Introduction
Apple Inc. is a technology company that operates in a competitive environment and requires creativity to navigate the dynamic niche. Some of Apple’s main competitors are Amazon, Samsung, Google, IBM, and Microsoft, which leverage social media technology to build mutual relationships with customers. Investment in research and development has been significant in Apple’s competitors and has made them more appealing to customers. Therefore, the incorporation intends to invest in Research and Development (R&D) to customize all the products to meet customer needs. An effective R&D is a prerequisite to creating a customer relationship, improving sales, and thus making the company more productive. The specific R&D project will conduct comprehensive research on customer preferences, choices, and cultural orientation (Al Mheiri et al., 2021). The research outcome would then cascade the company’s objectives to the customer’s needs by interacting with them and including their concerns in the design. The research project’s primary goal is to understand customers’ unique needs and use the data to prepare customized products to improve customer loyalty. The total funding required to complete the project is $2 billion.
Apple’s Direct Cost and Use of the Additional Funding
The budget should correspond to incorporations’ direct cost for effective operations. Apple has a working capital of $192.66 billion, labor costs of $67 billion, and supply costs of $65 billion. With a marketing cost of $500 million, an additional $2 billion to fund the research project will likely improve customer loyalty. Apple Inc. requires other field staff, technological researchers, and modern tools to align customers’ product needs. It is paramount to note that R&D is a substantial expense that can change Apple’s fortune by increasing sales and, subsequently, Return on Investment (ROI) (Robbers, 2020). Once the project is funded and succeeds, Apple will likely be one of the most successful technology companies. However, the funding source to provide finance for the project must be feasible and manageable for sustainability.
Upgrading Apple’s R&D requires active continental offices, which must be mandated to collect views, concerns, and opinions from customers worldwide. The continental heads will report directly to the R&D manager at the head office and inform him of the various needs of different parts of the world. The continental research heads will consequently require field officers in foreign markets, cultures, and legal requirements to penetrate such markets. Feedback from the continental researchers is further used to make decisions such as price discrimination and modification of the products. The projected funding for the R&D for Apple Inc. is $2 billion. The budget is slightly higher than most budgets slated by competing incorporations because the market is dynamic and legal requirements to penetrate different markets worldwide. The massive budget can explain Amazon’s significant customer loyalty since it spends on its R&D to align customers’ needs to the company’s products.
Breakdown of the Fund into Direct Costs
A budget set aside for R&D may not have a ripple effect on the organization’s profitability unless it is spent on the essential elements of the project with the highest levels of accountability. Since the project’s objective is to connect Apple Inc. to the global pool of customers, field officers to interact with the customers daily is needed (Yashin et al., 2021). The funding will entirely be spent on recruiting field officers, acquiring the latest technology devices to interact with customers, and coordinating the collection of customer views on a global platform. 34% of the total revenue ($0.68 billion) is used to institute regional offices to coordinate the data collection for the region and its required correspondence, known as the capital cost for the project. 35% ($0.70 billion) is further used for labor costs to hire field officers and train them on Apple’s goals to apply a universal approach. The remaining 31% ($0.62 billion) is helpful for the supply of materials to be used for data collection, evaluation, and reporting for effective decision-making.
Funding Options
Apple Inc. has different funding options that can be exploited to finance the project. Debt is one of the options that can help Apple advance its research and development to understand customers’ needs. The main concern and requirement for debt financing are for the company to have a sufficient flow of cash to pay the interest connected to the loan. It is prudent to note that an organization must have a positive debt history to qualify for the loan and debt financing. Apple Inc. qualifies for debt financing because it has all the requirements necessary for the loan (Yashin et al., 2021). The main risk for debt financing is the high-interest rate charged on the loans. Further, debt financing may narrow the chances of the organization borrowing in the future in case of a financial need.
