Globalization and Organizational Network Structure: Microsoft - Essay Example

? Globalization and Organizational Network Structure: Microsoft Table of Contents Introduction page 3 2. History of Microsoft page 4 3. Successful Business Strategies of Microsoft : page 6 4. Organizational Model of Microsoft : page 9 5. Microsoft and Outsourcing : page 10 6. Strategic Alliances of Microsoft : page 14 7. Conclusions : page 17 8. References : page 20 9. Appendix : page 23 Introduction Globalization, liberalization and privatization are some of the revolutionary principles which brought tremendous changes in global societies. Many of the traditional business concepts, political theories and economic principles were changed a lot as a result of globalization. When it first appeared in the world, globalization was watched suspiciously by many countries, especially the communist countries. Since it is originated in the western world, communist countries thought that it is an attempt by western countries to loot the resources of other countries. However, such concerns and doubts were only short lived and the potentials of globalization in stimulating economic growth were quickly realised by those countries. For example, China was distanced themselves from Globalization during the initial part of its introduction; however they are the number one exploiter of globalization at present. One of the major advantages of globalization is the increase in international business or cross cultural businesses. Most of the biggest companies were struggling to find enough space for expansion in their domestic circuits and globalization opened the doors of expansion widely to them. For example, Microsoft is one among the top three biggest companies in the world at present. Their monopoly in operating system market is unquestionable; however operating system market alone may not help Microsoft much in sustaining their supremacy in the global market. For example, recently, Apple pushed Microsoft behind and attained the second largest company spot in the world. Apple succeeded in doing so only because of their product diversification and expansion strategies. The above fact forced Microsoft to think in terms of diversification and expansion. At the same time, it was difficult for them to expand properly, concentrating only in the American market. Globalization has brought immense opportunities to Microsoft in foreign markets and they grabbed it with both hands. At present, Microsoft is operating in most parts of the world. China, India, Middle East etc are some of the Asian markets in which Microsoft is focussing more at present because of the tremendous business potentials in this region. It is believed that global wealth is slowly shifting from Europe and America to Asian countries because of globalization. In other words, trade tie ups with Asian countries are necessary for American and European countries and also for the organizations in these countries. Domestic business and international business are extremely different and the organizations which decide to enter overseas markets should make lot of changes in its business strategies, human resource management strategies, marketing strategies, network structure etc, before entering the foreign market. Microsoft has implemented lot of changes in its organizational network structure to make it more acceptable in the overseas market. This paper analyses how well Microsoft implemented changes in its network structure to enhance its busyness potentials in overseas markets, by analysing topics such as History of Microsoft, Successful Business Strategies of Microsoft, Organizational Model of Microsoft, Microsoft & Outsourcing, Strategic Alliances of Microsoft etc. History of Microsoft Perhaps Microsoft is the most popular company in the world and it needs no introduction at all in any part of the world. In fact Microsoft enjoys an absolute monopoly in the operating system market globally and no other company so far did succeed in raising any challenges to Microsoft’s supremacy in the personal computer operating system market. The founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates was a student in Harvard business school in the 1970’s. In 1975, before graduation Bill Gates left Harvard to form Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen. The pair planned to develop software for the newly emerging personal computer market. Bill Gates talked IBM into letting Microsoft retain the licensing rights to MS-DOS an operating system that IBM needed for their new personal computer. Gates proceeded to make a fortune from the licensing of MS-DOS. On November 10, 1983, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, Microsoft Corporation formally announced Microsoft Windows, a next-generation operating system (Bellis, 2011) Apple Computer was the major competitor for Microsoft at the time of its establishment. Apple was a dominant player in the operating system market at that time and its Macintosh operating system was popular among Apple computer users. Apple’s charismatic chairman Steve Jobs was a smart entrepreneur and the competition between Apple and Microsoft was labelled as the competition between two of the most prominent entrepreneurs in the world; Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates. The battle for supremacy between Jobs and Gates is still continuing and at the time of writing this paper Jobs seems to be having upper hand even though he had bitter experiences in 1990’s. The introduction of Window based operating system in 1980’s helped Microsoft to establish more in the market than Apple. A series of Window based operating systems such as 95, 98, 2000, XP, Vista, 7 etc followed in subsequent years after the introduction of Windows in 1983. These products helped Microsoft immensely in pushing Apple far behind in the operating system market. However, Apple bounced back in during the initial periods of 2000, with the introduction of its “i” series products such as iPhone, iPad, iPod, iTunes, iMac etc. At present Apple is the second largest company in