MAKERERE UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL
COURSEWORK ASSIGANMENT (MARK UP) FOR THE DEGREEE OF BACHELOR OF
COMMERCE OF MAKERERE UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC YEAR 2022/2023
COURSE NAME: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
COURSE CODE: BAD 3111
SEMESTER: II
YEAR OF STUDY: III
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS:
DATE ISSUED: 6TH MAY 2023
DEADLINE: 10th MAY 2023 at 4:00 PM
NAME STUDENT’S NO. REGISTRATION NO. SIGNATURE
MUYIMBWA MUDATHIRU 2000706102 20/U/6102/PS
KAGORO NORMAN 2000706453 20/U/6453/EVE
WALUGEMBE MOSES 2000706029 20/U/6029/PS
KATAMBA JOHN 20/U/6462/EVE
FRANCIS
APPLE COMPUTER, INC.
STRATEGIC PLAN
2023-2028
Executive Summary
Apple Computer, Inc., also known as Apple is a multinational technology company based in Cupertino,
California, USA. It was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Initially the company focused
on developing and selling personal computers including the Apple II and Macintosh lines. Apple has
since diversified into a wide range of products and services including smart phones (iPhone), tablets
(iPad), music players (iPod), smart watches (Apple Watch) and streaming services (Apple TV+).
The company is known for its innovative designs, user friendly interfaces and strong brand identity and it
is one of the most valuable companies in the world with a market capitalization of over $2 trillion as of
2021.
Vision: To make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than we found it.
Mission: To bring the best user experiences to customers through innovative hardware, software and
services.
Core values: Accessibility, Education, Environment, Inclusion and diversity, Supplier responsibility,
Privacy.
Goals
To create innovative and high quality products that disrupt the market and set new standards.
To create products that not only perform well but also look and feel great.
To create products that are easy to use and intuitive with a focus on delivering exceptional
customer service.
To reduce company’s environment impact and create a more suitable future.
To continue growing the company’s business and expanding into new markets.
Objectives
To grow the market share from current 10% share of the smart phone segment to 20% in the next
3years.
To introduce new variants of iphone as opposed to the current standard products.
To introduce new highly innovative products such as portable phones that have higher computing
capabilities.
To maximize the shareholder value by increasing revenue and profits.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
SWOT Analysis.
This presents the enablers (Strength and Opportunities) and Challenges (Weaknesses and Threats). These
are the current and future strategic issues, which if, leveraged and addressed will enable Apple to
accomplish its Mission and Vision.
Strength.
These are internal capabilities that help Apple achieve its objectives.
The company’s loyal customers mean that Apple does not have to compete with competitors in
terms of prices but in terms of performance and reliability of their products and services.
The iTunes platform is such a good revenue stream since it is available for various Apple
products and is also compatible with Windows platforms on top of the fact that the platform also
offers local content.
The fact that the company has no debts means that Apple is able to invest in any undertaking that
the management deems to be appropriate for the organization.
The point that Apple always develops it existing products means that the company will always be
able to attract new customers and even encourage repeat purchases from existing customers for
example people who keep on upgrading on every single launch of new iPhone series.
Apple’s flagship retail stores serves as demonstration points where customers who doubt any
features of Apple’s products can get to test them for example Transtel along Jinja road, Muwesi
road and Spring road all in Uganda.
Finally apart from informing customers about the features of all Apple’s products, Apple’s
website is also used as a sales channel to customers who prefer to buy online and direct from
Apple which ensures that Apple protects its customers from the risk fraud.
Weaknesses.
These are internal limitations that may interfere with Apple’s ability to achieve its objectives.
Apple depends too much on product launch to help create attention for its products, this puts a lot
of pressure on the company to continually innovate and release new products every single year
otherwise they risk losing their market share.
Moreover, the company has weak relations with other key organizations in the market that have
the potential to take Apple to new heights if Apple was willing to partner with these organizations
an ideal example been Microsoft corporation which is a very good organization when it comes to
software development .
Finally, unlike the other competitors who have strong presence in various markets for example
Samsung, Apple’s presence is mainly concentrated in America and Europe.
Opportunities.
These are the current and emerging external factors that Apple may be able to exploit to its advantage and
they include;
Apple should exploit the effective research and design department that it has to the maximum to
make sure that the company continues to develop new innovative products that are attractive for
the mass market.
By intensifying its efforts in China, Apple can be able to considerably increase the number of its
customers since the population of China is approximated to be over one billion people as of 2021.
In addition to China, Apple should also aim at increasing its presence in other potential markets
that the company is yet to establish presence in.
The recent efforts by various governments to crackdown on illegal file sharing websites means
that Apple’s iTunes can now appeal to a wide clientele base.
The increased number of computer viruses and worms can be argued to be a major opportunity
for Apple to increase its market share in the computer markets since Mac OS computers cannot
be attacked by viruses.
