The Competitive Global Market and Change - Research Paper Example

Moreover, the report will also attempt to identify the benefits or drawbacks witnessed by Apple and its employees due to the affect of globalisation. Different Countries Involved Besides, its headquarters in United States, Apple majorly operates in various other countries, such as United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Canada, Italy, China, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, France and Netherlands among others. More than 350 Apple stores are established all over the countries across the world (Apple Inc, 2012).

Thus, its focus on the development of supply chains and major partners in the business is necessary in order to maintain sustainability in the global markets. Utilization of Outsourcing In the late 2000s, Apple decided to outsource its products from various countries where raw materials are available at cheaper rates. The motive behind outsourcing is to earn significant margin of profit while experimenting in developing creative products. A report by New York Times revealed that 90 percent of raw materials used in Apple’s iPhones are manufactured abroad and are outsourced.

Major sections, such as display panels and circuitry from Taiwan and Korea, advanced semiconductors from Germany, chipsets from Europe, memory from Japan and Korea and uncommon metals from Asia and Africa which are later assembled and packaged in China. Technological companies depend upon the availability of low-cost materials and therefore, focus on countries that provide the advantage. The outsourcing strategy gained the momentum of growth and subsequently, Apple earned a considerable amount of profit strengthening its foothold in the global markets (Duhigg & Bradsher, 2012).

Benefits of Globalisation Similar to many other multinational companies, Apple has benefitted by a large extent due to globalisation. The company shifted most of its production unit jobs to countries where cheaper workforces are available along with legal support and favourable economic conditions. This has been evident by a report that revealed only 13,920 employees are associated with the company’s US based plant compared to 27,250 employees working at other countries, i.e. nearly twice more than US.

The report further revealed that the American employees took over approximately US $750 million whereas; workers employed abroad took only US $320 million. Thus, the comparison in cost related to wages can be identified as almost double in US compared to abroad (Freeland, 2011). Globalisation has also resulted in the inflow of creative talents from across the world, to which the company gives prime importance. The incredible talents in Apple are encouraged in various ways to develop products that are unique in its class acting as a ‘trend setter’ in the industry.

These engineers earn healthy paycheques from the company which are being supported by the cheap costs incurred by the bottom-line employees working abroad (Freeland, 2011). Drawbacks Due to Globalisation Steve Jobs’ main target behind the incorporation of Apple was to become the leader of the industry in terms of creative products. His aim was to dominate the market in regards to sales and have a partially monopolistic environment prevailing in the global markets. However, due to globalisation many competitor brands have used the strategy of manufacturing abroad and reap equal benefits in terms of cheap labour and raw materials.

Therefore, the