Case Study Analysis on Apple Implemented Strategies

Question: Describe about the Case Study Analysis on Apple for Implemented Strategies. Answer: Introduction: No matter how big a player one is in the market, problems are part of every organizations life (Reason 2016). Apple is one such big player whose success stories are in plenty but still it has some issues to deal with that sometimes acts as a speed breaker in its way of moving forward. Apples reputation in the market is one to be jealous of, but it too has issues internally and externally and of late the reputation has taken a beating. The company has faced some issues after the release of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus. iPhone has been a popular choice for people over the years but with cropping up of issues the organisation must put the spotlight on solving those problems as quickly as possible. Over the years it has emerged as one of the giants in the computer and electronics industry with its implemented strategies being the best (Korten 2015). But the path has not been that easy to get to the place where it is today. The market has become very competitive and one small mistake can lead to thousands of adversity. People have said innumerous number of times that a big organization like Apple does not requires a Public relation department but it is one of the major parts of the organisation. Professional Accounting and Public Relation problem associated with Apple Inc. Apple uses SAP software worldwide and it has one of the most efficient and best accounting system standards. To know the problems faced by Apple in its accounting system, first we need to look into the functionality of the same. It is very cost effective Helps in decision making and determining the organizational goals Develop the products quality Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of companys profit Helps in collection and procession of data As stated earlier Apple uses the SAP software, its functionality with the company are: SAP is one of the most popular software used by the big corporate globally The software provides packages for different applications such as supply chain management, purchase, asset management and enterprise resource planning. Accounting system of any company helps in matters such as safety, cost efficiency, forecasting and determining speed at which the firm works (Bebbington and Larrinaga 2014). SAP software has its own benefits too. It helps in minimizing redundancy risk like quality inspection and supervision. It also facilitates in helping develop a more efficient environment and solves the problem of language barrier and currency rates. SAP assists in enhancing the knowledge. Problems with Apples Accounting System: In July 2013, Turkish security researcher Ibrahim Balic hacked the developer portal of Apple. The company issued a statement later saying that the hacking incident might have stolen information about their around 2, 75,000 registered third party developers who were in the habit of using it. The hacking led to a speculation among developers that the portal developer.apple.com might have experienced a database break down or it has been hacked. Ibrahim Balic claimed that his intention was not to hack the site but to let Apple know the flaws it has in its system that was leaking valuable information. Apple was never on the same page with Ibrahim as it shut down the portal, updated the server software and rebuilds the entire database. This incident did manage to point out the loopholes in the Apples accounting system. Other situations or problems that might occur are the danger to accounting information, security measures and management. The SAP software is a tad too expensive and its inflexible nature can cause a problem or two to go along with its not being user friendly. Moreover SAP requires a signed agreement by the company for its use and it holds that company to the vendor until the end of that contract. Accounting does face a lot of challenges these days, irrespective of any organization. Certain issues which present business with challenges are: Development of new business 70.5% Finding good talent 51.1% Changes related to internal matters 33.0% Technological issues 30.7% Meeting clients expectations/Deals 29.6% Organizations that are able to face these challenges with proper strategies stand out from the rest in the market. International competition with more and more competitive pressure is bogging down the firms to organic growth (Fogliasso and Williams 2014). There is intense competition and challenges to generate new leads are becoming difficult. Talented people are always welcome in organizations and a firms reputation plays a vital role in hiring the best in the market for the optimum output. Apples reputation is huge in the market and for it acquiring the best people is not a hard job. Its from todays recruitment that leaders of tomorrow are born. Big organizations do boost of highly intelligent visible experts who shape up the brand image among both clients and employees. No matter how talented one is, he cannot work forever, so an organization needs to be in a continuous cycle of developing leaders and for that visibility experts need to assist the firms. Technological issues and dealing with clients expectations are a struggle that firms face every single day (Christensen 2013). Technological needs and related clients expectations are difficult to deal with. Clients do expect big service from the firms and they expect their problems to be solved as fast as it can be. Client satisfaction is a huge thing in todays market and firms cannot overlook it. Firms do look for the kind of clients they are best suited for, or the section of people who have been the real backbone in adding profit to the companys account, the loyal customers. Problem 1: iCloud Breach The popular iCloud was getting hacked with hackers focusing on top level female celebrities, stealing their private images and videos that raised doubts on iClouds security system. Apple did issue a statement after this but the situation did not boil down. The public relation response of Apple stated that they investigated the cases of security breach but none of the cases were related to Apples system including iCloud and Find my iPhone. Find my Iphone service has a security blemish which permitted the hackers to continuously guess a users log-in information. Numerous attempts did not result in any repercussion and eventually it got locked out after number of failed attempts. This resulted in the hackers being able to break into the users accounts. Some tech experts were quick to find out that Apple ignored the most important fact that with right tools Apples ID can be easily