Corporate Strategy and the Relationship With Tactics: Apple Company

Operations strategy refers to how an organization utilizes the resources available to it to achieve a competitive advantage. For a manufacturing company, the strategy includes all decisions that need to be made regarding the production, storage, and distribution of products. The main characteristics that the company focuses on when developing its operations strategy are quality and price. Every business strives to achieve the best quality at the lowest cost to maximize profits and meet customer expectations.

The company’s business-level strategy allows it to function effectively in the market using competencies and the creation of value for customers. The organization can apply cost leadership, differentiation, or focus on a specific market niche (Stephens & Martin, 2019). Apple’s differentiation strategy enables the company to produce phones, computers, laptops, and a variety of spectacular accessories to meet the needs of a wider range of customers. Apple’s cost leadership is that they produce high-quality products with a distinctive design at an affordable price. This is possible through efficient production and delivery of products.

Apple’s marketing strategy is built on promoting the uniqueness of the product and the services the company offers. Apple uses an incremental R&D strategy as CFO Luca Maestri says the company is committed to “improve the user experience and differentiate our products and services in the marketplace” (Leswing, 2019, para. 5). Nahmias and Olsen (2020) note that in the past, Apple lacked procedures for inspecting manufacturing materials for defects, resulting in the company’s inability to meet customer demands for product quality. Currently, Apple’s operations strategy is based on producing high-quality, user-friendly, and aesthetic devices. Additionally, the company is committed to developing an internal ecosystem for a better user experience. Associated tactics that the company uses include creating unique distribution channels, focusing on the details and emotions of users, and overall brand consistency.

References

Nahmias, S., & Olsen, T. L. (2020). Production and operations analytics (8th ed.). Waveland Press.

Leswing, K. (2019). Apple is spending more than ever on R&D to fulfill the ‘Tim Cook doctrine’. CNBC.

Stephens, E., & Martin, B. (2019). Business policy and strategic management. EDTECH.