Introduction
There are a lot of examples in the history of business, when profound research of the market and social needs earned profits for the company or, even saved it from bankruptcy. It is crucial for business corporations to analyze the external environment for a better understanding of their impact on the incomes of the company. One of the well-known stories of great success is linked to the internationally known company Apple. The most complicated aspect of every significant innovation lays in the embedding of new technologies that are always high-risk. An innovative way of the development of Apple company started with big losses. Old strategies were overused and lost their effectiveness in the new economic climate. Today Apple is one of the leading American companies. It provides hardware products, Internet services, software, personal computers, and electronic devices. Apple is one of the largest information technology enterprises. The most famous Apple hardware products are the Mac computers, the iPods, the iPhones, the iPads, and the Apple Watch. Apple also produces high-quality advanced online services, such as iCloud, the iTunes Store, and the App Store. Among software products, provided by Apple are OS X and iOS operating systems, iTunes, Safari, and iLife, and iWork.
Main body
There are two key factors in the organization’s external environment that can affect its success. First, the technological factor influences the design of new products, the quality of the communication, and commercial transactions conducted electronically on the Internet. The second critical factor is economic changes. Economic changes, such as material price changes, investor wealth, consumer confidence, international economic conditions, inflation, Internet rates, exchange rate changes, interest rates, have an impact on Apple’s success (Cronin, 2010). A company should determine the difference between the product customer needs and the product that he receives. Very often the client doesn’t understand his personal expectations thus manufacturers should provide people with the information he needs subconsciously. Personal approach and intensive contact with consumers are significant factors for the achievement of this goal (Wulfen, 2011). One more efficient way to enlarge the incomes is to suggest more innovative services than the competition. For a long time, Apple didn’t want to license the new technology, they decided to develop it internally. Their products were available to the target market, but they didn’t reach the mass market. Then, after the IBM creation, they licensed their innovation; it caused the appearance of the analogs, produced by the competitors (Corsi & Dulieu, 2013). It is one of the factors in an organization’s external environment that can influence its success. It is rather complicated to foresee the intentions of the business rivals. Second, due to its constant innovative development, Apple had interesting offers for customers. People always tend to buy some totally new, advanced products from the approved producer.
There are various ways in which the stakeholders affect the company’s income. First, employees, tell the customers about the advantages of Apple products, which increased the profits of the company by 24 %. Due to the enlargement of the profits, Apple has more money for the production of new devices. Second, the above mentioned, customer’s needs. If a buyer does not need the products, the company produces, the business would suffer greatly. Thus, customers are also the stakeholders that influence organizational performance. They give a necessary impulse to the producer to provide better products and services, as customers are the primary reviewer of the products. Third, Apple’s suppliers provide the necessary materials to manufacture and design the products. They also supply the equipment for the development of advanced technologies. It also influences the organization’s financial performance. Fourth, Apple’s owners put their money into this business thus affecting the incomes of the company. Fifth, competitors affect the financial performance of the enterprise. Creating new high-quality products, motivate Apple to produce more and more innovative output for customers. It also has an influence on the profits of the company.
One of the controversial corporate social responsibility concerns was around the workplace conditions at Apple’s Chinese suppliers. People were dissatisfied with 24-hour shifts, overcrowded dormitories, the use of toxicants, and explosions. Moreover, Apple is not responsible for workplace conditions in Chinese factories. When customers got to know about the conditions of the production of Apple devices, they appealed to society to boycott goods, provided by Apple. However, some experts concluded that boycott was unnecessary because the terms and conditions of the work in Chinese factories are determined not by Apple, but by the economic climate in the country. The increased attention to the conflict around Apple was due to the rising success of Apple products all over the world. The experts claimed that the conditions of the workplaces of other companies were the same.
In spite of all, Apple remains the pioneer of the new era of computer technology. Its contribution to the development of electronic devices and wireless services is invaluable. The inventory approach to doing business is one of the main factors of Apple’s popularity all over the world. Apple advances every year in the expanding of the product range. It creates new services and opportunities for buyers. Each new product from Apple becomes a real sensation in the world of electronic technology. One of the main tasks for every developing company is to show itself from the best side. Apple manages it professionally. There are some tools and strategies to prove the reliability of the enterprise. Ethical problems are a part of daily life thus ethical challenges are not alien to the business world. One of the key points of commercial success is the ability of the firm to follow all the moral standards. There are various ethical challenges affecting the multiple functions of the business. Of course, there is no business without interaction. Managers should decide on how to form up leadership, staff, external stakeholder, supplier, customer, competitor relationships. Human factor influences the process of the development of these relationships significantly. The reputation of the company highly depends on the business ethics of the enterprise. It is of great significance to provide the employees with good wages, to report to the employees their daily work content, to implicate the staff in the adoption of important corporate solutions. These simple moral standards motivate and stimulate the workers to achieve good results. Non-observance of the corporate moral rules from both sides makes the work process more challenging and less resulting. The friendly atmosphere at the workplace creates lasting organizational relationships.
Conclusion
Only interaction of all the aspects, influencing the business society relations, can make this cooperation less problematical and more advantageous for all the participants of the process.
Business-society interaction is a compound system of ethical, social, environmental, and economic aspects. The primary goal of the business is to serve the needs of society. Business experts should carefully analyze all current tendencies and trends in society to understand beneficial and loss-making perspectives. Commercial success is rather unstable; it depends heavily on public criticism. Often serious industrial corporations become the primary target of social criticism because of their influence on environmental and climate changes. Air, solid, and water waste contaminations breed the basis for long-lasting conflict between entrepreneurs and society. Beyond reasonable doubt, some small firms, for example, insurance companies, pose no direct threat to the ecology or human health (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2015). Society is very sensitive to all the stressful aspects of the interaction with business. All ethical, social, or environmental challenges and violations of companies get into the field of public vision.
Reference
Carroll, A., & Buchholtz, A. (2015). Business and Society: Ethics, Sustainability, and Stakeholder Management. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Corsi, P., & Dulieu, M. (2013). The marketing of technology intensive products and services. London: Wiley.
Cronin, M. (2010). Smart products, smarter services. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wulfen, G. (2011). Creating innovative products and services. Farnham, Surrey: Gower Pub.