the world as far as market capitalization is concerned. Moreover, Apple is accepted as the most valuable technology company in the world at present. Even though Microsoft is currently facing stiff competition from organizations such as Google, Apple, etc, its supremacy in operating system market remains stable still in the market. Microsoft is currently trying to establish collaboration with big companies like Yahoo, Amazon etc to compete effectively in the market with its competitors. Apart from operating system and application software, Microsoft is currently trying to expand its product portfolios with the help of new products such as Zune and Xbox etc. Successful Business Strategies of Microsoft One of the major challenges faced by Microsoft in the current era is the globalization challenges with respect to the ownership of source codes of its operating system, Windows. Linux, the major competitor of Microsoft is providing source codes to its users and moreover, it is a free software. On the other hand, Microsoft never allowed the users who purchased Windows to take control of the source codes developed by Microsoft Corporation. There are many legal battles going on in America with respect to the ownership of the source codes. It should be noted that internet explorer developed by Microsoft is compatible only in the window platform and remains useless in other operating system platforms. Same way, it is difficult for applications developed by other companies to run in Window based computers. It should be noted that Microsoft is enjoying absolute monopoly in the personal computer market at present and the PC users forced to purchase upgraded versions of Windows and other window based application software time to time. Microsoft will never provide the upgraded versions of their existing products free of cost even to their existing customers. Thus, Microsoft is utilizing its monopoly cleverly to exploit the market. Because of the above business strategy, Microsoft’s revenue from overseas market is almost same as that from the American market. Constant updating of existing technologies along with innovating new ones, enable Microsoft to overcome all the external challenges and function as smoothly as before. Another business strategy adopted by Microsoft is sustainability of business. Microsoft knows very well that it is difficult for a socially or environmentally uncommitted company to survive long in future. People rate companies with the help of the social and environmental commitments shown by the companies at present. Because of the above awareness it engages in lot of social and charitable works in communities where it operates. Microsoft owner, Bill Gates recently announced that he is going to spend a substantial portion of his earnings for charity works. Warren Buffet, one of the richest persons in the world, immediately announced his decision to assist gates in his endeavours of charity works. Microsoft has gained lot of popularity because of the above decision by its chairman. Since Microsoft is a technology driven company, it cannot keep a blind eye towards the technological developments happening in this world. The needs of the past generation and the needs of the present generation are extremely different and it is impossible for an organization like Microsoft to advance further if it struggles to keep in pace with the advancements in technology. So they are constantly updating their existing products to cater the needs of the current customers. Millions of dollars were spent by Microsoft to innovate new products and also to update existing products. Huge brand image helped Microsoft to acquire around 30 million customer base around the world. “Because of the conveniently placed main offices across the world, customers will be able to obtain proper services all the time” (SWOT Analysis of Microsoft, 2009). Globalization helped Microsoft to open business units in most of the regions of the world. Political or cultural differences never prevented Microsoft from establishing business units even in communist countries like China. Earlier, Microsoft concentrated more in the American and European region, since these regions were the richest regions in the world in the past. However, as a result of globalization, global wealth started to shift from these regions to the more heavily populated Asian region. Microsoft was able to sense the danger in concentrating more in Europe and America and started to focus more on Asian region. Thus, business units were established large in numbers in countries such as China, India, Middle East, Japan, Korea etc. Mode of entry in foreign markets is as important as the strategies formulated for international markets. Since Microsoft is a huge company, it does not need the common modes of internationalization of business such as merger or acquisition, Alliances or Joint Ventures, to enter into an overseas market. It makes use of the mode of Licencing to enter in foreign markets. “Several factors encourage companies to engage in licensing agreements: Licensing diffuses the technology and establishes it as the industry`s domi­nant standard. Licensing encourages others to use its technology so it can control the market or preempt rival technologies”(International Strategic Choices, 2011). Microsoft was able to establish monopoly in global operating system market because of the licensing strategy. Licensing strategy helped Microsoft to generate revenue even after the maturation of its products in international market. For example, Microsoft insists that each user should use a separate copy of Windows in his computer. In other words, Microsoft never allows a person with two computers to use a single copy of Windows on both of his computers. The user should purchase separate copies of Windows for each of his computers. It should be noted that in most of the countries, Microsoft uses the licensing mode to expand its business. This is simply because of the fact that Microsoft has no competitor at all in even in overseas market as far its main product operating system is concerned. Under