“I have a granite tile/paver in a dark grey colour. The air temp is 30 degrees celcius. The soil temp the paver sits on is 17 degrees. The paver is 1 inch thick. The sun is directly overhead (with an incident radiation of 1Kw/ square metre). The granite is a “mid grey” colour (use Pantone 432), the granite has a matt finish (hence low reflectivity & no shiny surfaces).The granite is dry.If needed, also use the below assumptions…Humidity of the air is 50%.Specific heat of granite is 800 J kg-1 K-1. Thermal conductivity (W/mK) of 3.5. Specific mass if needed is 3000 Kg/m3.How hot will the paver get on the surface that is facing the sun?Thanks.Indrik”

Complete 1 page APA formatted article: Discussion Board Reply Apple. Contemporary Management Techniques Contemporary management techniques The competition Apple is facing continues to grow and there is need to adopt different operating strategies to maintain the standards the company had set. While becoming a market leader in innovation might be easy, maintaining that position remains a fundamental challenge that apple will face in the coming years. The market leader in the smartphone market produces different products with a wide target market. Apple must focus efforts on expanding the target market and include the low end products meant for emerging markets in South America, Asia and Africa. Competitor organisations have gained significantly from focusing their production and selling products to these markets (Sher & Ramstad, 2013). Apple continues to limit its operations to the developed countries, but focusing on the other regions would also provide a platform for increasing the market share for the company (Reeves & Deimler, 2011).

The company needs to develop a long term plan for enhancing competition and ensuring continued success of the company products. With many competitors emerging within the market, the industry boundaries continue to blur, necessitating development of effective strategies to maintain Apple’s competitive advantage. While maintaining its differentiated, premium price strategy, Apple should also consider low-price, low margin approach for the emerging markets for sustainable competition (Reeves & Deimler, 2011). Despite the supply chain management approach for the company having ensured the effectiveness in maintaining a competitive advantage, there is need to integrate all the processes within the company to ensure the smooth operations in the supply of raw materials (Keller & Price, 2011).

References

Keller, S., & Price, C. (2011). Beyond performance: How great organizations build ultimate competitive advantage. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Reeves, M., & Deimler, M. (2011). Adaptability: The new competitive advantage. , 2011. Harvard Business Review2, 135–141. Retrieved from gaziantep.kuyap.org/PortalDesign/PortalControls/~~~~~~~~~/DocObjects/Download/308/Adaptability-The-New-Competitive-Advantage.pdf

Sher, I., & Ramstad, E. (2013, January). Has Apple Lost Its Cool to Samsung? Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://