Apple's revolution

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Apple’s business report

Revolutionizing the brand image

The world economy has evolved through centuries driven by several events and factors that have shaped the world business field into what it is today. Nowadays, we are living the revolution of information and telecommunication, which is also known as the digital revolution, which started around the 1980’s. This current revolution is hugely driven by the technological advancements within the Information Technology field. IT companies that were well established at the beginning of the digital revolution, and the new startups that have had the advantageous business mentality, financial resources, and flexibility to adopt the new fast pace advancements that were taking place within the electronics field, grew up massively within a few decades and became major players nowadays, not in their field alone, but overall in the world economy.

Apple Inc. is an information technology company with a wide range of products which include cellphones, computers, tablets, television products and wearable devices. Apple’s customers seek performance products that are aesthetically pleasing and provide assurance that the product will be of quality. Apple Inc. was established in 1976 as a computer software and hardware company. Since then Apple has transitioned into the creation of other technological devices and has established a chain of retail stores in order to provide their customers with a better buying experience. Apple competes in a highly competitive industry that has high buying bargaining power. Apple keeps these facts in mind when designing new products and when deciding on pricing. They must always stay ahead of their competitors in innovation as well as keep up with them in regards to pricing. Apple differentiates itself by providing both the hardware and software in all of their devices. They also try to keep their design simple, easy to use, interconnected and aesthetically pleasing.

Table of contents

1.1 Firm identification        4

1.2 Apple’s background        4

1.3 Brand image        5

1.4 Business portfolio        5

1.5 Human Resources Management         6

Recruitment’s process        6

 Employees benefits and rewards        7

  Employee recognition        8

   Training and development        8

    Career opportunities        8

     HR weaknesses        9

1.6 Marketing strategy        10

1.7 Apple’s environment        13

SWOT analysis        13

PESTEL analysis        16

1.8 Apple’s philosophy        18

Supplier’s philosophy        18

  Three principles driving Apple        20

   Apple’s mission statement         20

 Bibliography        22

 Annexes        23

1. Firm identification :

Name : Apple Inc.

Headquarters : 1 Apple Park Way,Cupertino, California, United States

Type : public company

Founded : April 1, 1976

Industries served : Computer hardware ,Computer software ,Consumer electronics, Digital distribution

CEO : Tim Cook

Revenue : US$ 265.595 billion

Number of employees : 132.000

Website : www.apple.com

1.2 Apple’s background

Apple was created on April 1, 1976, in the garage of Steve Jobs's childhood home in Los Altos, California, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, 14 and incorporated as a company on January 3, 1977, originally as a company. name Apple Computer, but for its 30 years and to reflect the diversification of its products, the word "computer" is removed January 9, 2007

Apple Inc., formerly Apple Computer, Inc., is a multinational corporation that creates consumer electronics, personal computers, servers, and computer software, and is a digital distributor of media content. The company also has a chain of retail stores known as Apple Stores. Apple's core product lines are the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet computer, iPod portable media players, and Macintosh computer line.

According to a Fortune magazine ranking, Apple is the most admired company in the world from 2006 to 2013. It is, from 2011 and according to the fluctuations of the market, the first market capitalization of the planet in history to reach a value of $ 1 trillion in stock marke. It is also, according to the Forbes Global 2000 of 2017, the ninth global company.

But the firm also receives a lot of criticism regarding the working conditions of its workers, its environmental choices and its business practices, a large part of its products being manufactured in Asian countries like India or China.

1.3 Brand image

Evolution of Apple’s logo

Apple’s logo has evolved with the brand image, the design integrated communication. In all Apple’s logo, there’s a crunched apple which symbolizes knowledge. In the first Apple’s logo, we can see Isaac Newton discovering gravity but it was soon replaced with the black crunched apple. That was also replaced with the attractive rainbow crunched apple.

The design of this logo too much empregnate from 70’s was replaced with an uniform color, the blue as a cold and modern color. With the addition of an emboss and a vitreous effect even if the apple form remained the same. In fact, this logo gave a new brand image, a modern image. In 2001, a new logo was created, where the blue became a chrome grey conveying the high-tech universe and being in tune with the refined esthetics of its products. From 2016, Apple had replaced its logo with a monochrome grey without the previous effects.

1.4 Business portfolio (BCG Matrix)

Apple has many Strategic Business Area (SBA), mainly four:

-Mobile telephony

-Hardware (Tablet, laptop and computers)

-Music players

-Multimedia (Apple Tv and software)

• Stars  (high growth, high market share) : Ipads and Iphones made the Apple’s success : 77 billion units sold of the Iphone X in 2018 all over the world, which is a record figure
• Cash cows (low growth, high market share): The laptop (MacAir and Macbook Pro) represent apple's biggest profitability in a mature market where impressed consumers are ready to pay high prices for it. This market sector allowed Apple a growth of 17% from 2016 to 2017.
• Question mark (high growth, low market share): The Apple TV hadn’t made a place in the market. The product’s market share benefited from its newness for a short while.
• Dogs (low growth, low market share): Despite its revolutionary concept, the Ipod and the Itouch has became opportunistic products in a too mature market and doomed to failure and that’s why Apple stopped the Ipod’s production in July 2017.

1.5 Apple’s Human Resources Management:

One of the most vital aspects explaining the biggest companies’ success, their financial performances and bottom line profit margins, their brilliant marketing strategies; and their innovative products, is their human resources. And Apple is an example of companies that look always for best approaches to select, train, motivate, and award its employees.

Despite the fact that Apple masters how to hide secrets related to its Human Resources strategies since that could be a real competitive advantage, some information about them are obtained and analyzed through interviews with its employees, and others are easily deduced from declared values it enshrines.

As it is commonly known, Human Resources Management is a process including various activities that concern, inter alia, identifying recruitment’s requirements, employees’ orientation and training, providing open career prospects, and ensuring a satisfying remuneration. This part of the report is dedicated to detail Apple’s Human Resources Management specificities, and how its managers carry out these activities.