Apple's Main Present Corporate-Level Strategies - Example

APPLE'S MAIN PRESENT CORPORATE LEVEL STRATEGIES Name: Student ID: Class number: Lecturer’s name: Table of Contents APPLE'S MAIN PRESENT CORPORATE LEVEL STRATEGIES 1 Table of Contents 2 Apple's Main Present Corporate Level Strategies 3 Abstract 3 1.0 Introduction 4 3.0 Apple’s remote and operating environments and Capabilities 6 3.1 Corporate Diversification 11 3.2 Innovation 14 3.3 Labour Relations 15 4.0 Stakeholders Expectation 16 4.1.0 PESTLE Analysis 18 4.1.1 Political Influences 18 4.1.2 Economic influences 19 4.1.3 Social Influences: 20 4.1.4 Technological Influences: 20 4.1.5 Legal 21 4.1.6 Environmental Factors 21 4.2 Stakeholder Mapping 22 5.0 The Future 23 6.0 Conclusion 24 7.0 References 25 Table of Figures Figure 1: Apple Financial Performance since 2009 (source; macrumors.com) 6 Figure 2: Apple Five Year cumulative returns (EDGAR Online, 2014) 8 Figure 3: Apple Acquisitions 2012-2013 (Agrahara et al., 2013) 9 Figure 4: Sales in 2010-2014 (Agrahara et al., 2013) 11 Figure 5: The 2010 AMR Supply Chain Top 25 (Agrahara et al., 2013) 13 Figure 6: US Apple sales between 2001 and 2010 (Source; lowendmac.com) 19 Figure 7: Apple’s market capitalization (source; ijailbreak.com) 20 Apple's Main Present Corporate Level Strategies Abstract Apple’s corporate level strategy as it will be evidenced in the report competes with several others at different levels. Every product produced by Apple utilise similar design techniques, and such techniques are usable on other different devices devoid of format changing. Evidently, Apple is amongst the few companies that own numerous retail stores across the globe. Having both online stores as well as retail stores have offered the company an opportunity to enable their customers to purchase where they prefer. Apple produces numerous products such as Apple TV, iPod, iPad, iMac, iPhone as well as scores of other software products. Thanks to its corporate strategy, customers can easily buy music, applications, and numerous other features from the App store or the iTunes store. The corporate strategy has enabled Apple to have an outstanding customer support, both on the store and phone service. Ever since the iPod was introduced, Apple has been the dominating force in the portable media industry. As it will be indicated in the report, stakeholders are very important for any company so the corporate level strategy should take into account stakeholders expectations if they desire to succeed in the market. In the early 21st century, stakeholders augmented their impact on the business activities of the company as social responsibility as well as community citizenship have been integrated unfailingly into the business management. As it will be indicated through stakeholders mapping, customers, business partners, communities and workers are amongst the main stakeholder groups that have an effect on the company activities as well as decisions. In this report, Apple’s main present corporate level strategies are described and the suitability of these strategies has also been evaluated. 1.0 Introduction Corporate strategy’ according to Johnson et al. (2004, p.6) connotes the most general strategy level within an organization wherein it embraces other strategy levels. In Corporate Strategy, there are two forms of diversification; constrained as well as linked. Corporations utilizing linked diversification start new businesses only if it associates to some extent with another business that is operational, but essentially lacks the link to the other businesses. For corporations utilizing constrained diversification, they only start a new business that is rooted in their core competencies or resources. As mentioned by Hitt et al. (2014, p.170), companies that use linked diversification lack sufficient consistency to their corporate strategy, whereas those that use constrained diversification are inclined to be more focused. In this case, constrained diversification enables the company to make the most out of their resources. Apple computer products include the AppleTV, iPad, Macintosh, iPod and iPhone, which has allowed for resources sharing between businesses. For instance, the AppleTV, iPhone, iPad as well as the Macintosh all run Apple’s operating system known as OS X. As observed by Baxter (2010), this generates economies of scope, and brings about cost savings due to resource sharing across various businesses. As it will be indicated in the study, environmental consciousness and corporate social responsibility are essential since they are consistent with the stakeholders’ expectations. Moreover, the environmental proactiveness level of the company is associated with high pressure from the community as well as organisational stakeholders. Comprehending the impact of such stakeholders on the company’s business activities is significantly crucial (Johnson et al., 2004, p.179). As a result, apple financial performance has grown consistently as evidence in figure one below. Figure 1: Apple Financial Performance since 2009 (source; macrumors.com) 3.0 Apple’s remote and operating environments and Capabilities As stated by Heracleous (2013, p.4) the main feature of Apple’s strategy is the company’s ability to balance operations intense efficiency with exceptional, addictive product design and serial innovation. The corporate strategy has enabled the company to redefine markets as well as command premium pricing. According to Heracleous (2013, p.4), if the competitive advantage of the company is rooted in intense value as well as efficiency, it will not be able to invest beyond what it is needed in design or innovation. Actually the company can try to reduce its value