such circumstances, other modes of entry are simply irrelevant at least in the case of Microsoft. Organizational Model of Microsoft Different organizations follow different models in their organizational and network structure. Activities such as as task allocation, coordination and supervision, etc are normally included under the category of organizational structure. Organizational structure or network structure is the mirror through which employees and various stakeholders see an organization and assess its performances. Divisional structure, matrix structure, hierarchical structure, bureaucratic structure, functional structure, matrix structure etc are some of the prominent organizational structures in the current business world. Microsoft is following a divisional organizational structure in which different divisions of the company is managed by different people under the chairmanship of Bill gates (See Appendix for more details). Divisional structure separates each organizational function from other functions. Each division may have its own sales, engineering and marketing departments. Divisions can be formed based on the functions and the regions of operations. For example, Microsoft has marketing division as well as divisions for Asian, American and European operations. Different divisions in the company are self-managed organizational entities with autonomy to take independent decisions for the betterment of the organization as a whole. In other words, Microsoft consists of several parallel teams which look after different portfolios of business independently. “Divisions work well because they allow a team to focus upon a single product or service, with a leadership structure that supports its major strategic objectives” (Gillikin, 2011). Divisional structure enables each Microsoft managers to concentrate only on the particular areas under their control instead of looking after everything related to the organization. Thus the workload of the managers will be considerably reduced in divisional structure and therefore the Microsoft mangers can work without much job related stress. The major disadvantage of division structure in an organization is the spreading of internal politics. Each division in the company may try to safeguard its own interests at the expense of the interests of other divisions or the organization as a whole. For example, it is quite possible that the marketing department or division may try to increase the sales by reducing the prices of the products. Such strategies will help the marketing division to increase its sales whereas the organization as a whole will suffer from that. Allocation of company resources to different divisions of the company can also develop politics internally. “For example, Microsoft's business-software division developed the Social Connector in Microsoft Office Outlook 2010. They were unable to integrate Microsoft SharePoint and Windows Live until months after Social Connector could interface with MySpace and LinkedIn”(Gillikin, 2011). Many people believe that this problem occurred as a result of internal politics inside Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft opted for divisional structure because of the nature of business it engaged in. Clear accountability, departmental cooperation, skill development, operations in unstable environments etc are some of the strengths of divisional structure. Microsoft needs all these features to manage its business successfully in different regions. Divisional structure is feasible only for large companies like Microsoft. The ability to respond quickly and meaningfully is the unique feature of divisional structure which motivated Microsoft to implement such a structure in its organization. Microsoft & Outsourcing Outsourcing is one of the major business strategy adopted by major organizations as part of their effort to improve its competitive power in the market. It should be noted that countries like India and China have huge manpower stocks and less opportunities whereas America and European countries have less manpower stocks and more opportunities. In other words, manpower supply in Asian countries is more than the actual demand whereas in the Western countries the manpower supply is inadequate for the demand. So, labour costs in Western countries are more compared to that in Asian countries. Thus, products manufactured in western countries are highly expensive compared to the similar products manufactured in Asian countries. Thus the competitive power of Asian countries is more than that of the Western countries in the current extremely globalized market. Western countries have realised that the only way to neutralise the edge of Asian countries in global market is to utilize the Asian labour market somehow. Thus the innovative business concept of outsourcing has entered the world. “Outsourcing is the process of shifting/delegating/transferring a service/process/function to a third-parties/external service provider which would otherwise be an in-house function/service/process”( Define Outsourcing - definition with meaning, 2011). Normally an organization can complete it works through outsourcing or insourcing. Generally speaking outsourcing is the process of completing a work with the help of another company. IT companies like Microsoft usually adopt outsourcing like business strategies to improve its competitive power in global markets. “Today, it has a complete end-to-end business process in the territory, employing over 4,000 people across six business units and investing heavily in the local infrastructure through its 'Realising India's Potential' Programme (Microsoft: Outsourcing as a Business Model, 2008). It should be noted that Microsoft can complete a project which is worth around $ 10000 in America for about $ 5000 in India, if it seeks the services of Indian IT professionals. India has many IT hubs in which the availability of IT professionals is large in number. In other words, India is a country in which IT professionals searching for jobs whereas America is a country which searches