Veronica R. Hart
Kaplan University
Strategic Human Resource Management
Unit 1
GB 520
p. 1-6
March 9, 2011
The 2008 Harvard Business Case Study on Apple Inc, describes the very popular corporation with 24 billion in revenue as of 2007 and how the company has had some problems yet sustainability over the years. The status of the company was examined in detail by the article which revealed a number of strategic moves under the leadership of several CEO’s in marketing, not only the PC industry, but also the consumer electronics industry. This will be discussed in the first five sections of the Process of Strategic Management. The final section will offer recommendations of some difficulties Apple, Inc faced as it made successful changes (Slind & Yoffie, 2008).
I. Mission Statement The very first stage of the strategic management process is for the corporation to evaluate its mission statement. The purpose of this mission statement is to define in simple terms the organizations reason and purpose for its existence. This can be very complex to construct because it requires one to have a clear and concise understanding and vision of the organization and ultimately understand why the company exists at all (Mello, 2006/2011). Apple Inc’s Mission Statement was to bring easy to use computers to the market and envisioned changing the world through technology (Slind & Yoffie, 2008).
II. Analysis of Environment The second stage of the Process of Strategic Management is to analyze the external environment in which an organization operates parallel with the Industrial Organization model (I/O) of Strategic Management whereas decision makers analyze the various components of the external organization, identifying the key players, and are aware of the opportunities and challenges with the environment. This involves analyzing
regulations, chief competitors, economic trends, market trends, technological
References: Mello, J. A (2006/2011). Strategic Human Resource Management: Mason, OH: South-western, Cengage learning. Slind, M., Yoffie, D (2008). Harvard Business School Review: Apple Inc,. 1-32