chain costs in order to align such elements with its strategy. Apple as mentioned by Heracleous (2013, p.4) leads in the Quantum Strategy, which is not just hard to implement, but very unconventional. Evidently, Apple has accomplished outstanding design as well as serial innovation based on its business model as well as its offerings; and cost leadership, has turned out to be more and more efficient as compared to conventional cost leader, Dell. Apple in 2010 made it public the desire to enter new markets by overhauling its Mac computers’ family as well as introducing a new mobile OS version for its iPads and iPhones. The introduced software included some new features like 3D (three-dimensional) maps that enable users to zoom in on cities’ pictures. The main goal of the new OS was to use Apple system to replace Google maps. This was achieved by working closely with TomTom who helped Apple to get digital images rights. Other software program updates included the development of a voice activated virtual assistant known as Siri. Such updates were introduced as a strategy to maintain their competitive advantage over their competitors such as Google. As part of the global strategy, Apple opened numerous stores in China as a forward vertical integration technique, with the intention of moving closer to the customer. Presently, there are just five Apple stores in China that makes up 17 per cent of company’s global sales. In view of this, it is apparent that China is the fastest growing market for Apple products, but has resulted in a number of issues. For instance, during iPhone 4S release, Apple failed to open their China’s flagship store which left scores of customers very frustrated. This indicates that iPhone demand in China surpassed the supply, in consequence, retail shops have exceedingly increased the price of Apple products; thus, ruining the brands image. The figure below shows how Apple’s cumulative returns started declining in 2012. Apple competitors include Dell, Acer, Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, International Business Machines Corporation, Toshiba, Dell, Samsung, High-Tech Computer Corporation, Microsoft, and Sony. The industry wherein Apple operates is characterized by low substitute product threats since Wintel PCs are similar to the Apple PCs. Besides, there are no substitutions for Apple PCs, and so it is seen as a rivalry rather than substitution. Figure 2: Apple Five Year cumulative returns (EDGAR Online, 2014) As part of the value-created strategy, Apple’s supply chain management has generated far-fetched value since the company sources its product parts from different parts of the world and uses low-cost labor for assembly. Even though it appears replicable, Apple has revolutionized the process of manufacturing together with its suppliers by means of diagonal as well as vertical alliances. For this reason, the company expects to spend almost 10.5 billion US dollars for capital expenditures in equipment manufacturing process and product tooling. This can be evidenced by the huge amount of money invested by Apple through prepayments to the sapphire company based in the US for new screen technology. Observably, Apple has begun to invest and innovate at the component level and afterwards make a contract with corporations that outfit the novel technology. It is sensible that Apple concentrate on its core competency of integration as well as design, and has partnered with professionals in various fields such that when a non-existent specification or products is needed, the company works together with its partners so as to create the component. This exhibits why the company produces a high quality product that integrates the best technology from various fields. Aside from partnering, Apple has turned out to be more and vertical, particularly when its products are differentiated by new component technology. Through alliances and acquisitions, Apple has remained shielded from the supplier bargaining power, which has also enabled it to prevail over its weakness. The figure below exhibits Apple’s recent acquisitions in addition to opportunities as well as value addition to the company. Figure 3: Apple Acquisitions 2012-2013 (Agrahara et al., 2013) Apple products are heavily manufactured abroad, which as part of its global strategy has made the company’s products economical to manufacture and be able to boost their profit margin. Apple has recently been facing numerous labour issues; in consequence, the company has strategically tried to improve the working conditions for oversees workers. This could be considered a global strategy. This intent has been proved after wages were improved and the working hours adjusted in Apple’s key manufacturing plants. In consequence, this has considerably improved the working conditions for some, but not all. The company has also been carrying out regular audits of its manufacturing plants ensure that the working conditions of the workers is within the required standards. It is for this reason why Apple joined the Fair Labour Association so as to focus heavily on ensuring its suppliers are closely monitored. Imperatively, the company has a corporate governance structure, which according to Rezaee (2007, p.58) is created to be a working structure for appropriate monitoring of both performance and compliance, effective decision-making as well as principled actions and. In this case, the company has a board of directors tasked with overseeing the senior management such as the Chief Executive Officer. This is meant to ensure ethical as well as competent operation of Apple on a daily basis and to ensure that the stakeholders’ long-term interests are effectively served. This is considered as an effective way of gathering opinions from individuals in the corporate systems with regard to decisions made by the company. The board members provide insight into the decisions devoid of partiality, and this has enabled the company to reduce problems at the corporate level. The figure below shows the Apple sales between 2010 and 2014. Figure 4: Sales in 2010-2014 (Agrahara et al., 2013) 3.1 Corporate Diversification Close-related diversification strategies are utilised by Apple as their corporate strategy.  