Reference no: EM133202335 , Length: Word count: 2 Pages

Assignment Task: Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:

Consider a company with which you are familiar. Discuss what might be in the organizations external, general, or industry environment that would influence strategic planning for that company.

1. What is a key suggestion you would make for your organization to improve its internal environment (if needed)?

2. To answer this week's question, I am choosing Apple, Inc. I will focus on external influences that will affect their strategic planning process. For example, Apple's market is highly competitive, with a customer base that is always looking for more advance technology in their products. So for Apple, developing new products to stay relevant and sought after, is the biggest external force that is driving their strategic planning. Although, they are currently the industry leader, their competitors are closing the gap in technology and product development. Some competitors have actually introduced technologies in their product line that Apple has not implemented.

The next external factor driving Apple's strategic planning is labor cost. Apple is an global company and they face the impact of growing labor cost in several countries. For instance, Apple has a large presence in China and during peak seasons the factories have to hire more employees. The problem is China also has a lot of other companies with factories also looking for employees. This means that Apple has to be wage competitive in order to attract employees and during peak seasons. So Apple has to strategically decide when to release new products and where manufacturing will take place.

3. There can be internal and external factors that may affect an organization's way of strategic planning. It is essential to implement strategies that strengthen the company's competitive advantages to support continued growth worldwide, but also very important to know what are these factors that can be focused on. Take for example, a company that we are all very familiar with, Facebook, Inc. These external factors can require Facebook to address issues in the industry, specifically political and technological factors. "Strategic alignment with the conditions of the industry environment helps in satisfying Facebook's corporate vision and mission statements, especially in providing effective tools for communication in the global social networking market" (Young, 2018). For example, Facebook could suffer from political barriers in China. The company's potential global growth is limited because of Chinese censorship. This external factor can slow down the company's growth so in order to strategically improve this; Facebook must enhance data privacy and security, and continue negotiating with the Chinese government to open up the display advertising market in the country.

Reference:

Young, J. (2018, June 14). Facebook Inc. PESTEL/PESTLE Analysis & Recommendations.