cracked down. People became scared and it was imperative on Apples part to make things work again in the right way. Molly Jacobson, Account executive at National Strategies Public Relations commented that after the security breach, Apple should have come up with a more polished statement than its sub standard one which it issued. Hackers ability to access personal files is just not acceptable. Molly went on to add that hacking of such personal files is way more dangerous than getting access to someones bank account details. With hacking of bank accounts, funds can be refunded, but not peoples reputation with hacking of such private files. A problem that needed a quick action from Apple and they did just that. To counter the breach in security problem, Apple released a statement that deal with the issue of security. If hackers do try to get into elses iCloud account, notification emails will be send to the users alerting them about the matter. It also has two dynamic passwords authentication classification that texts users a randomized admission code. The security got strengthened but users were advised to change or update their passwords on a regular basis. Moreover, they were suggested to use passwords that are complex in nature including both the uppercase and lowercase letters as well as symbols. Passwords with birthdays and names of people are an easy way in for hackers. Users were advised to avoid these for their own benefits. Remembering a lot of passwords can be a tag difficult, but with password manager program things have become easy. This tool will generate passwords randomly and stock them in a protected vault. Users thus, just need to remember one in order to safeguard the others. Problem 2: iOS8 malfunction Problems with iOS8 delayed the much anticipated release of HealthKit apps. The apps were supposed to be released with the launch of iPhone 6. The iOS8s faulty nature made developers delay the release of the apps. Some common issues with the App were that some of the new iPhones were incapable to make calls and problems of using third party key boards were also there. A report published in Crittercism stated that iOS8s crash percentage was 78% more than what people experienced with iOS7. The company had some problems with its internal employees too with certain rumors doing the rounds that the workers do not get proper time for meals or being kept waiting for hours beyond their duty periods for supervisors to go through their private stuff (Keating 2016). The added up time for that did not provide with any wages that as reported amounted to around $1500. However, everybody wants to be a part of a successful organization and people working in Apple are no different. Problems do occur, its like part and parcel of an organisations life, Apple has been facing a lot of issues recently but that have not been able to bog down the giant. It has come up with solutions every time there has been a problem. Its how quickly a firm can react to a certain situation and make things work again is what puts it at different level than the rest (Coombs and Holladay 2013). Recommended Solutions to the Professional Accounting and Public Relation problem of the Apple Inc. Ways to improve the accounting system of Apple Inc. Controls System both internal and the external one Reporting of any problem if there is any Sometimes organizations do take outside help from other accounting solution organizations in seeking the best technical advice that in turn helps the client company to improve its financial reports (Hazelton 2013). Outsourcing this will leave the company to focus on areas of its primary concern. Every organisation has its own needs and the accounting solution company must be able to cater the need of that company and come up with the best possible solutions, building a strong relationship and a steady base for the clients business success. It can also provide its assistance to the client company in accounting recruiting and providing them with proper training and control to both the new and the existing staffs (Kristensen and Israelsen 2013). It generally provides the technical accounting recommendation, internal audits, expert imminent to offer substitute treatment and solutions. Apple and SAP are in partnership to transform work. The two giants have come together to reform the mobile use experience. They have vowed to provide people with better life experience and shaping the world for today and tomorrow. They are going to combine the powerful apps of SAP HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA, collectively with iOS, building the most strong and secure mobile stage for projects, delivering people with live data from wherever and whenever they decide to work. SAP will be a real boost for Apple to stay ahead in the competition. With this joining of hands between the two giants Apple plans to build up user friendly apps with proper assistance from the German firm (Apple 2016). According to reports from Reuters, Apple has been in partnership with other big firms like IBM and Cisco which has enabled them to reach to global business professionals. Apple and its Public Relation technique: Apple has been a champion of silent techniques when it comes to PR campaigns. Apples public relation campaigns have always been like this, even when it was not this popular. It has always maintained that its products do not need those long boring funny ads to let people know what makes those products so important in peoples life (Olasky 2013). Apple believes their products speak for themselves. Apple has always been able to maintain that hype, that buzz around its products. They have been highly successful in creating that suspense that is generally witnessed on and before the launch of any Apple product (Apple 2016). Over the years, Apple has been getting the love of the people; it has some of the most loyal customer base in the market. Even at the time of crisis the company has used this silent technique to turn around things for good (Broom et al. 2013). Fig. 1 Apples PR structure to launch new products Apple believes in: Communication is the key to a brand- Apple has been very disciplined in its silent ways of product launches and keeping itself at bay to unnecessary media wars. It does not have thousand stories to build around its product, things in Apple gets described from the top. Apple connects in the most amazing way with its users. Even in the social media every customer tweets, comments, problems are being addressed and one can easily point out that Apple do not use generic responses to communicate with their customers, real humans gives real replies and that connects well with the people (Hitt et 2012). Negative online reviews are hard