Apple which is well known for its computer and software technology, diversified in 2001 into the market of digital music by releasing the iPod, a world-shattering portable mp3 player. Later, the company introduced iTunes Music store. Besides that, the company has clear economies of scope because of the high integration level between personal entertainment as well as personal computing products. In consequence, the economies of achieved from this strategy have reduced the operating costs of the company, resulting in more affordable prices to end users and higher profit margins. Imperatively, diversification has enabled Apple to restore its market share as well as troubled image. Apple´s diversification to the mobile communication sector has been outstanding for the reason that the company produced a new ¨smart phones era.  Before the introduction of iPhone a lot of people were using Motorola or Nokia phone, but today thanks to Apple’s Smartphone technology close to 2 billion people have a smartphone.  For this reason, Apple’s diversification has facilitated the company to learn more about its consumers, and what they need in the current technological era.  Apple utilizes constrained diversification this is because the company uses its competencies to develop software as well as hardware. Apple has revolutionized the media, communication, personal electronics, as well as computer industries through a series of best-seller products that provide unique customer experiences (Heracleous, 2013, p.3).Innovatively, Apple’s diversification has enabled the company to successfully develop well design and high quality devices that satisfies the consumers and facilitates their work life.  Evidently, the diversification success of Apple’s iPad, iPods and iTunes has improved the sales of the Mac computers due to the fact that the products have close integration.  Eventually, this integration generates other products that are manageable since the operating systems used are virtually the same. Apple competitors include Dell, Acer, Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, International Business Machines Corporation, Toshiba, Dell, Samsung, High-Tech Computer Corporation, Microsoft, and Sony. The industry wherein Apple operates is characterized by low substitute product threats since Wintel PCs are similar to the Apple PCs. Besides, there are no substitutions for Apple PCs, and so it is seen as a rivalry rather than substitution. This has enabled Apple to be the top company in the world as exhibited in the figure below. Figure 5: The 2010 AMR Supply Chain Top 25 (Agrahara et al., 2013) To successfully manage all its operations, the company follows an M-form functional structure. Under Tim Cook the company CEO, there are ten Senior Vice Presidents: Retail and General Counsel, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Hardware Engineering, Operations, iOS software, Software Engineering, Industrial Design as well as Worldwide Product Marketing. In this case, the duties of the management are divided, but eventually report to the top manager. The company Directors are expected to remain proactive and to give emphasis to their positions. Imperatively, they are expected to set up measures that will make sure Apple becomes successful in its operations and on the market. Essentially, Apple is a collaborative company because they have successfully divided tasks up into working teams that promote communication in the teams. 3.2 Innovation Through innovation, Apple has managed to produce high quality products, and has also facilitates the improvements on its current products. Imperatively, they utilise focused differentiation strategy through producing products, which are exclusive and very luxurious. Apple’s innovation ability that has enabled it to disrupt the technology market is what has made the company continue being successful (Heracleous & Papachroni, 2013, p.681). Basically, mainstreaming of touch-screen phones, mp3 players as well as tablets creation are examples of Apple’s innovation that competitors have found challenging to imitate. This has been achieved through what Heracleous (2013, p.4) calls Quantum Strategy Whereas some competitors have reduced the product gap and produced similar products, Agrahara et al. (2013) posits that the integrated experience of Apple on each of its device is beyond those creating hardware as well as using third party software. This advantage has enabled Apple to overcome its competitors in the market forcing some companies to purchase mobility such as Google buying Motorola and Microsoft purchasing Nokia mobility. Still, merging companies with companies that already exist is not similar to making a ground up the corporation, which at its very foundation has design integration; this explains why Apple competency is very rare (Heracleous, 2013). Consumer needs as well as lifestyle are constantly changing, especially in the entertainment segment. Nowadays, they desire for better sound and enhanced graphics, computer devices with graphical purchasing power, faster processing power, in addition to better sound system. Besides that, customers prefer lighter, portable and smaller computer device that has longer battery life. Apple has effectively taken advantage of this differentiation such that upon buying one of its products, the customer is enticed to purchase other products in order to attain full product functionality (Heracleous & Papachroni, 2013). Still, the organizational culture of Apple is very unique such that it open as well as encourages creativity and innovation. 