) Human Resource Management: Theory & Practice. 5th Ed.
Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Budhwar, P. S., & Debrah, Y. A. (Eds.). (2013) Human resource management in developing
countries. Routledge.
Buller, P. F., & McEvoy, G. M. (2012) Strategy, human resource management & performance:
Sharpening line of sight. Human resource management review, 22(1), 43-56.

Applied Principle For Responsible Business Practice
Caldwell, C., Truong, D. X., Linh, P. T., & Tuan, A. (2011) Strategic human resource
management as ethical stewardship. Journal of business ethics, 98(1), 171-182.
Costen, W.M. (2012) Recruitment & Selection. The Encyclopedia of Human Resource
Management: Short Entries, pp.379-387.