Apple Case Study
Case study: Strategic planning at Apple Inc.
Comparative Advantage
Apple has gained a comparative advantage over its competitors by carefully picking their employees. According to researcher and author Alex Frankel Apple tends to only hire people whom are “passionate about what they were selling”, this often meant that they hired enthusiastic Apple product users. In addition, Apple’s employees are trained to follow a specific three-step sales process known as position, permission, and probe. The employee first explains to customers that in order to find the perfect product for them they needed to ask a couple of questions. Once permission is gained to ask those questions, the salespeople would ask a number of questions in order to understand the customer’s needs. This approach seemed to be effective for the Apple, giving them the comparative advantage and differentiating their retail stores from competitor’s stores. Another observation that Frankel made inside Apple’s retail stores was that the employees liked to work together, portraying a positive and friendly company culture. The large number of salespeople at the Apple stores at all times may not be cheap but the company justifies this extra cost by the increased customer satisfaction that comes from not having to stand in line or wait for help.
Recommendations
As the CEO of Apple I would be proud of the fast growth that was achieved over the past couple of years. A lot of right decisions were made in order to move from a rather small manufacturer of personal computers to the multibillion-dollar iconic brand that it has become. The innovations, moving into the smartphone and tabloid market have been a success for Apple, raising brand awareness by targeting multiple segments. Most importantly, they have managed to reinvent the personal computer as such, allowing customers to access almost the same kind of information on a smartphone, a tabloid, a lightweight laptop, and a regular laptop. This product
Comparative Advantage
Apple has gained a comparative advantage over its competitors by carefully picking their employees. According to researcher and author Alex Frankel Apple tends to only hire people whom are “passionate about what they were selling”, this often meant that they hired enthusiastic Apple product users. In addition, Apple’s employees are trained to follow a specific three-step sales process known as position, permission, and probe. The employee first explains to customers that in order to find the perfect product for them they needed to ask a couple of questions. Once permission is gained to ask those questions, the salespeople would ask a number of questions in order to understand the customer’s needs. This approach seemed to be effective for the Apple, giving them the comparative advantage and differentiating their retail stores from competitor’s stores. Another observation that Frankel made inside Apple’s retail stores was that the employees liked to work together, portraying a positive and friendly company culture. The large number of salespeople at the Apple stores at all times may not be cheap but the company justifies this extra cost by the increased customer satisfaction that comes from not having to stand in line or wait for help.
Recommendations
As the CEO of Apple I would be proud of the fast growth that was achieved over the past couple of years. A lot of right decisions were made in order to move from a rather small manufacturer of personal computers to the multibillion-dollar iconic brand that it has become. The innovations, moving into the smartphone and tabloid market have been a success for Apple, raising brand awareness by targeting multiple segments. Most importantly, they have managed to reinvent the personal computer as such, allowing customers to access almost the same kind of information on a smartphone, a tabloid, a lightweight laptop, and a regular laptop. This product