Threats.
These are current and emerging external factors that may challenge Apple’s performance and they
include;
The fact that Apple depends on few contracted partners to produce Apple’s products means that
the company is exposed to product supply risk which may adversely affect the operations if they
occurred at any time.
The numerous illegal file sharing sites poses great threat to Apple’s iTunes as potential customers
who would have paid money to Apple in order to be able to download songs usually ends up
getting the songs free of charge by downloading them form the illegal file sharing sites.
Another threat faced by Apple is that the company is faces strong completion from its
competitors. The organizations that Apple competes with are also well established and pose a
threat to Apple since they can create products that directly compete with Apple’s products at
cheaper costs.
Majority of companies in the technological ‘world’ have the perception that Apple products are
not compatible with the widely available software like Microsoft.
The recent economic downturn has meant that consumer spending power has been drastically
reduced which in turn would mean low sales figure for Apple products. Even though Apple’s
revenues continue to increase despite the hard economic times, it is important that Apple
anticipates situations where customers prefer other products since they are cheap.
Michael Porter’s Model.
Porter’s five forces model refers to a framework that examines the level of competition with in an
industry by analyzing five key forces which are; threats of new entrants, bargaining power of
customers, threat of substitute products, bargaining power of suppliers and competitive rivalry within
an industry. By applying Michael Porter’s five forces framework, it will help establish Apple’s
position in the market.
Threats of new entrants.
In situations where it is easier for any investor to invest in a sector, then the threat of new entrants
can be considered to be very high. The nature of barriers in place in a particular industry will
establish the degree that threats of new entrants pose to the industry, therefore it can be seen that the
threat of new entrants in the Pc, tablets and smart phone industry is very high. For example the
Nothing phone which has a similar design to iPhone models. Other new entrants to the industry
include Google Pixel, Vivo, Lenovo, Xiaomi among others.
Bargaining power of suppliers.
These suppliers include suppliers of the various raw materials used in manufacturing of specific
products for example wireless chipsets, OLED drivers, USD micro controllers, DRAM chips among
others. The power of suppliers in any given industry is normally determined by the amount of
suppliers in the given industry. It being that there are few suppliers for Chips Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing Company in particular implies that the suppliers have more bargaining power.
Bargaining power of buyers.
The large array of Personal computers, smart phones and tablets has created a lot of power at the
hands of the consumers. However, once the initial purchase has been made, brand loyalty may begin
to formulate. The Apple store offered on many platforms is not transferable to another brand, which
may be deemed as a high exit costs.
Threats of substitute products.
A substitute product can be described as products that could be used for the same purpose by
consumers. Some of the substitutes to Apple’s computers, tablet and smart phone industry include
emails and fax. However, substitute threats cannot be said to be very high since they cannot be used
in urgent cases unlike in voice calls.
Rivalry among existing competitors.
Competing firms compete in forms of price wars, products differentiation and product development
among others. Low entry barriers in the industries means that there exists many competitors in the
various sectors that Apples operates in which results to intensified competition as the companies aim
to increase their market share. These include Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo,Dell,Acer, Netflix, Disney+ among
others
Recommendation.
In order for apple to continue performing well, the company has to put much emphasis on
development of latest products that are in line with technological developments. This should also be
backed by increase of the company product’s presence in foreign markets.
Implementation of Glueck’s approach i.e. stability strategy
In situations where the expansion to foreign markets proves to be unsuccessful, Apple should then
aim at concentrating in the specific markets that it has established presence in at the moment since
these markets have already proved to be successful to the company in addition, the new strategies
would also be abandoned and adopt the current strategies that have proved successful to the company
over the years.
Customizable products.
Customers always purchase products that they believe matches their needs and wants. The best way
to match a customer’s need is to let the customer develop his own product according to the needs.
Apple through the online store could offer such services where customers decide the amount of Hard
Disk they require for the tablet, the color of the casing and specific software to be installed on the
tablet. Dell has adopted the same strategy for personal computers and the concept has proved to be
successful.
Establishment of Apple Outlets in other countries.
As earlier established, Apple has over 500 retail outlets in more than 10 countries. However,
majority of these stores are located in developed countries with the biggest percentage of the stores
been in the US. Apple needs to follow its competitors and establish more retail outlets in middle
income countries as well as developing countries such as Uganda, South Sudan among others.
Strategy Evaluation and Control.
After the loss of Steve Jobs, Apple was expected to be difficult to fill his position. However the
current CEO as well as the other employees have proved over the last few months that they are also
capable of taking the company to new heights even with the absence of Steve Jobs. In order to ensure
that the company is continuously doing well, the management needs to regularly review various
figures against the forecasted figures in order to establish whether the company is on the right track.
Apart from forecasted figures, past performance figures can also be used to establish whether the
company is on the right direction or not.