Case Study Example: Strategic Leadership and Innovation at Apple, Inc.

A company leadership plays a vital role in the company performance, the relationship among employees and coordination of all aggregated factors that result in higher production thereby enhancing substantial profitability margins. The effectiveness of the leading company is based on and can be realized when the leadership acknowledges the main aim and objectives of the organization in question. To achieve this, competency, constant communication, and supervisory roles must be the nerve center of the leadership mandates. The continuous engagement with the employees through proper discussion, understanding and enabling feedback is one of the most significant effective leadership in a company. Work delegation and supervision enhances growth and development of the business regarding its operation and profitability. Effective leadership in an organization must ensure constant training of workers via organizing workshops, employee surveys, internal meetings and more so, offering employees incentives to boost their morale (Loizos & Angeliki, 2013).

A vibrant leader of a company well equipped with the fineness, prowess, and competence in the field of leadership inculcates leadership by examples and must enhance innovativeness and inventory skills. The advancement of technological growth in a company depends heavily on the proper administration who must be robust and flexible in bringing out changes that best fits the organization regarding competitive advantages and profit realization. Consumer-based perception should be given room in the minds of leaders so that the products and services rendered to customers are of quality, satisfactory and convenience to both the parties involved in service provision and product consumption (Johnson et al., 2014).

Competitive Advantage and potential challenges to strategy

The basis of the company competitive advantage rests on the secrets of operation, ethical leadership, and exceptional innovativeness. Because the company owns patent right and the information regarding better performance is only shared within the institution, and among trustworthy individuals, the other competitors are left out of the information that leads to the success of the company. The organization regarding service delivery is exemplary and exceptional (Loizos & Angeliki, 2013). The organization design reflects a proper hierarchical structure of leadership and management. The management operates on the success based ideas, and any employee who records poor performance for four consecutive job evaluations is fired. Additionally, this enhances competition in service delivery and promotes the image of the company. The company's culture rests on creativity, innovation and customer based relation in which survey is carried out after every six months to assess the levels of service delivery and degree of customer satisfaction. The feedback obtained is used to improve on the lowest score areas of service delivery by training employees on how to render sufficient services to customers (Bajarin, 2017).

The growth strategy that the company pursues is the proper management and focus on the current technological skills by employing adequate skillful workers in various fields within the operating angles of the company. Communication and good governance regarding leadership top the list in matters growth strategy (Loizos & Angeliki, 2013).

The competitive advantage of the Apple Inc. lies in their broad collaboration with other technology companies. This was a different rule that made them different from their competitors. The best way to always outdo a competitor is to have a different strategy of operation and this exactly what this organization invested in to be ahead of everyone who was considered a threat to their progress. This approach brings together different ideas and puts potential customers at a fixed of having to buy the products and supplement with the other accessories in the house. Most of the organizations that collaborate with Apple provide accessories to the products of Apple. Thus they may even opt to use combined marketing strategy to sell their products. The combined effort obtained through this process of collaboration also helps in their marketing strategy and campaigns. The company approached the providers of the best Operating Systems way before the lunch of its products. This means that they would undergo the hustle of trying to fix the challenge of trying to find an operating system that suits their products. This deep connection gives them a boom while landing in the market. That is to say, getting into the market with trusted operating system providers backing your products would be a significant advantage to any producer of electronic gadgets such as Apple, Inc. (Loizos & Angeliki, 2013).

On the other hand, the company has tried to keep using the already existing proprietary ecosystem. The products provided are tailored to reach people from all walks of life. The main aim, in this case, is to reach out to the broadest consumer base ever in the market. This is done by ensuring that the products meet current trends and have features of entertainments such as best music player. The focus, in this case, is to be in total control of the business. It is important to realize that most of the products produced by this company apart from being used by companies are used by the youths who form a good percentage of the total population of the world. Having the best entertainment features make such products a preference of the young people thus the development of a more comprehensive market. The company has understood that the best way to have the most extensive market is to appeal to their senses by providing the best products that would be able to meet their demands. The Macbook product line has been one of the best means the company uses to market the products and stand out as a unique company with a preferred operating system in the market (Loizos & Angeliki, 2013).

Growth Strategy

The companies can use both generic and intensive growth strategy in the advancement of its product in the market in this generation. The company is always different from its competitors thus the generic strategy mainly emphasize on the features that make it unique from the other companies that produce similar products and try to outdo Apple, Inc. The difference is brought out mainly in the design and branding of the products of the company. All the products are made with a beautiful design that is unique to the company only. Moreover, the name of the company is used in the products thus the brand apple sells on its own due to the company name and the belief that the firm produces some of the best products in the market. The ultimate objective is for this business to be utterly different from the similar organizations in the market using other features other than the price. These features make the product unique and are useful in the attainment of the objective of the organization. This growth strategy is best achieved with the aid of MacBook product line which also helps in the marketing of the Apple, Inc. products (Loizos & Angeliki, 2013). Ideally, the products are tailored to meet the demands of nearly everyone who would wish to own a product of Apple. This helps the organization to have even a much broader market for people such as business persons, companies, families, and students demand these products. The best thing about the generic strategy is the fact that it helps The Company to be innovative in order to keep up with the current trends in the market. Technology keeps changing and therefore, the best way for this firm to remain relevant is to keep using the latest technology and providing that adhere to the latest technological standards (Meyer, 2017).

The other growth strategy that can be used by this company is the intensive growth strategy which mainly focusses on the product development. The company tries to provide the most attractive products at all the time with the aim of attracting more shares and improving its performance. The intensive growth strategy is mainly realized through innovation in the company and increased research on the technological advancements that can be applied in the company at all the time. Innovation is seen as the most important tool for development of the organization according to the intensive growth strategy. At least, this growth strategy helps to put this Company ahead of other companies of like minds and those that produce similar products. The intensive and the generic growth strategy of the company both focus on the uniqueness of the products being provided in the market. The market operation is also an important intensive growth strategy applied by this company. This is mainly used in the sale of iPhones and IPad in the market (Loizos & Angeliki, 2013).

References

Johnson, G., Whittington, R., Scholes, K., Angwin, D., Regner, P. (2014). Exploring Strategy Text & Cases (10th ed). Harlow, England.

Loizos H. & Angeliki P., (2013). Strategic leadership and innovation at Apple,Inc. Pearson.

Meyer, P. (2017). Apples Generic Strategy & Intensive Growth Strategies - Panmore Institute. Panmore Institute. Retrieved 16 November 2017, from http://panmore.com/apple-inc-generic-strategy-intensive-growth-strategies.

Bajarin, B. (2017). Why Apple Has a Strong Competitive Advantage. Tech.pinions. Retrieved 16 November 2017, from https://techpinions.com/apples-competitive-advantage/5