A value chain defines all the activities carried out by a company that create value and enable the company to gain a competitive advantage. The value chain of Apple can be divided into five main primary activities, that is, inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, commercial, and service. In addition, there are support activities such as technology, personnel management, and procurement. Therefore, a value chain is made up of all the activities undertaken by an organization to provide finished goods and services to its customers (Wheelen et al., 2015). These activities include raw materials or components acquisition, value addition through manufacturing, distribution and sales of finished products, and provision of customer …show more content…
This includes all the activities geared at competitively sourcing for such components from multiple suppliers. Operations on the other hand encompass all the areas in which the company has manufacturing and or trading activities. These are currently divided into six main areas, that is, Americas, Europe, Greater China, Japan, rest of Asian Pacific, and retail or trading. Outbound logistics involves all the activities that are undertaken to ensure finished or work in progress inventories are kept at optimal levels such as transport and warehousing (Wheelen et al., 2015). The next component of the value chain of Apple, Inc. is commercial, this covers sales and marketing, that is, all the activities undertaken to avail products to the final consumer. The last component of the activities of the company is services, that is, all the activities undertaken to ensure good customer service is provided before, during, and after purchasing a product from Apple, …show more content…
At the same time this structure gives autonomy to various functions of the business to pursue and achieve the functions of the business. However, the organizational structure of Apple, Inc. limits the company’s flexibility and increases bureaucracy in decision making. This means that before execution, decisions have to go through multiple individuals before finally getting the approval of the executive and board of directors’ approval for