for IT professionals. Thus insourcing of IT jobs in America would be a costly affair for Microsoft when cheap labour is available in overseas countries. Overseas countries also help foreign companies by reducing the local taxes. Increased competitive power is another advantage of outsourcing. “Outsourcing can give your business a competitive advantage as you will be able to increase productivity in all the areas of your business” (The Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing, 2009). Microsoft can think in terms of taking works which are currently beyond their areas of expertise, with the help of IT experts in overseas countries. Moreover, it can increase its capacity to complete bulk amount of jobs in no time. It should be noted that through outsourcing, Microsoft can run faster than it normally does and new products can be developed at a rapid pace so that it can push its competitors far behind. Outsourcing will help Microsoft to keep only the required staff permanently and there is no need for it to keep more employees in off seasons. In other words, costs in nonproductive sectors are extremely small in Microsoft because of its increased desire to use outsourcing services to increase its competitiveness in global markets. “Microsoft on April 13, 2010 said that it has signed a deal with Indian outsourcer Infosys Technologies Ltd. to manage key parts of worldwide internal IT operations -- and hopefully cut IT costs” (Thibodeau, 2010). Infosys is one of the largest IT companies in India and the alliances with Infosys will definitely help Microsoft to utilize the cheap Indian IT manpower more judiciously. At the same time, outsourcing has certain limitations also. It should be noted that Microsoft should allow Infosys to access some of its private data to get proper services from Infosys as part of their outsourcing of jobs to Infosys. In other words, it is difficult for Microsoft to ensure the privacy of its sensitive data when it engages in outsourcing arrangements with Infosys like IT companies in India. Lack of control over organizational functions is another drawback of outsourcing of works. Better managerial control is the major advantage of insourcing over outsourcing. Microsoft will know more about the product only after it receives the product in the completed form. During the production stages, Microsoft cannot know more about the progress of the production or to make some suggestions or corrections in the development of the job. In some cases, severe communication problems can also take place between Microsoft and the outsourcee which may affect the timely completion of the work. “Security of the outsourcing provider's computer system is one area of concern. Another area of concern is unauthorized access to information, whether such access is by unauthorized personnel or use of the information in an unauthorized manner” (Greble & Millstein, 2003). “Upon entering the outsourcing relationship, the organization turns over all control of its information systems to the outsourcing firm. As a result, the organization's IT functions cannot be executed, nor can changes in technology be made, without the cooperation and participation of the outsourcing firm” (Wright, 2004). Security is the major factor of concern for Microsoft while it outsources its works. It should be noted that the competitors are interested in knowing the activities of Microsoft and they can easily obtain such information from the outsourcee. In fact, Apple, the major competitor of Microsoft is often blamed by others for the tight secrecy it keeps over its new product developments. On the other hand, Microsoft do not believe in keeping secrets and outsourcing of works make Microsoft much more transparent in its activities. “The relationship between an organization and its outsourcing firm is not considered to be fiduciary. Therefore, the outsourcing firm has no special obligation, legally, to the organization in terms of liabilities”(Wright, 2004). It is difficult for Microsoft to win a legal battle with an outsourcee since the outsourcee operates in a different country under different legal frame works. Outsourcing works normally completed based on mutual understandings, confidence or trust. Legal formalities may not have much control over outsourcing works as in the case of insourcing works. President Obama is a strong critic of outsourcing. He argues that outsourcing will result in increased capital flow from America to other countries which is not good for America’s economic progress. America is currently going through an extremely difficult economic climate and it is difficult for America to stay idle while the outflow of capital exceeds the inflow. “Microsoft has started to shift some of its operations from the U.S. to India, a move which could leave hundreds of American workers jobless”(Microsoft's India outsourcing raises protests, 2003). If Microsoft keeps on shifting their jobs to cheap labour oriented countries, Americans will struggle to find jobs in their country. On the other hand, outsourcing service providers like India, China etc will be benefitted immensely. If the trend continues in this way, Americans may force to go abroad for employment. “Worker unions have long protested against the trend of offshore outsourcing. Besides fears of job losses in the U.S., they have questioned the skill levels of foreign IT workers” (Microsoft's India outsourcing raises protests, 2003). Strategic Alliances of Microsoft As mentioned earlier, globalization brought many opportunities and challenges to Microsoft like bigger organizations. It is difficult even for Microsoft like companies to stay individually in the market fight against the competitors. Because of the above awareness, Microsoft is currently established strategic business alliances with organizations such as Amazon, Yahoo, Motorola, Nokia etc. “On July 29, 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo announced a more limited deal, a partnership in Internet search and advertising intended to create a stronger rival to the industry powerhouse