Apple Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Apple - Essay Example These software and hardware systems have long provided success with regard to the company’s profitability. Moreover, while the company’s programmers, engineers, designers, and other personnel represent key resources, Apple Inc.’s capability to exploit these personnel’s abilities to develop hardware and software ecosystems encompasses the firm’s key ability. On an individual level, the resources represent only a temporary fraction of the firm’s competitive advantage. However, the combination of all the personnel’s abilities creates the firm’s sustainable competitive advantage. The establishment of Apple stores also provided the company with significant resources for physical presence since the stores act as sales locations, as well as means of advertisement. The stores allow the company to monitor and control brand image within the market. In order to maintain its current, strategic position, and enhance its success in the coming years, Apple Inc. should establish highly innovative software and hardware to augment its current resources. In addition, the company should also endeavor to employ personnel with Jobs’ passion for excellence (Lashinsky 58). Such personnel should not only form the company’s strategic planning department, but all departments in the entire company. Situational Analysis The company has a rather intriguing mission statement that not only provides focus to the company in terms of its business operations and processes. The company’s website provides a list of its products rather than a conventional mission statement. The company’s official mission statement states that it designs Macs, the best personal computers globally, alongside OS X, iLife, iWork, and other professional software. Apple directs the digital music revolution through its iTunes online store and iPods. However, popular beliefs hold that Apple Inc. got its conventional mission statement from on e of Steve Jobs’ quotes during the 1980s. Jobs’ quote can be summarized as follows: â€Å"Man is the developer of change in the world. As such, man should be above all systems and structures, and not secondary to them† (Lutchen 72). While various sources consider all these statements as the true mission statement, the company ends most of its press releases through a statement that bears a resemblance to traditional mission statements. The company ends its press releases with the statement, â€Å"Apple commits to the provision of the best personal computing experience to educators, students, customers, and creative professional across the globe through its innovative software, hardware, and Internet offerings.† The company’s mission statement provides a sense of direction, which is sufficiently flexible to the changing market situations. The company’s motivation to continue providing the best hardware, software and Internet offerings, means that it will develop technologies to adapt according to market situations. The industry has many successful competitors that pose a challenge to Apple Inc. However, the company’s strategy allows the firm to remain successful. Apple’s main competitive advantage lies in its broad array of products, especially its software, hardware, and Internet solutions (Cruikshank 81). The company’s immense resources such as personnel provide the backing for the company’s policies and strategies. This means that the company requires dedicated personnel to help it put