Established in 1976, Apple has become one of the most successful corporations worldwide. Many of its internal and external analysis characteristics overlap with characteristics and factors presented by McKeown and Durkin in their book The Seven Principles of Digital Business Strategy. For example, the “Know Yourself” principle is applied to all decisions the company’s management makes, as they use their strengths, such as best structured software and exclusive hardware, to develop new products. Compliance to the second principle, “Know Your Customer”, is also evident in Apple’s pricing strategies (McKeown & Durkin, 2016, p. 19). Maintaining prices higher than the prices of the company’s competitors allows Apple to keep its products available to a limited number of consumers with high income, which also maintains the image of the brand. The third principle, “Competition”, is applied by the company as well, since it has been known to establish strong partnerships with some of its largest competitors, including AT&T and Google.
Apple also applies these principles the external analysis factors suggested by McKeown and Durkin. The company’s external strategies largely depend on its mission “to make personal computing accessible to each and every individual so as to help change the way we think, work, learn, and communicate” (Todorov, 2022, par. 4). Thus, Apple’s management puts major emphasis on the principles of analyzing their current position and implementing tactics to achieve desirable goals. It can be suggested that Apple is currently in the “Authority” position of the quadrant presented by McKeown and Durkin (2016), since it is considered to be one of the most powerful corporations (p. 25). It has the largest market cap, which means that it is considered to be the most valuable company on the stock market. In addition, its products are among the most diverse and innovative in the industry.
References
McKeown, N., & Durkin, M. (2016). The seven principles of digital business strategy. Business Expert Press.
Todorov, G. (2022). Apple mission statement – Understanding Apple’s mission statement for success! Learn Digital Marketing.