Apple Samsung Huawei Smartphones Research Paper

Business Comparisons

The cell phone manufacturer business is a global industry. It is a large and rapidly-evolving industry where few companies can maintain a high profile in the industry for an extended period of time. Some of the major players in the industry today are Samsung, Apple and Huawei, with 21.4, 13.9 and 8.7% share of the market respectively (IDC, 2015). These companies are all in different countries, and all have different cultural elements that make them unique. This paper will look at the differences between these companies.

Models of Culture

One of the models of culture that is common is the Hofstede model, which sees culture as a bridge between human nature and personality. So an organizational culture is a reflection of that -- the culture defines the organization, distinguishes it from other organizations and is something that helps the organization to function in a specific way (Hofstede, 1991). Apple has an organizational culture that is built on being trend-leaders. The people within the company recognize that they are the only vertically-integrated company in the business, and this is something that makes them distinct. Other companies do hardware, not operating systems, but Apple does both. Thus, there is a focus on innovative features, and things like design being highly important to Apple. The company also is known for a culture where decisions are centrally-controlled and highly secretive, but there is also a high level of buy-in from the people that work there.

Samsung's culture is rooted in traditional Korean business culture. The company is hierarchical, and things like promotion has traditionally been based on seniority. But one of the things that distinguishes Samsung from other Asian electronics companies is that it is trying to build more creativity into the culture. Samsung recognizes that creativity is a key element and source of competitive advantage in the consumer electronics business, so has aimed to bring that element into the context of the company's culture (Samsung, 2008). This has allowed it to become the market leader in handsets, and one of the great innovators in the industry.

Huawei is a relatively young company based in mainland China. While it has traditionally been focused on the low end of the market, it has become the third-largest company in this industry. Huawei has several key elements to its organizational culture. First, it has a high degree of loyalty among its workers, something that Apple and Samsung also have. This allows organizational knowledge to be more effectively captured. Further, there are fewer disruptions in terms of projects, because there is continuity of personnel. Huawei has also created a culture that is customer-focused. This is credited with them being able to deliver products that meet customer needs, and they are among the most customer-focused of Chinese companies (de Cremer & Tao, 2015). The ability to focus on the long-term has allowed Huawei to grow its worldwide business, because there was a lot of planning and strategy to build a long-run growth model to take the company from nothing to becoming an industry leader in just a few years.

Economic System

These countries all run on different economic systems. Apple has the American system which emphasizes creating opportunity by removing barriers to business. Apple takes advantage of the factor inputs into terms of talent that are available in Silicon Valley, but then uses offshore production in China to save costs on that side. This system fosters innovation because it lowers the costs associated with taking on risk. The Korean and Chinese systems are quite different. The Korean system is…