Strategic management essay on: SAFe Analysis of Apple’s Strategy

In the year 2001, Apple declared its Digital Hub strategy in its financial report; the strategy envisioned Apple Mac at the centre of a wide range of consumer electronics like digital music players, personal digital assistants and gaming consoles etc. This strategy has proved to be extremely useful for the company because after 2001 Apple never looked back. Digital hub strategy met all the three parameters; it was able to identify the opportunity in the digital music player market (suitability), the returns were much more than expected (acceptability) and the constant research and development did not drain the company’s resources  (Feasibility) .

Apple’s current strategy revolves around identifying opportunities and meeting them innovatively. This strategy is evident in the launch of IPhone, it is not that touch screen phones were not available in the market; on the contrary the market was flooded with many touch screen models. Apple launched IPhone when the mobile phone industry was at a standstill; there was no new technology in the market. The company again successfully identified the void in the market and introduced a highly innovative product. Iphone exceeded all expectations and became immensely popular; the success of Ipod also gave considerable help to Iphone. Apple’s ability to combine the powers of hardware and software has given it competitive edge over other companies.  (Ireland, Hoskisson, & Hitt, 2009)

SAFe Analysis of Sony’s Strategy

Sony’s strategy involves massive reorganisation and restructuring. Howard Stringer, the first non Japanese CEO of Sony identified five main challenges faced by the company 1) silo culture 2) decreasing profitability 3) lagging in technology 4) No software to backup hardware 5) non profitable investments.

 The restructuring strategy devised by Stringer aimed to mitigate these challenges. On evaluating Stringer’s strategy it can be deciphered that it met all the three parameters, it was suitable since it was the need of the hour, the stakeholders were desperate to see results (acceptability) and it was feasible since it was the only way to sustain the company. (Chang, 2008) Unfortunately, Stringer failed in his attempts to revive Sony.

Kazuo Hirai, the man who reinstated the gaming division of Sony has been appointed as the new CEO of Sony Corp. Hirai is determined to take some painful steps in order to bring back the lost glory. He aims to weed out all non profitable business units and undertake heavy cost cutting since the company is in a financial crunch. It goes without saying that a lot of people will lose their jobs; however, the question is can company survive another brutal restructuring.

Challenges in Implementing Strategies

The imminent challenge for Apple is whether it will be able to maintain its winning streak. Apple has set very high standards for itself, if the company introduces a new product it has to be ground breaking or else the customers will get disappointed. Meeting such high expectations is one of the major challenges faced by the company. Popular notion is that Steve Jobs is responsible for bringing all the fortune to the company; under his able guidance the company rolled out products like Ipod, Iphone, Ipad, and Macbook etc. The second challenge is to thrive without Steve jobs; the growing competition from Nokia, RIM and HP etc does not make the task easier.

As stated before, the biggest challenge in front of Sony Corp is to survive another attempt at restructuring by Kazuo Hirai. The company has been in the mode of restricting since 2005 and no plausible results have been achieved so far. These remedial actions also cost a lot to the company which is why the imminent challenge is to get out of the debacle.

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