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CUEGIS Assignment #2
Change refers to the adaptation of business objectives, strategies and
operations to accommodate changes, this can be caused be external or
internal factors. Ethics are the socially accepted moral principles that guide
decision-making, based on the collective belief of right and wrong, and we'll
be looking at how Apple as a business jumps these hurdles of ethical issues
and improves as a business and uses change in the smartphone industry to
their advantage and battle government restrictions in this essay. Apple is one
of the most richest and largest tech companies in the world, with a net worth
larger than the united states government of 2 trillion dollars. They dominate in
the tech industry by selling a wide range of computers, smartphones and
accessories.
To emphasize on how apple has been involved in the ethical concern of the ill-
treatment of one of their stakeholders, the employees of its primary
contractor, Foxconn in China and their human rights violation, we'll look at a
few examples of ethical issues that Apple faces with the working conditions
and wages of their supplier chain; Klowden 2006 stated that since 2006,
Apple has come under heavy criticism for obtaining components from
producers that do not have a good reputation, when it comes to employment
conditions. It was affirmed that the Apple workers were making as less as
US$50 a month, as they were working 15 hours a day. Apple is under
substantial pressure to locate the most minimal cost suppliers so they can
make the most out of their assembeled product, however the related dangers
are'nt appropriately evauluated against the investment funds that these
minimal effort providers give. On 23 January, the body of the 19-year-old Ma
Xiangqian was found before his high-rise dormitory of the Foxconn plant in
Guanlan. Police agents presumed that he had fallen from a high floor. Ma had
worked 11-hour medium-term shifts, seven evenings every week, producing
plastic and metal amid vapor and residue, until the point that he was
downgraded to cleaning toilets after a debate with his manager. His wage slip
demonstrated that he worked 286 h in the prior month he kicked the bucket,
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including 112 h of extra time, multiple times as far as possible in China. in May
2011, an explosion at Foxconn in Chengdu caused three deaths and left many
harmed. The Chinese media revealed the impact was caused by the residue
that had been collected in the ventilation framework, being ignited off by a
defective wire. In December 2011, another explosion happened at RiTeng
Computer Accessory, a backup plant of Pegatron Corp, another of Apple's
Chinese providers, harming 61 laborers. In the two months previously, before
the first explosion happened, a non-profit association spoke with the Foxconn
laborers, and the workers complained that the cleaning department was filled
with aluminum dust and had poor ventilation. Apple finally began a provider
duty program in 2006, when it built up its Supplier Code of Conduct. From
that point forward the organization distributes a provider duty report yearly, in
which it makes its review findings open to the public. Apple states that it is ‘‘…
committed to ensuring that working conditions in our supply chain are safe,
workers are treated with respect and dignity, and manufacturing processes are
environmentally responsible'' and if the violation of the code of conduct is
triggered apple demands that the executing organization should tend to these
violations within 90 days, and should a supplier not meet apple's requests, the
business relationship is broken. The impact of these ethical concerns on the
employees are major, the wages and workingconditions are extreme and
inhumane which have affected the livelihood of the stakeholder. However
apple noticed this flaw in their supplier chain and set up its supplier code of
conduct, bettering the state of the stakeholder, and made sure they lived up to
their CSR.
To emphasise on how apple has used external factors of change to their
advantage, we're gonna look at some examples of how apple has followed
market trends instead of innovating and how it caters to be profitable while
fighting with the tariff and import duties of india; The ipad mini, one of apples
smaller sized tablets was a response to the other smaller tablets already on
the market. They also ignored the trend of having larger screen devices bigger
than the previous models released the previous year, where the iPhone 5 had a
larger screen than the iPhone 4 when it was released in 2012. In india, iPhones
are expensive and the market share of iPhones here is just 1 percent compared
to the 99 percent for the androids, after launching the iPhone 12 in 2020 they
cut prices of their older generation iPhone 11 by 20 thousand rupees which
made it very compelling the customers to buy. Added on to that they made it
a free purchase of the AirPods if a customer did buy the iPhone 11 in india
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which makes the deal even more attractive as that accessory costs around
150 $. Their online subscription based service called Apple One is also, 15
dollars cheaper in India compared to other countries like the united states
where they charge 20 dollars per month for a family subscription whereas only
5 dollars a month in India. Apple is also opening a factory in India to battle the
import and tariff duties issued by the government on their products so they
can make their smartphones more affordable as it'll be manufactured in the
borders of our country. Here we can see apple working against their
competitors and also government restrictions and taxes to be more
successful. They've been successful in following the right market trends and
trying to make their product more affordable to the end customer in most
regions while still being profitable. This has effected the customer as a
stakeholder, providing us another affordable choice to choose when we are
looking to buy a smartphone, and also providing us with a better more vast
range of products to deal with.
To conclude, ethical issues and concerns, change in the market, and
government restrictions has shaped apple's business model, its products, their
pricing, offers and deals and strategy. Apple was succesful with these changes
in their company. While many businesses die because of government
restrictions and innovation and change in the industry and public scrutiny of
ethical concerns, apple used this to their advantage, changed their business
model, policy and strategy and emerged as one of the leading tech
coporations in the world.
CUEGIS Assignment #2 3
