Strategic Choice and Evaluation Paper on Apple Inc Research

Strategic Choice and Evaluation on Apple Inc - Research Paper Example In this sense, the company cannot afford to relent on its path towards market domination because its rivals and new entrants can easily catch up and take over the market leadership position that Apple Inc. currently enjoys. This paper explores the three levels of strategy that the company can use to consolidate its position. The three areas of strategy include the identification of the best value discipline for the company, the best generic strategy option, and the most effective grand strategy that Apple Inc. ought to pursue. Value Discipline All companies usually choose between three broad value disciplines. This three value disciplines are operational efficiency, product leadership, and customer intimacy (Treacy & Wiersema, 1993). Operational efficiency refers to the ability of a company to provide a product without hassles and with minimal inconvenience to the customer. Usually, it calls for investment in powerful supply-chain management tools to ensure that there are no delays i n the production process. Companies that attain efficient operations as a value discipline also tend to provide basic products made with little or no embellishments, and with a very small parts-count. They employ advanced levels of designed-for -manufacture concepts. In order to attain product leadership as a value discipline, a company must invest in advanced product research and development techniques because it requires that the company retain leadership in its ability provide new products for its customers (Treacy & Wiersema, 1993). The IT industry seems to require this as a basic value discipline because of the high rate of innovation in the industry. The amount of game-changing discoveries in the IT industry renders new products obsolete within a very short time. Thirdly, adopting customer intimacy as a value discipline calls for the use of personalized methods of production and marketing that aims at developing a sense of personal attachment with customers (Treacy & Wiersema, 1993). This approach works best for low volume and high margin products for the target market. The best value discipline for Apple Inc. is product innovation. This comes from the fact that Apple Inc. is an IT based industry dealing with personal products. The main competitive edge for companies producing IT devices for personal use is in the innovativeness of the products. Pursuing operational efficiency will limit the innovative edge that Apple Inc. enjoys because of the efforts it will divert to attain efficiency. On the other hand, Apple Inc. develops products for the mass market. It is very challenging to implement customer intimacy as a value discipline when it comes to productions for the mass market. However, there may be strategic benefits in pursuing a two-fold strategy both as a product leader and as an efficiency operator because Apple Inc. may not always be a product leader in the unpredictable IT industry. Product Innovation alone may also make it too expensive for App le Inc. to return a profit because of the high cost of product development. Generic Strategy Porter identified three elements of generic strategy that informs the approaches organizations use to gain market share. In Porters model, the three strategies come from a matrix developed by comparing the scope of the target market with the source of advantage (Porter, 1980). In this sense, a company can pursue a strategy aiming for a niche market or for the mass market. In addition, it has to make a decision regarding whether it