Internal factors of samsung

Environmental Scan
Organizations must first scan its internal and external environment before the organization can being developing strategy formulation; it is essential for the organization to identify possible external opportunities and threats and internal strengths and weaknesses within the environment. “Environmental scanning is the monitoring, evaluation, and dissemination of information from the external and internal environments to key people within the corporation” (Wheelen & Hunger, 2012, p. 98); environmental scans help organizations eliminate strategic surprise and secure the organization’s long-term health. Within an organization’s environment are several external and internal factors, organizations should conduct environmental scans to determine projection on the external and internal factors that could possibly impact the success of the organization. Environmental scans refer to the control and use of an organization’s information regarding patterns, trends, and external and internal relationships developed within the organization. An effective, thorough, and productive scan can assist management and key people within the organization in making decisions about the organization’s future path towards success.

The following paper will evaluate the external and internal environment and use of environmental scan conducted by Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics. The paper will also analyze the competitive advantage of each company, evaluate strategies developed and used by each company to create value and gain competitive advantage, examine measurement guidelines utilized by each company to verify the company’s strategy formulation is effective, and evaluate the effectiveness of those developed measurement guidelines.

Apple Inc.

Apple Inc. is identified as the most successful technological company, not only in the world but in the history of companies. The value of the company’s worth is $1.25 trillion with a stock price of $728.35 billion. In February 2015, the company reportedly had revenue of $74.6 billion with $18 billion in profits for a single quarter. Apple is infamous for annihilating its competition and gaining competitive advantage. Being ranked on the Forbes list as twice as valuable as Microsoft, the world’s second most valuable brand, may give the impression that the company has always been a successful leader in technology, this is far from the truth. There was once a time when Apple Inc. was at it worse point and forty-five days from bankruptcy. Apple Inc. developed remarkable strategies, along with extensive transformation to become what is now considered the largest technology company in the world.

Apple Inc. is an international corporation which develops and produces consumer electronics, computer software, and commercial servers; the products of the corporation include: iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Macintosh computers. The internal environment creative, fast-paced, and dynamic; Apple developed an environment human resource is encouraged to be part of the corporation’s brand and image. The corporation prides itself creating a culture that promotes values which support the corporation’s image, produces customer expectations to new experiences through the corporation’s products, and develops an environment employee’s love and can be creative, innovative, and productive. The internal environmental scans display Apple’s intense ability for success. Apple maintains a low amount of debt to provide access to the corporation’s capital for other use. It is committed to R&D (Research & Development) based off the access it provides the corporation to the most recent technology, which allows the corporation maintain its position and competitive advantage. The brand image advocates quality and reliability, while its marketing strategy associates the use of key celebrities in advertisements to attract consumers induced set. The multi-divisional structure of Apple allows the corporation to keep functioning at the pace best suited for the corporation in place of stretching out top management.

Apple Inc. centers external environment on two strategies: alliance and internal growth. Apple has developed powerful, beneficial alliances with key corporations such as AT&T and Microsoft for the purpose of furthering computer growth within the company and assure accessibility to software which recognizable worldwide by consumers. The second strategy focuses on the concentration of internal growth implemented through development of new products for the market. Global expansion is also substantial to the company as considerable consumers become present in countries Apple has not yet been established and serve.

When it comes to strategic development, Apple Inc. is superior when it comes to developing strategies to defend its competitive advantage; there are three key areas within the company that stand out in the company’s strategy development: hardware and software, iTunes and digital asset management, and retail strategy. Apple Inc. is considered more of software than hardware company that develops exceptional hardware they deem worthy to run the company’s software. Not only has Apple created a superb OS (operating system) that distinguishes them, but the company also designs “core” software called iLife. iLife software exceeds most third party software in regards to creating music, movies, DVD’s, etc. and will be included with each Mac in the Apple’s latest OS version. Apple Inc.’s ability to be both a software and hardware company is a huge defense mechanism due to most technologies companies are solely either a hardware company or software company. iTunes is probably the most strategic element of Apple’s strategic development. September 9th 2009, Apple announced iTunes had credit card account data for than 100 million consumers making them one of the largest digital retailers in the world. iTunes has developed a trust relationship with their consumers providing the company several promising prospective purchases from consumers. The retail strategy of Apple Inc. to create and produce their own retail stores adds immense gain to the company’s competitive advantage. Several companies have tried but failed miserably at owning their own retail store. Apple’s ability to control its own retail experience speaks volume because all of the other PC companies are restricted to the cut-throat retail battles. Apple creates and utilizes graphs and metrics as measurement guidelines to verify that the strategies implemented are effective. The success of Apple proves that not only are the measurement guidelines being used are effective they are a force to be reckoned with.