ARTICLE TEMPLATE
FIRM NAME/EVENT: Apple
SOURCE: CNN
ARTICLE SUMMARY
This article explores Apple Inc’s current retail strategy by identifying its flaws and recommends the most appropriate changes. The author cites the stepping down of the company’s CEO and the flagship product iPhone’s slump performance as the main challenges facing the firm. Despite these flaws, the author holds that the company can capitalize on its strategic stores to create a competitive advantage. The article claims that the company built its stores primarily as shows rooms for the leading brands where customers can test the new products. The challenges facing the product, therefore, makes these stores redundant. The report further asserts that customers avoid older devices and clinging to their old gadgets, hence further plunging the firm into a sales and revenue crisis.
The departure of the CEO and the low iPhone sales, therefore, necessitated the retails sales reviews to reflect the “changing franchise,” said Daniel, one of the company’s top analysts. The report also underscores the importance of the company’s sales stores by claiming that they constitute more than 25% of the total revenues (Meyersohn, 2019).
RELEVANCE TO STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
The article relates to some of the most significant strategic management aspects. Market assessment and reviews are the most important elements addressed in the report that relate to strategic management. The resignation from the CEO and the dwindling iPhone sales required a risk assessment to address the changes and their potential impacts on the organization. Among the areas of review that need is restructuring the store to reflect the new products’ image. Ives holds that “Apple needs a retail strategy that uses stores to showcase the company’s future” Meyersohn, 2019), which means that the company had to change its approach by displaying fewer iPads and iPhones while increasing its original content.
References
Meyersohn, N. (2019). Apple needs a new retail strategy. CNN. Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/08/business/apple-stores-angela-ahrendts-iphone/index.html