Unit 1
Strategic Management is defined by the Business Dictionary as “the systematic analysis of the factors associated with customers and competitors (the external environment) to provide the basis for maintaining optimum management practices. The objective of strategic management is to achieve better alignment of corporate policies and strategic priorities” (Business Dictionary). Strategic management is ideas that can get a strategic advantage for the company against the competitors. The goals of the company come directly from leadership and is something the company needs to abide by in order for a company to be successful in the market. Apple, Inc. started out as a computer business which as expanded to many fronts now. The Apple turnaround started with the takeover of Steve Jobs as CEO. What started as a computer industry has now expanded to the portable music industry and to the cellular phone industry. The rule Steve Jobs has come up with is not to take on their PC competitors head to head but to instead just change the rules of the game (Yoffie; Slind, 2008). With Steve Jobs sick can Apple continue to “change the rules of the game” and remain a top competitor even with their Mac computers not bringing in the majority of the profit? On October 5, 2011 Steve Jobs lost his fight with Cancer leaving Apple, Inc. without its CEO. Timothy Cook has now stepped up to bat and he has got a couple issues that they must face as an organization. The first one is what direction must they go with their product. Can they continue to expand technologically and still compete with their competitors. There are two main courses of action Cook should take with the company. He should first begin to form strategic alliances. Two of these alliances should be with the phone companies and Microsoft. The IPhone has become one of the most popular phones on the planet and in order to keep the customers happy there should become