Analyzing Sustainable Approaches And Dynamic Capabilities Of Apple Inc

Sustainable Approaches

The report throws lights on analyzing the different approaches which are the potential aspects of an organization. The history of the methods along with suggested benefits and limitations have to identify. Strategic management is the continuous planning along with monitoring the assessment which is essential for meeting goals and objectives. A particular organization is required to be taken as an example as to analyze the implications of the approaches on the organization effectively. The organization which will be considered in the particular report is Apple Inc Company wherein the different sustainable approaches along with dynamic capabilities, and core competencies of the organization will be discussed appropriately.

Andriof et al. (2017), have commented that the sustainable approach in the business is related to the enterprise which has the minimal negative impact on the global or the local environment, community or society. It is defined as the business which strives to meet the triple bottom line approach, and such sustainable businesses have progressive human and environmental rights policies. In general, the business is considered viable and green which matches the following criteria:

• It has incorporated the different principles of sustainability in different business decisions
• It helps in supplying the different environment-friendly products along with services which assist in replacing demand for the different non-green products as well as services
• It has tried to make an enduring effort along with commitment towards the different environmental policies which are inclusive in business operations

While incorporating the sustainability in the business, it can help in providing various kinds of benefits which will deliver real benefits to the business operations conducted by the organization. The benefits which are inclusive are as follows:

It will be helpful in improving brand image along with competitive advantage as after the surveying 53000 US customers, more than 58% of the customers consider that the impact of the organization on the environment is regarded as consumers prefer to purchase goods and services from companies which practice sustainable aspects.

It will be increasing the ability of the business to comply with various regulations as there are a different state and federal government agencies which are enacting multiple rules and regulations as to protect the environment and improve the overall scenario.  

The major disadvantage of sustainable development is the fact wherein in the developing countries, starting of a new company is difficult, and it can frail as the company can encounter different resources which are environmentally friendly.

 Furthermore, by implementing the sustainable approach in the organization, it incurs the cost, and it is costly to create different goods and services in an environmentally safe manner (Bellantuono, Pontrandolfo and Scozzi 2016).

 The appropriate case which has developed a sustainable approach in the organization is Apple Inc. Apple strives to create different products which are environmentally friendly, and they are committed to protecting the planet. The various activities which are being undertaken by Apple are as follows:

Stakeholder Approach

Reduction of Waste and Recycling of Apple

• Apple tries in offering different recycling programs in 99% of the countries wherein it operates, and the organization has diverted 500 million pounds of electronic waste from the different landfills since the year 2008 (The Guardian 2019)
• In the year 2015, 99% of packaging of Apple has been done from recycled paper which is sourced from sustainably managed forests (Bourne 2016)
• Apple is working with 160 recycling organizations around the world, and in 2015, the company tried to collect 90 million pounds of the e-waste through recycling programs (Rothaermel 2015)

 In the year 2016, the large footprints of carbon were 29.5 billion metric tons in comparison to the other years. From the graph, it can be analysed that CO2 emissions per product are consistently decreasing during the last few years as to reach 97 kg in 2016.

Figure 1: Changes in the Emission of Carbon per product

(Source: Rowe, Besson and Hemon 2017)

Sustainable Sourcing at Apple

• More than 99% of the packaging is done by the wood fibre which is recycled
• Apple has partnered with The Conservation Fund as to protect 36000 acres of sustainable forest (Helfat and Peteraf, 2015)

The stakeholder approach suggests that the different managers should formulate along with implement processes which helps in satisfying the needs of the stakeholders as to ensure long-term profitability and success of the firm (Apple 2019). The particular approach is based on stakeholder theory which is the counterpart to understand the business and management which is focused on the satisfaction of the shareholders. The initial implementation of the approach which helps in reinforcing the values of the firm along with gaining competitive advantage (Girod and Whittington 2017).

There are various benefits of the stakeholder approach which is required to be analysed by the firms are as follows:

 The particular approach is being able to create a competitive advantage as it helps in creating a link between stakeholders and firms. In this aspect, the company will be able to maximise the different interests of the stakeholders such as customers, employees and the shareholders of the organization. The firm which follows the stakeholder approach will be receiving information which is required for satisfying the needs of the employees and making it easier to develop expertise (Wamba et al. 2017).

Furthermore, the firms which manage for the stakeholders are required to attract a high quality workforce as the job satisfaction among employees play vital role n fostering innovation in organization and gain competitive advantage. The reciprocity is the critical aspect of the overall approach wherein the stakeholders stay for the benefit, and it is defined as the utility function (Teece and Leih 2016).