3.3 Labour Relations Leaders as mentioned by Heracleous (2013, p.2) must make choices that are tough, but should not essentially be based on the generic strategies. Instead, they must aim for systemic connections, concentration, synergies, strategic alignment, and uncomplicatedness; in a manner that can be able to balance the competing demands. These and related strategic actions can place the firm in a position of strength with respect to industry forces, leading to extraordinary performance. There have been numerous allegations of labour abuse in Apple’s suppliers plants. In spite of labour rights abuses allegations by Apple’s suppliers, in various ways, Apple itself has remained proactive in handling working conditions in the factories producing its product’s parts. In 2005, the company created a Supplier Code of Conduct, and this was after the sweatshop conditions allegations were made. Repeatedly, Apple has indicated that it is working closely with all its suppliers so as to make sure that they uphold the code of conduct and that the rights of the workers are respected (Myers, 2010). In 2007, Apple started carrying out audits on its suppliers and posting annual reports on supplier responsibility on the company website. However, antagonists have questioned whether Apple actions’ objective seeks to actually improve the employees working conditions in its supplier’s plants or it is just trying to cheaply avoid bad public relations by trying to address labour abuses that are known. In spite of such criticisms, the majority of the Apple’s actions have certainly resulted in better working conditions for employees at the suppliers’ plants. Due to pressure from Apple, excessive overtime, child labor and hazardous practices by suppliers have been reduced tremendously and pay and benefits for employees have been increased. After taking over from Steve Jobs, the current Apple CEO, Tim Cook has brought positive changes to the company, which includes increasing supply chain transparency by introducing the worker donation matching program as well as other charitable contributions. Cook has tried to convince the public that the company is making unceasing signs of progress on numerous aspects, particularly the supply chain’s labour practice. 4.0 Stakeholders Expectation With regard to the supply chain partners, the visibility as well as transparency at Apple is exceedingly high. Certainly, this visibility is yet to extend to other parts of the world, but in the present transparency age, supply chain practices at Apple are no more secret. As stated by Werther Jr and Chandler (2010, p.103), stakeholders’ expectations are exceedingly higher, particularly for technology companies. As mentioned by Mathur et al. (2007, p.5), successful environmental management creates the need for identifying important stakeholders. Besides, the diversity of salient stakeholders is imperative for pursuing the green strategies given that they can allocate ample resources in various domains like management systems, manufacturing technologies, and so forth. So, companies experience a greater challenge to effectively address the key stakeholders concerns since they have different demands as well as interests that have to be satisfied. According to Lindblom and Florén (2011, p.5), the key stakeholders can be satisfied to a different extent as well as in different ways, which consequently need organizations to adopt an environmental strategy that is more proactive or reactive. Apple is yet to embrace some core values that will enable it to fulfil the stakeholder’s expectations. Even though Apple is possibly late for a CSR strategy, the company decision of enacting donation matching is definitely an ill-advised step that cannot meet the stakeholders’ expectations. The events’ sequence that led to the announcement of this CSR strategy is essentially unproductive presented program quality that exhibits Apple is just acting in response to the media pressure instead of introducing to the CSR the same type of inspiring and innovative vision that makes the company be regarded highly. Therefore, Apple’s corporate matching program is considered by many as a fail. As pointed out by Owen and Kemp (2014), developing a CSR strategy without a sense of obligation, but with consideration of certain character virtues that are well-defined is highly recommendable. Besides its sophisticated products that have continuously grabbed the worldwide attention, Apple has been performing poorly in CSR practices. In 2013, the company was not listed in the top one hundred Best Corporate Citizens, and in the same year the company was ranked 9th in the CSR RepTrak 100 study, ranking lower than it main competitor Microsoft. Even though Apple publishes suppliers’ responsibilities report annually, their report credibility is exceedingly low because the media continuously discloses news concerning issues found in their overseas workforce as well as supply chain (Chan, 2014, p.13). Furthermore, Apple overlooks their suppliers’ working standards as well as conditions considering that more than 50 per cent of employees in the company’s supply chain work more than 60 hours weekly and the majority of the suppliers have ignored the safety standards. Apple reputation on monitoring or regulating their supply chain has been tarnished save for the environmental issues. As argued by the SACOM (Students and Scholars against Corporate Misbehaviour) group, the last corporate principle should be profit maximization under which the well-being and dignity of workers have been taken into account. After investigating Foxconn Factory, SACOM stated that the working condition at the factory was like life with no dignity. Scores of young employees who were unable to stand the horrible environment committed suicide. Public awareness has been raised by such issues, so the CSR practices has continuously been questioned (Chan, 2014, p.13). 