Overview:

The companies we have chosen for this particular project are Apple Inc. and Lenovo. Apple is as
the upper level company in information technology and Lenovo as lower level company. And I
have talked about what strategies should be used by Lenovo to get to the top level in information
technology.

WHAT IS BENCHMARKING?
Benchmarking is simply the process of measuring the performance of one's company against
the best in the same or another industry. Benchmarking is not a complex concept but it should
not be taken too lightly. Benchmarking is basically learning from others. It is using the
knowledge and the experience of others to improve the organization. It is analyzing the
performance and noting the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and assessing what
must be done to improve.

REASONS FOR BENCHMARKING

There are several reasons that benchmarking is becoming more commonly used in industry;

Benchmarking is a more efficient way to make improvements. Managers can eliminate

trial and error process improvements.
Practicing benchmarking focuses on tailoring existing processes to fit within the
organization.
Benchmarking speeds up organizations ability to make improvements.
Compare business practices with those of world class organizations
Challenge current practices and processes
Create improved goals and practices for the organization
Change the perspective of executives and managers.

History of Apple Inc.:

Apple Inc., formerly Apple Computer, Inc., is a multinational corporation that creates consumer
electronics, personal computers, servers, and computer software, and is a digital distributor of
media content. The company also has a chain of retail stores known as Apple Stores. Apple's
core product lines are the iPhone smart phone, iPad tablet computer, iPod portable media players,
and Macintosh computer line. Founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created Apple Computer
on April 1, 1976,[1] and incorporated the company on January 3, 1977, in Cupertino, California.
For more than three decades, Apple Computer was predominantly a manufacturer of personal
computers, including the Apple II, Macintosh, and Power Mac lines, but it faced rocky sales and
low market share during the 1990s. Jobs, who had been ousted from the company in 1985,
returned to Apple in 1996 after his company NeXT was bought by Apple. The following year he
became the company's interim CEO, which later became permanent. Jobs subsequently instilled

a new corporate philosophy of recognizable products and simple design, starting with
the original iMac in 1998.
With the introduction of the successful iPod music player in 2001 and iTunes Music Store in
2003, Apple established itself as a leader in the consumer electronics and media sales industries,
leading it to drop "Computer" from the company's name in 2007. The company is now also
known for its iOS range of smart phone, media player, and tablet computer products that began
with the iPhone, followed by the iPod Touch and then iPad. As of 30 June 2015, Apple was the
largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization, with an estimated value
of US$530 billion as of February 2016. Apple's worldwide annual revenue in 2010 totaled
US$65 billion, growing to US$127.8 billion in 2011 and $156 billion in 2012.

History of Lenovo:
Lenovo Group Ltd. is a Chinese multinational technology company with headquarters in Beijing,
China, and Morrisville, North Carolina, United States. It designs, develops, manufactures and
sells personal computers, tablet computers, smartphones, workstations, servers, electronic
storage devices, IT management software and smart televisions. In 2015, Lenovo was the world's
largest personal computer vendor by unit sales.It markets the ThinkPad line of notebook
computers, IdeaPad line of notebook laptops, IdeaCentre line of desktops, Yoga line of notebook
laptops, and the ThinkCentre line of desktops.
Lenovo has operations in more than 60 countries and sells its products in around 160 countries.
Lenovo's principal facilities are in Beijing, Morrisville and Singapore, with research centers in
Beijing, Morrisville, Shanghai,Shenzhen, Xiamen, Chengdu, Nanjing and Wuhan in China,
and Yamato in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It operates a joint venture with EMC, LenovoEMC,
which sells network-attached storage solutions. It also has a joint venture with NEC, Lenovo
NEC Holdings, which produces personal computers for the Japanese market.
Lenovo was founded in Beijing in 1984 as Legend and was incorporated in Hong Kong in 1988.
Lenovo acquired IBM's personal computer business in 2005 and agreed to acquire its Intel-based
server business in 2014. Lenovo entered the smartphone market in 2012 and as of 2014 is the
largest vendor of smartphones in Mainland China. In January 2014, Lenovo agreed to acquire the
mobile phone handset maker Motorola Mobility from Google, and in October 2014 the deal was
finalized.

Strategies that must be learn from Apple Inc.

If these strategies from Apple Inc. applied by Lenovo, they can be at the top level.
1. Ignore Your Critics
As an entrepreneur, youll hear a lot of people tell you that you need to reach out and figure out
what people want, which means listening to your critics, often times more patiently than youd
like.

