course material

1. response to classmate comments
Initial question:Select an organization and discuss their competitive advantage in the
context of value chain?My response:Competitive advantage refers to the conditions that set
a company at par in terms of the quality of goods or services they offer. Some companies do
significantly better than others at providing the same services as others, and this boils down
to their strategies and the quality of their services. One such company is Apple. Despite
there being so many technology companies, Apple stands out. It is one of the big four
technology companies that includes Facebook, Google, and Amazon. Apple stands out
because of its unique and quality design, brilliance in advertising, and the ability to think
differently.The one factor that makes Apple different from its competitors is its design
expertise. As said by former Apple executive Tony Fadell the company has got great design
principles. They aim at providing what other companies can’t. In simple terms, they are
always one step ahead of their competitors when it comes to design. In his Stanford
commencement speech, Steve talked about his love for calligraphy and how it inspired his
thoughts about design. Steve passed on his passion to his employees and embedded the
design DNA into them (Li, 2016). When it comes to design, Apple always thinks outside the
box and provides what other companies can’t. They always focus on making technology
better than it is by involving all the stakeholders (Thomke & Feinberg, 2009).Another
competitive advantage that Apple has is its brilliance in advertising. Most companies rely on
advertising either on social media or television, but apple has invested in influencers.
Instead of telling people how good their product is, they give the influential people
experience so that they could market them to their followers. Apple is also self-sufficient. It
owns its software, applications, and the operating system, all combined with their cloud
architecture. The uniqueness in the way apple operates sets them apart with other
companies.. This makes it the best in what it does as a company.Respond to this:Great job
answering the discussion question. Apple is a great company to discuss competitive
advantage in the context of value chain. Apple is the company my group is using as our
group assignment because of their many characteristics. They are always one step above
the rest, they make it a priority to create items people do not know that they need but once
they have them, it is difficult to operate day to day without. Another thing Apple is good at
as far as their marketing strategies is creating a vision. I remember when Apple released the
first iphone, they showed the vision many months before the release, but the vision drove
many to anticipate its release. In 2007 it was unheard of. News outlets showed videos of
people camped out for days to buy the $500 or $600 dollar phone per Dormehl (2019).