4.1.0 PESTLE Analysis 4.1.1 Political Influences After China joined World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001 a lot of opportunities were created from the country, but this generated a number of threats to Apple. The lower market barrier as well as investment barrier has offered Apple opportunities to capitalise in the cheap labour and getting possible market, but this has been achieved also by the competitors. Apple had to move its plant to China so as to achieve efficiency to outdo their competitors. In 2010 financial year, Apple’s international sales contribution was between 52 per cent and 58 per cent. However, terrorism, wars, and bad international relations have an effect on Apple and this cannot be managed at the company level. By manufacturing scores of its products and parts outside the US in countries like China, Czech Republic, Ireland, as well as Korea can lead to horrible outcomes, due to political conflicts especially between China and the US. Figure 6: US Apple sales between 2001 and 2010 (Source; lowendmac.com) 4.1.2 Economic influences The 2008 global economic crisis immensely impacted Apple considering that the rate of inflation was exceedingly high, while the incomes of the customers remained the same. Furthermore, the unemployment rate has recently increased forcing the consumers to spend less. For this reason, apple purchased a foreign currency for itself with the intention of minimising the inflation economic effects. The U.S. dollar depreciation has consequently increased Apple’s profits in the global market. Even though the economic depression considerably impacted Apple sale, the company has continued to grow. Currently, the economy of the US is experiencing an increase in the rates of unemployment as well as threats of low income; in consequence, this can result in severe sales loss. However, Apple has purchased foreign currency such that if the US dollar depreciates in the market, the company will still get revenues from its shares. Figure 7: Apple’s market capitalization (source; ijailbreak.com) 4.1.3 Social Influences: The people interaction across the world counts on the great role of technology. Nowadays, it is not possible to envisage the word with no technological devices such as mobile phone, Computers. Currently, Apple is seen globally as the master of technology, due to its design as well as quality. The music industry also provides another social influence; thus, enabling Apple to develop the iTunes which is considered as the biggest virtual media store. In general, Apple’s image as well exhibits the contemporary lifestyle of people, integrating design with functionality, resulting in brand loyalty as well as identification. 4.1.4 Technological Influences: Essentially, the technology market for mobile phones as well as computers has turned out to be huge, resulting in more competition within the market. Advancements in innovation are continuous, and this has made the products lifecycle to be exceedingly short. Technology companies are currently investing heavily in Research and Development (R&D) and have are focusing much on innovation. For instance, the Windows Intel family generated numerous competitors as new entrant threat, but the platform is not developed by one firm. The similar product is offered to Apple by the competitors with features, design, and brand that are slightly different. 4.1.5 Legal The United States together with the United Kingdom have an organized legal system that is efficient and transparent. For instance, the legislative system of UK concentrates on high business freedom and mainly allows the investor to gain confidence as well as trust. Still, there are a number of challenges like tax evasion as well as leveraging individual liberty against threats of terrorist attack. Since its establishment, Apple has taken part in a number of legal claims as well as proceedings (EDGAR Online, 2014). In 2009, for instance, Nokia Corporation sued Apple for infringing its patents that relate to wireless technology. This in consequence landed the company in a very uncomfortable position. 4.1.6 Environmental Factors Since Cook became Apple CEO in 2011, he has taken a lot of measures to transform the company into an environmentally responsible corporation. Some of the measures include recycling displays and computers as well as proper disposal of the electronic equipment. The company is also trying to completely move towards renewable sources like geothermal, wind, solar and hydro. The United States as well as other members of the G8 has strongly participated in formulating global policies, especially with regard to agreements that are concerned with emission reduction, the environment, as well as sustainable source energy. Apple operations are heavily centered in China which is considered to have a high air pollution level. Even though the Western countries and the US have continuously warned china about its poor air quality, Apple and the country in general have done nothing to improve the situation. High level of air pollution because of factories and power stations emissions as well as exhaust