Apple decides to flip the script and instead focus on building what they want to build, no matter
the perceived cost. When Steve Jobs debuted the iPad, the critics stood in line, throwing every
insult they could muster. The critics said that the iPad would fail. The numbers say otherwise.
Each and every time Apple decided to innovate, they were laughed at. They prevailed anyway.
Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Albert Einstein
2. Turn the Ordinary into Something Beautiful

For quite some time, PC fans enjoyed the work of buying their own parts and building their own
tower systems. At the same time, PC makers were building standard hardware for standard
applications.
Apple would have none of that.
Theyve been pioneering not only the features of standard operating systems and computer
systems, but simultaneously reinventing the design standards as well. As a result, we have the
gorgeous iMac, the beautiful new Macbook Air, and who could forget, the amazing iPhone 4.
Where others focus on one aspect of the equation, Apple focuses on the entire product, and it
shows.
3. Justify Your Price
Were in a time when pricing strategies are all over the place. People dont know what to charge,
and in many cases, prefer to race to the bottom instead of pricing strategically to a market that
can bear the cost.
Once more, Apple ignores the standard by not only pricing their technology more than 2x what
their competitors charge, but doing so without blinking. How can they get away with it?
Well, the answer is twofold:
1. They build beautiful products for an audience that loves them passionately.
2. They justify their price with features and benefits that cant be matched.
Since weve already hit point 1, lets work on #2.
No other computer can match the display of a 27 iMacit simply cant be done.
No other software can match what iTunes brings to the table.
No laptop is as thin as the Macbook Air.
No software is more intuitive, no product more valuable than the Apple product. Any other
smartphone looks like it was developed by rookies when compared to an iPhone 4. You simply
cannot compare the two.

Critics will play on the fact that the core features are the same, and they might be, but thats not
the point. The point is that Apple is the Rolls Royce of the technology and design world, and
their customers will gladly pay a premium because of it.
4. Communicate in the Language of Your Audience
It makes no sense to talk about things like megabytes, gigahertz, and processing power to
customers that simply dont care about technical jargon.
Take a look at any Apple product page and youll find that though they do discuss product
specifications and technical information, its hidden behind the benefits that their audience is
truly after.
Instead of display resolution, youll see phrases like edge to edge glass, retina display, and
LED backlighting.
Sure, the jargon is there for those that need it, but its presented in a way that makes you want to
learn about megapixels, rather than shy away from them. The art is in the copy, not in the
features.
5. Extend the Experience
Have you ever heard of an unboxing? I hadnt either until recently, when I learned that not only
was I not the only one keeping Apple packaging post-sale, but that there are legions of people
that record the actual process of unwrapping their newly purchased Apple products.
Do a search on YouTube and youll find hundreds of Apple unboxings, each from different users
from across the globe. Its pretty crazy right?
No one tells these people to video their experience, but they do it because the process is so Zen
that you cant help not to.
Apple does this by making sure that the experience doesnt end at the cash register. They take
great care in designing a user experience from browsing to unwrapping, which relies on
incredible packaging and installation procedures.
By reducing installation to the lowest common denominator, they make buying new products a
snap, and by spending as much time on designing packaging as they do on the products
themselves, theyve ensured that the box matches whats inside.
As a result, theyve built an experience that is nearly impossible to match.
6. Build a Tribe
Its no secret that Apple has built one of the most hardcore fan bases of any product and of any
time. Theres a reason theyre called fanboys.
But who cares, right? Most of the chatter is out of jealousy more than anything, but Apple
doesnt really care. They know that they serve an elite audience, and rather than back away from
that fact, they embrace it.

7. Become The Name

You dont buy tissues, you buy Kleenex.
You dont buy MP3 players, you buy an iPod.
You dont buy a smartphone, you buy an iPhone.
Have you noticed what theyre doing here? Apple isnt content with being a leader in sales alone,
they want to own the market itself, which explains why theyve engineered iTunes as the major
music provider that it is, and why the iPad, having the luxury of being the first, has now set the
trend for future tablet devices.
From here on out, everything will be compared to the iPad, iPhone, iPod, and iTunes. Sadly, this
sort of thing is tough to duplicate, but its not impossible. You need to have one of two things:
1. A clear head start in terms of being first to market.
2. A USP that differentiates your product in a way that makes people wish it were first.
The iPhone wasnt the first phone, but they engineered it to be so unique that you couldnt help
but think it was. The iMac isnt the first all in one, but it became the only one that mattered.
Its not so much the marketing angle that matters as it is the way that people identify with that
angle. Take a look at any Steve Jobs product release and youll watch as he tells you why every
other product in the market pales in comparison to what hes created.