Detailed Strategic Audit Of Apple In The Changing World Of The Business Research Paper Sample

Introduction

The businesses cannot make decisions in the dark, and therefore, they have to follow the method of scientific method in order to devise a detailed strategic plan that will allow the companies to align their internal resources along with their organizational culture with the external needs of the industry. The organizations have to form a proper linkage with the external environment, and the most valuable player in this regard would be the customer to say the least. The companies should have an adequate idea and information about the active and dormant needs and wants of the clientele that they are intended to serve. However, the Apple is either lethargic sin terms of responding to the outside world, and with the innovative spirit dying, the company is facing countless and numerous problems. The ways of strategic management will allow the managerial levels working in various fields of life to evaluate their standpoint with reference to the external atmosphere. Additionally, the process of strategic management generates suggestive results, and then, the managers have to pick and choose what they can and cannot do from the list of suggested strategic actions. The inventive managers do not like the idea of following the guidelines precisely. They tend to modify them in order to add the element of surprise so that the competitors cannot respond immediately. The art of war has its basis in the notorious concept of deception, and therefore, the strategists have to develop their plan of game by entertaining the fact that they are indeed playing a game of chess. They have to continue guessing the moves of their opponent on regular basis. According to Steve Jobs, one should always carry the courage to listen to his or her heart, and he did that in order to help the company in reaching the heights of organizational history. The death of its founder affected the organizational culture and structure in more than one way, and therefore, this paper will develop various types of matrices in order to accomplish its abovementioned goals and objectives. At the same time, this document will produce a list of strategic choices that the company has regarding development of uncanny ability to respond to the challenges that are currently confronting.

Internal Factor Analysis Matrix

The internal factors of the company pack the weapons and means that an organization can apply in order to respond to the external environment of the industry. Here is the IFAS Matrix pertaining to the current strategic outlook of the Apple: -
The strengths and weaknesses of the company interact in such a way that gives the organizational a compromised look at a strategic level, and therefore, intensive makeover is needed. The company is having a history of following innovation as a religious value, but it has recently lost its touch and way in this regard as well. The Apple has not been listening to the word of their customers, and therefore, the inventive approach towards marketing is required in order to revolutionize the culture of the company. The Apple had a structure that was flattened enough to facilitate communication and teamwork across the whole organizational setup, but nowadays, the new management is tearing apart the whole identity of the innovator to introduce the trend of bureaucracy that promises one thing and one thing only to destroy the spirit of entrepreneurship. The innovation is the driving force behind technology industry, and with limited ability to bring newness into the market, the companies are destined to be doomed. In the current perspective, the Apple is on the road of damnation because it is not listening to the customers, the innovative vengeance is down, and the structure is becoming rigid with the passage of time. All of the discussed factors contribute towards one inevitable outcome that is creation of organizational culture that will eventually fail to cope with externalities of the market.

External Factor Analysis

External Factors are as important and valuable as the internal ones, and therefore, their study is imperative as well. Following is the EFA Matrix for the Apple: -
The competitive forces are sheer in the industry of hardware and software. The competitive landscape is intensive, and therefore, the industry is showing an environment aligned with red sea philosophy of market dynamics. The turnover rate in the company is growing as well, and the companies are leading the show in the industry where Apple once crowned as a leader. The former Chief Executive Officer, Steve Jobs led the company with extraordinary energy and he developed his own understanding and operationality of leadership. He invariably revitalized the charismatic school of thought in the changing world of technology. However, the threats are internal that the featured commercial entity is facing are more of internal nature rather than having external one. The company in the given circumstances needs the impartial consultant because the behavioral problems are significant in the prevalent social order of the company so they require a logical and non-influential analytical report that can provide the basis for strategic plan that the company will follow in the future. The employees are leaving because they do not find their work at Apple fulfilling and satisfactory so they started to hunt down new, interesting, and lucrative opportunities in the market.

SO Strategies for Apple

The innovative spirit remained a defining attribute of the Apple in all these years. The company has to reestablish the culture of newness and invention once again, if it is ever interested in the redevelopment of Steve’s ways in order to give hopeless employees with faith to have good times once again.

WO Strategies

There are intensive structural and cultural changes required before the company will grow the capability to avail existing opportunities in the market. Firstly, the human resource management has to take a lead in order to hire employees with progressive mindsets that can readily accept the notion of innovative thinking.

ST Strategies

The strengths of the company need to be put to use to remind the clientele that the Apple did not forget the golden principle of offering novelties to the customers, but they were busy in realigning itself after going through tragic death of Steve “the champion” Jobs. The message of upcoming products should be advertised as early as possible.

WT Strategies

The flattening of structure is also recommended because the base for every problem is leading toward one underlying problem. The underlying problem is simple because the current organizational setup is not conducive in the direction of letting people follow their hearts. Steve Jobs was not a magician, but he had the courage to thrust confidence in his employees. However, creation of confidence and empowerment is what the company has lost recently.

Strategic Factor Analysis Summary

Following is the total summary of all the matrices produced in the preceding sections: -
Conclusion
This paper has a literally design that highlighted the issues that the Apple is confronting in the prevalent times. The only strategic course the company can really follow is involving the notion of innovation that recently died out because the leadership failed to understand the vision of Steve Jobs, and in order to make the system understandable, they destroyed it all. The management has to make some painful decisions in this regard as well. However, they might have to use multidimensional approach in order to gain the notable fruits of the change initiative proposed by this work. The company has to right-size itself according to the needs mentioned throughout this document. Secondly, the company has to empower the workers as well so that the sense of confidence and empowerment can be seeded in them. The leadership of Apple is trying to reinvent the wheel, and they are attempting to innovate with the most innovative organizational setup known to the world. The personality of Steve Jobs was the greatest asset at the disposal of the company, and the ways of Steve is going to save the organization because employees and customers are driving away from the organization because they are missing its founder more than anyone in the present. The leadership philosophy argues that the leading skills can be honed by observing and imitating the behaviors of successful ones.

References

Child, J. (1972). Organizational Structure, Environment and Performance: The Role of Strategic Choice. Sociology Vol 6 (1), 1-22.
Miller, C., & Cardinal, L. (1994). Strategic Planning and Firm Performance: A Synthesis of More Than Two Decades of Research. Academy of Management Journal Vol 37 (6), 1649-1665.
Vera, D., & Crosson, M. (2004). Strategic Leadership and Organizational Learning. Academy of Management Review Vol 29 (2), 222-240.
Young, J., & Simon, W. (2005). iCon Steve Jobs The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business . New York: John Wiley and Sons.