On the other hand, there are different kinds of constraints which affect the overall stability of the firm negatively.

There can be the inclusion of divergent interests as when the company is trying to satisfy the different needs of the customers, it is becoming difficult, and it complicates the governance. It is time-consuming in engaging all parties, and the assumption has been critiqued as regarding inequality of the different resources along with negotiating power and time which is required (Li and Liu 2014).

Dynamic Capabilities

The other issue which can be seen is related to the overvaluing the customers as it has been suggested that the obtaining of the different information about utility functions of the stakeholders may produce various costs and it can exceed the benefits. There can be the inclusion of inequality among the distribution of resources and the negotiation of power and time which is required (Ferretti 2016).

In the case of Apple Inc, the most important stakeholders are the customers, employees of Apple, Investors and Employees of Distributors and Suppliers.

Customers- The stakeholder group comprises of organizational buyers and individuals of products of Apple. The primary interest of the customers in the market is to buy effective and efficient products which are priced reasonably. On the other hand, the premium strategy of Apple is being accepted as it matches high quality along with the aesthetics of the products. The organization has different environmental programs for recycling which is responsible for sourcing the needs of customers for the sustainability of the business (Eskerod and Jepsen 2016).

Employees of Apple- The employees are the second most priority of Apple towards the approach of CSR. The primary interest of employees is inclusive of career development and compensation. They are essential as they directly help in determining capabilities of human resources to develop profitable products. The CSR approach of Apple helps in satisfying the needs and interests of employees as the primary stakeholder group (Bouzon, Govindan and Rodriguez 2018).

Investors- The investors are major stakeholders along with determinants of the CSR programs in business. In the case of Apple, the investors play a significant role in maximising returns of the company.

The dynamic capabilities help in emphasizing on the overall ability which provides the ability to react appropriately and timely manner towards the external changes which are the combination of the multiple skills. Dynamic capability is the overall capability which helps in analysing the ability of the firm as to integrate and reconfigure the external and internal competencies as to address towards the rapidly changing environment (Gunarathne and Lee 2015).

Additionally, the ability to achieve the new forms of competitive advantage is referred to as the dynamic capabilities, and the main benefits of the dynamic capabilities are as follows:

• It requires the definite innovation which is responding to a situation which is the right time in entering in the market (Pisano 2017)
• Timing is vital in the case which will help in managing the overall efficiency
• When there are different swift changes in technological aspects, it can be analysed that market is ascertained and it becomes dynamic as this is vital in becoming a competitive advantage in the market

There are different limitations of dynamic capabilities which are as follows:

• There can be a limitation of the various resourcesin an organization which can result in less core competency of the organization
• The new organizations can lack in innovationin the different aspects which are being developed by them, and it can affect the overall dynamic capability of the firm

Apple is one of the best examples wherein the dynamic capabilities play a vital role in managing the different activities appropriately. The different dynamic skills of the firm are as follows:

• Innovation-The product innovation created values for Apple through delivering innovative products and services wherein they diversified the business by offering new software along with hardware along with new operating system (Helfat and Martin 2015)
• Leadership-The leadership is the other dynamic capability of Apple through the mixed combination of the style of administration such as benevolent and democratic.  
• User Friendly-The products of Apple are usually user friendly such as iPad and iPhone which are simple to learn along with it is useful for creating and the customer directions appropriately (Barney 2017).
• Human Resources-Apple has well-equipped employees along with executives from the different streams such as Hardware, software along with various engineers and the main reason behind the strong core competencies of Apple is the dynamic capability of human resources department of Apple Inc appropriately.
• Leverage and Diversification in New Markets-As to sustain the growth in the overall competitive business environment, Apple tried to follow the old strategy known as diversification and the diversification is in terms of relevant categories of the product which are being made by leveraging the brand value along with entering the new market appropriately to become more aware of the different new products and services

Case Study: Apple Inc.

From the dynamic capabilities of Apple, it can be analysed that Apple is one of the most active firms which have the sustainable approach in gaining strong stakeholder presence and become the most user-friendly company in the entire market.

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that the different approaches such as sustainable, stakeholders and the dynamic capabilities of the firm play a significant role in managing the various activities of the firm appropriately. From the dynamic capabilities, it can be identified that human resources play a significant role in maintaining the different operations appropriately along with managing the stakeholders in the organization which will be beneficial for the overall success of the firm effectively. Apple is one of the most successful organizations wherein they follow the sustainability-related practices as to become more competitive and gain a competitive advantage in the market.

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