to stop with so many social networks working, but it is the duty of the public relation to keep a track of these conversations where bad things are said about the company (Damsio et al. 2012). The public relation must be able to reply to the point and clearly as and when required (Dozier et al. 2013). Apples unique way of press releases- Steve Jobs is the face of Apple and how astonishingly he is the man who approves all the press releases that comes out of the company. Apple is not in the habit of holding many press releases; they say something when they have something very important to say. No matter how big a company is, a press release on product description or enhancement is important (Heracleous and Papachroni 2012). Journalists are an important section of the media. It is always advisable to call journalists who are trustworthy and Apple has been inviting some top ones its press releases, arranging first row seats for them and handing them with the products before a launch. It has implemented its silent techniques on journalists too who have gone a little too far in revealing about its products (Parsons 2016). On one or two occasions it has even send letters to the top journalists who have been a bit too open about their latest launches. Culture marketing is becoming vital in PR- One section of Apples PR division is in the charge of focusing on high profile people and make them or in other words mould them to use Apple products (Menzel 2013). In the problem section related to Public relations it was reported that iCloud breach of security was a major problem which effected high profile celebrities too. There are two ways to tackle this situation: Killing the security question: Password reset questions are silly things that have long being laughed on. Those questions are very easy to guess especially when the client is a high profile one, with everything about them mentioned all over the web (Jefkins 2016). It is much safer to retrieve a password reset link from the mail of users who have forgotten their passwords. With presence of physical mailing address in the file Apple can mail them a one-time recovery mail. It was suggested in a daily report that Apple can also charge some cents or two dollars to the users who have lost both the password and the access to the mail. Make Passwords delinquents prove themselves in person: Cornell computer security professor Ari Juels, recommended for a faster last resort revival method: demanding that password limbos must prove their uniqueness in person. People do not have that habit of going to a counter and resetting passwords themselves, they are more into submission of documents and getting things done. Apple does have its retail outlets in many countries, so all that the user needs to do is to be there physically at one of the genius bars, prove themselves and get the password reset. The company can also work in tandem with banks and post offices who will work as authentication authorities. In case of Apples iOS8 dilemma it reacted quickly which is important in this kind of situations. Within one week of new iPhones hitting the market, it released an updated version of iOS 8 which was iOS 8.0.1. However, problems still existed even with the updated version. Users were having difficulty to use the fingerprint reading Touch ID. Apple went further and came up with a new update, iOS 8.0.2 which would fix the problems arising from the use of iOS 8.0.1. Things like this happen; errors can bypass the testing system. It so happens that real problems do emerge in real situations so every issue cannot be predetermined and tested for possible solutions (Culbertson and Chen 2013). Sometimes the solution has been lightning quick, sometimes a bit lagged as was in the case of iCloud security breach. It is a brand that people have been made for, so much so that its new launches witnesses people being in tents for days to get their first hand on the products (Cutlip 2013). It has got very loyal customer base and Apple will do anything to hold onto it forever for people are the biggest strengths for ant organisation. Peoples belief in Apple brand is immense and it is in the hands of the company to strengthen that bond further with a little more detailing and care for its customers. Apples public relation campaigns are something that others can take a leaf or two out of it to have success. It teaches on how to successfully use PR techniques to create a buzz, and launch products with proper accomplishment and favorable reviews with consumer recognition (Grunig 2013). Apple has been a role model for many other firms of different sectors. Companies like this are examples for others to follow. Not every company has the potential to be in the same page with that of Apple but things can be better with a proper design or model of an organization whose success stories speaks for themselves. Conclusion: Apple Inc has been a market leader everywhere, not only in Australia only. It has had some issues but it has taken things in its stride, gone back to the drawing board and make things work again. Problems are related to its accounting, management and public relations but it is bound to be there because of its high tech submission, using the highest enterprise application software (Smith 2012). This report takes into account all the possibilities and situations that have been faced by the company over the years. Apple has been quick to react at times, like in case of iOS 8, and sometimes it was slow to start off like in case of iCloud breach of security. But it has come long years and taken giant steps to be in the place where it is now. Apple has been tactically good in partnering with SAP to make its device more powerful. These decisions have ensured it retains the position of market leader. Market and environment will always present challenges, but it is the ability of the firm to turn those challenges into success and move along. Apple has kept things compact and it has not changed those successful techniques even after being highly successful. Apple has not been too loud when things have gone out of control, they have been holding things tight, and with the excellent talent at their bay its always easy to come back strong. Tim Cook has been instrumental after Steve Jobs in carrying on the good work. References: Apple (Australia). (2016).Business. [online] Available at: https://www.apple.com/au/business/ [Accessed 24 Aug. 2016]. Apple (Australia). (2016).Labour Human Rights - Supplier Responsibility - Apple (AU). [online] Available at: https://www.apple.com/au/supplier-responsibility/labor-and-human-rights/ [Accessed 24 Aug. 2016]. Bebbington, J. and Larrinaga, C., 2014. 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