Equity financing becomes handy whenever a company has an urgent need for money. Although Apple has established incorporation, external equity is an antidote to solving its financial problem using funds from external equity. External equity may involve the private placement of stock with the investors to assist in raising finances quickly. Apple Inc. is viable for external equity because its supply is highly valued in the stock exchange market at 172.46 USD. However, the risk of using external equity as a funding source is the economic risk as the market prices keep changing (Robbers, 2020). Further, the political risks in the global realm may lead to changes in the market value hence making the company unable to pay for its debts.
Internal equity is another option where an organization plows back its profits to be used in the project. The primary qualification needed to advance the funding I whether the company has enough revenue to fund the project. Apple Inc. has an adequate income to be plowed back into the business. The main risk of internal equity as a funding source is the loss of control and ownership because deducting forty billion from the internal source means a significant amount of power is lost (Yashin et al., 2021). Further, internal equity is not permissible for long-term projects.
Appropriate Funding Source for the Project
The most appropriate funding source for the project is 100% self-funding because the cash flow at Apple can fund the project. As of 09/30/2021, the current asset for the company was $62 billion, which means it can finance the project to avoid the limitation associated with other funding sources. The main advantage of self-funding is that it eradicates the additional interests and reduces the risk of insured overhead costs. The project will be funded entirely by internal equity from the incorporation of current assets. Further, self-funding helps the organization overcome the high APRs charged by banks and other external funding institutions.
Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) is an estimated rate at which a company is expected to pay back its securities. Since the project is 100% self-funded, the WACC is not calculated but extracted from the yahoo finance page because the budget allocation is already included in the figure. The WACC for Apple is 11.7%, meaning the investment must have a return of more than 11.7% (Jagwani et al., 2018). Apple has a positive rate of return, meaning that it can achieve the maximum outcome, especially after the project increases customer loyalty to the incorporation.
Simplified Apple’s Trading Profit and Loss Statement
The table below shows the projected profit and loss account for three years as the implementation of the R&D takes effect in the company. The base figures in the table are extracted from the financials and analysis tab on the website (Apple Inc. Financial Analysis in Yahoo Finance, 2022)
Table 1.1: Apple T, P&L statement, and three years projections
The projections for the three years result from the higher figures selected from the analysis tab on the yahoo finance website. The implications of the project, as stated in the analysis, offers a percentage growth of 6.40%, 7.06%, and 8.10% for the three years, respectively. Apple Inc. will likely increase its market base and financial capacities from the simplified trading profit and loss account. The exponential increase in revenue is the ripple effect of the intensive R&D which increases the number of customers subscribing to Apple’s products courtesy of customer satisfaction. The percentage rise in revenue and net profit results from the increase in customers, courtesy of the research conducted to customize products to meet customers’ needs.
Conclusion
The implementation of the project adds value to the company by incorporating customer’s views hence increasing sales. Since the field staff collect customer concerns and incorporate it to the designs, the customer loyalty and satisfaction increases and makes Apple Inc. a top rated brand. The value added by the project’s success has a ripple effect on the statement as the company experiences 7.30% increase in revenue, 8.75% increase in gross profit, and 7.82% in the net income (Apple Inc. Financial Analysis in Yahoo Finance, 2022). The project’s sustainability depends on the researchers’ creativity and how well they align customers’ needs to the company’s products.
References
Al Mheiri, R., Al Hosani, N., & Saif, E. (2021). Ratio analysis of Apple. Available at SSRN 3895231. Web.
Apple Inc. financial analysis in Yahoo Finance. (2022). Yahoo.Finance. Web.
Jagwani, J., Gupta, M., Sachdeva, H., & Singhal, A. (2018). Stock price forecasting using data from Yahoo Finance and analyzing seasonal and nonseasonal trends. In 2018 Second International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Control Systems (ICICCS) (pp. 462-467). IEEE. Web.
Robbers, A. (2020). Equity financing of start-ups: An analysis of sources with a focus on crowdfunding. Web.
Yashin, S. N., Koshelev, E. V., Yagunova, N. A., Kuznetsov, V. P., & Romanovskaya, E. V. (2021). The weighted average cost of capital for the analysis of innovative projects integrated into the company. In Economic Issues of Social Entrepreneurship (pp. 103-111). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.