Competitive Strategy of Amazon and Apple Inc-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Competitive Strategy of Amazon and Apple Inc. Answer: Amazon Amazon is an e-commerce site which is the largest retailer in the world based on the internet with respect to sales and market capitalization. Any type of business cannot continue to function in the same way forever. As the time changes the conditions of the business have also been restructured and the strategies are planned for keeping their business on track. So here, lets have a quick look at how the business of the firm Amazon has restructured their business strategies for expanding as the biggest online retailer and this is the reason why I have selected this company since it is excelling in its respective field at present in the market (Huo et al., 2014). The generic corporate strategy of Amazon can be defined as the concentric diversification. This strategy of the firm is mainly based on leveraging the capabilities of technology for the success of the business and it also follows the cost leadership strategy which is aimed at offering the supreme value to their customers at the lowest price along with wrapping their business around the customer so that they find Amazon as the first go-to the portal site if choosing to shop online. However, the strategy that is chosen by Amazon has paid off well for them as it can be noticed from the fact that it is the largest online retailer all over the world and constantly it has been the leader in the market place in which ever it is operating (Acquaah Agyapong, 2015). Amazon is considered to be one of the leaders that are pushing innovative new models in the business. Firstly, it has created the online market for bookstore by focusing on the long range selection at low pricing later it has expa nded the site with various other products. A small merchant marketplace has been added by them, later, which eventually grew and started giving new and used offerings apart from their own and some of the competitive offerings are also fulfilled (Jayawardhana Weerawardena, 2014). With Amazon web services they have expanded their core capabilities of infrastructure into a separate platform. With the help of the Kindle, it has given the chance of downloading the digital book. Amazon requires expanding globally in order to grow quickly and for actualizing the scales of the economy along with the leveraging synergies. In doing so it has to do the CAGE framework for international trading in a comprehensive manner. Although the current business model of Amazon is catering the needs of the global audience as a part of cultural and geographic segments it has to setup the local portals in those particular countries where ever it wants to expand. For example, at present Amazon is having some dedicated portals in most of the countries along with India, while this kind of model can be followed by the organization in various other countries as well (Block et al., 2015). In addition to this for doing CAGE framework, Glocal approach should be adopted by it where ever the fundamental global delivery model has been adapted as per the local conditions, hence representing the merging of both local and global or Glocal (Mitra, 2016). Apple Inc. Apple is a multinational organization which is involved in designing, developing and selling the consumer electronics, online services, and computer software. Everyone is aware that Apple is the company that is most valuable in the whole world (Parnell, Long Lester, 2015). This organization not only has the largest market cap, but for the first time, it also has got the largest sales, highest profits, and assets when compared with the biggest technology companies in the world. This is the reason why I have selected Apple Inc. as the example company for discussing the business strategies, CAGE framework, and business model innovation methods that are adapted by this firm. The business strategy that is followed by Apple can be characterized as the vertical integration as the company is having the advanced technical expertise in hardware, software, and services altogether at the same time. The major factor that has set Apple from the competition is the adoption of vertical integration as it was benefiting them from all the aspects. As per the business strategy of Apple Inc., it has adapted the advanced capabilities and features with respect to its services and products on the basis of competitive advantage. The list of business model innovations that have been introduced by Apple Inc. includes the introduction of iPad which is the first device made for storing thousands of songs, the first computer with graphical user interface and the launching of the iMac (Walker Madsen, 2016). In the market, Apple iTunes such as an iPod is not the first product to purchase music online from them, but the innovated model of business for selling more iPods it has been enabled by downloading a single song for 99 cents and apart from this all the restrictions for listening has been removed which were there previously. The other new innovative model was with the iPhone and App Store but not in the form of products first, but it has created an app ecosystem which was to manage external to the mobile operators (Wright, 2014). This was done to sell a number of iPhones. The CAGE framework analysis for international trading has been absolutely followed by Apple Inc. by exploring the culture and geographical system in the respective countries. The international trade has been designed as the part of the business strategy where it has classified it as the product differentiation with regards to functionality and designing (Parnell, Long Lester, 2015). The business strategy of Apple also includes structuring and expanding its business in retail and online stores along with the distribution network of third party associates for reaching more number of cust omers effectively and also providing high-quality sales, in addition, to support experience after sales to them. Apple has continued in expanding its platform as a part of its business strategy and business model innovation in the discovery and delivery of the digital content and applications of the third party with the help of iTunes store. An expansion of organization in international markets through CAGE framework intensively is another important aspect of its place in the market. As per the strategic framework of Apple, it has created an ecosystem of switching costs for its customers internationally. References Acquaah, M. and Agyapong, A., 2015. The relationship between competitive strategy and firm performance in micro and small businesses in Ghana: The moderating role of managerial and marketing capabilities. Africa Journal of Management, 1(2), pp.172-193. Block, J.H., Kohn, K., Miller, D. and Ullrich, K., 2015. Necessity entrepreneurship and competitive strategy. Small Business Economics, 44(1), pp.37-54. Jayawardhana, K. and Weerawardena, J., 2014. Conceptualizing the Role of Market Learning in Social Innovation-Based Competitive Strategy. Huo, B., Qi, Y., Wang, Z. and Zhao, X., 2014. The impact of supply chain integration on firm performance: The moderating role of competitive strategy. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 19(4), pp.369-384. Mitra, S., 2016. Models to explore remanufacturing as a competitive strategy under duopoly. Omega, 59, pp.215-227. Parnell, J.A., Long, Z. and Lester, D., 2015. Competitive strategy, capabilities and uncertainty in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in China and the United States. Management Decision, 53(2), pp.402-431. Walker, G. and Madsen, T.L., 2016. Modern competitive strategy. McGraw-Hill Education. Wright, S. ed., 2014. Competitive intelligence, analysis and strategy: Creating organisational agility. Routledge.