fumes is high not just in China but also the UK. 4.2 Stakeholder Mapping According to Mathur et al. (2007, p.8), stakeholder mapping assist in identifying numerous aspects of the corporate stakeholders such as the interests of the stakeholders, ways of influencing other stakeholders, possible threats, important people that have to be informed about the company project as well as negative stakeholders who have can negatively impact the company’s projects. Stakeholder mapping involves identifying workers in an organization who are likely to influence the operations of the company or can be impacted by a recommended action, and grouping them based on their effect on the organisational proposed action as well as effect of the action on them (Johnson et al., 2004, p.181). In this case, employees at Apple are considered to be the internal stakeholders given that they work for the company and have a say in the various activities within the company. Apple’s customers are crucial for the company’s success in the computer industry considering that they purchase Apple's products that assist the company to make a lot of profits. Besides that, Apple’s suppliers are crucial internal stakeholders since their input enables the company to produce their products. The local community is considered as Apple’s internal stakeholders since they have the rights of knowing what is taking place in the company and if the community will be affected by the company operations. Besides that, the company’s national community and the local government is considered as external stakeholders, mainly for the reason that they have no say in what takes place at Apple. 5.0 The Future In the coming two to four years, Apple is expected to experience high level returns, mainly because its innovative products will be more smart and stylish. However, the company will hold a smaller market share in all its product categories. Apple has demonstrated its innovation capability which is far beyond that of its competitors, and this is expected to be a game changer in the future. As the premium-priced alternative for all its product categories, the company will in the coming years be the most profitable in the computer industry. Thanks to iTunes, the company will continue accessing a booming populace of customers who are less wealthy. Still, their strategy may be improved in the future. Currently, the print industry is at a where it is moving from print to digital. Considering that, the digital print industry is at infancy but with a promising future, Apple is expected to seize this opportunity. This is so, because this fits the company’s platform strategy well. Apple intends to use the iTunes so as to make the various types of media utilized on their devices easily accessible, and will in the coming years position the iPad as a reading device. So, creating a top print media platform will help the company fortify its media products as well as make iPad a convincing and attractable device. Besides that, the company’s strategic plan of launching a bigger-screen iPad as well as iPhone will in the coming years definitely boost Apple’s market share in the computers industry. Imperatively, it will increase Apple’s ecosystem that facilitate the creation of the halo effect. This connotes that users purchasing one Apple device will be inclined to purchase other Apple products. 6.0 Conclusion In conclusion, the report has described Apple’s present corporate level strategies and has also evaluated the suitability of such strategies. As evidenced in the report, Apple has become more and more global, and manufactures computers products that are sold worldwide. Apple increasing scope as well as scale has enabled it to transform from being a US-based manufacturing, sales, and assembly company to a multinational company. Apple corporate strategy has facilitated the company to boast a huge market share in the computer industry, and when it unveils new products in countries such as China, the demand surpasses the supply. As indicated in the report, Apple has continually delivered products that have changed the way people use technology to interact. As indicated in the report, the company’s corporate strategy is suitable for a number of aspects but not all, so the company needs to make some significant improvement such as reducing the labor rights abuses committed by its main suppliers and increase the transparency at the corporate level. If the company seeks to become a socially responsible corporation, it must strive to make its operation and practices public so as prevent the public from observing the working conditions as well as its business practices in its suppliers’ plants. As indicated in the report, the working conditions at Apple’s suppliers’ factories are poor and have resulted in not just negative media attention, but also legal actions. Apple has experienced legal challenges with regard to child labor in its suppliers’ plants and also its reluctance to make public its carbon emissions. If Apple seeks to make its corporate strategy successful, then it must allow the public to scrutinize its suppliers’ facilities and confidentiality agreements terms must be loosened. By allowing the public to scrutinize its suppliers’ practices and improve transparency, Apple will undoubtedly succeed in its operations. 7.0 References Agrahara, S., Patterson, N.L., Schildhorn, B. & Thacher, J., 2013. Global strategy Apple Inc.. Research Paper. Baxter, K., 2010. Apple’s Mobile Future: Corporate and Business Strategy. [Online] Available at: http://tightwind.net/2010/06/apples-mobile-future-corporate-and-business-strategy/ [Accessed 6 August 2015]. Chan, L.Y., 2014. 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