Strategic Plan, Part 1: Environmental Scan

Strategic Plan, Part 1: Environmental Scan Introduction The purpose of this paper is to determine how to create value and sustain competitive advantage using the scanning strategy, evaluate the external environment, assess the general environment, and evaluate the organization's industry operating environment for Apple, Inc. Apple, Inc is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. Environmental Scanning Environmental scanning is monitoring an organization’s internal and external environment to identify opportunities and threats that may influence current and future organizational plans (“Business Dictionary”, 2018). With environmental scanning the organization examines the external environment to identify trends, along with opportunities and threats that could adversely impact them. Being able to identify these factors, the organization is able to develop a strategic plan for their best course of action. Environmental scanning also enables the organization the ability to reposition themselves within their industry in an effort to improve and secure their competitive advantage. The organization has to have knowledge of issues that could affect their direct customers and suppliers and also be aware of their competitors, regulatory changes, overall macroeconomic environment and the ever-changing political landscape. Because of the constant introduction of new technological innovations, the business environment is always changing (Curtiss, 2018). External Environment Apple, Inc. is one of the world's most innovative technology companies. It was founded by Steve Jobs with the help of Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976 to sell Wozniak’s personal computer. Apple, Inc. has a company vision that is extremely detailed and reflects a comprehensive approach of continued growth and success. General Environment Apple Incs’. original mission statement from Steve Jobs’ was “To make a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind.” In recent years, the mission statement has moved in a different direction and is more specific to what they do, “Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.” The company's vision statement was established by CEO Tim Cook and outlined in a speech to shareholders – ‘we believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that's not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us (Rowland, n.d).