Google”(Yahoo-Microsoft Deal, 2009). Google is causing tremendous challenges to most of the IT companies at present. Apart from search engine business, Google is currently expanding its business to areas such as online book marketing, social networking etc. With its immense capabilities, Google can cause big head aches to any of its competitors. Even Amazon is also struggling to counter the threats of Google. In other words, Google is causing challenges not only to Yahoo, but also to Amazon and Microsoft. In order to face the common enemy Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon are engages in a strategic business tie up at present. Ben Parr (2010) has pointed out that “in a new deal announced on February 22, 2010, Microsoft and Amazon will gain access to each other’s portfolio of patents, including patents related to the Amazon Kindle and the shopping giant’s Linux server technology” (Parr, 2010). Amazon was a leader in online business earlier. They focused more on online selling of books, apparels, computers and consumer electronic items to its customers worldwide. However, the entry of Google raised immense challenges to its business prospects. Google has already established the biggest online book store and started to capture some of the existing market segments of Amazon. Amazon has realised that it is difficult for them to compete with Google like bigger companies with their individual resources alone. The above awareness forced them to think in terms of Microsoft, another company which was looking for strategic tie ups in order to counter the threats of Google. In short, in order to challenge common enemy Google; Microsoft and Amazon established meaningful cooperation in different areas of their business. Microsoft is facing the strongest challenge from its arch rival Apple. Apple succeeded in dethroning Microsoft from the most valuable technological company in the world with the help of its “i” series products such as iPhone, iMac, iPad, iPod etc. In other words, product diversification helped Apple to attain the spot of second largest company in the world in market capitalization; just behind Exxon Mobil. Apple’s iPhone has created a revolution in mobile communication business. It is the first company which introduced the touchscreen technology in mobile phones. Currently, iPhones are one of the bestselling products in the world. Microsoft has realised their mistake, little bit late. At present they are trying to enter in to mobile communication market with the help of Nokia. “Former Microsoft exec and current Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has married his future and his past in the holy matrimony of a "strategic alliance." Windows Phone is becoming Nokia's "principal smartphone strategy," but there's a lot more to this hookup” (Savov, 2011). Nokia was the leader in mobile phone market; but the intrusion of Apple and Samsung caused tremendous challenges to them and they were looking for a strategic alliance with another company to counter the threats of Apple and Samsung. In short, Apple has raised challenges to both Microsoft and Nokia which resulted in the strategic alliance between Nokia and Microsoft. As part of this alliance, Microsoft and Nokia would strengthen their tie ups in the development and marketing of Windows Phone, Bing, Xbox Live and more. “Facebook and Microsoft Corp on Oct. 24, 2007, announced that the two companies would expand their advertising partnership and that Microsoft will take a $240 million equity stake in Facebook’s next round of financing at a $15 billion valuation” (Facebook and Microsoft Expand Strategic Alliance, 2007). Facebook is another company which is facing strong challenges from Google at present. Facebook was the leader in social networking business. Google is currently trying to expel facebook from its top spot with the help of their most modern social networking tool Google Plus, launched on 28 th June 2011. Google plus offers much more entertainment channels to the users and it is believed that the supremacy of Facebook in social networking is under tremendous threat. Because of the above awareness, facebook approached Microsoft to challenge the common enemy; Google. Motorola is another prominent company to which Microsoft established strategic alliance recently. “Microsoft Corp. and Motorola Inc on Oct. 4, 2005 announced an alliance to provide marketing and development support to deliver next-generation software applications to law enforcement, first responder and criminal justice customers” (Motorola and Microsoft Form Strategic Alliance, Motorola Software to Be Optimized for the Microsoft Platform, 2005). It should be noted that Apple is using Motorola processors in their computers and the mutual relations between Apple and Motorola have long history. Microsoft wanted to break this relationship in order to cause problems to Apple and for that purpose, they deliberately trying to establish meaningful relationships with Motorola in every possible area. In short, Microsoft is facing challenges from different battle fields and it is successfully countering it with the help of innovative business strategies and collaborations with other organizations. Conclusions Network structure is an important thing business, especially in international business. Improper network structure can cause problems whereas proper network structure can enhance the business potentials of a company. Domestic business and international business are entirely different things and organizations which fail to understand this fact will struggle to survive in the current globalized business environment. Globalization has brought many changes in business circles. Earlier, companies tried to compete individually whereas at present organizations establish strategic business alliances with other companies to meet the challenges of the common enemy. Microsoft enjoyed and still enjoys monopoly in operating system market. However, operating system market alone may not help Microsoft to maintain its top spot in global IT industries. Microsoft realized this fact only in recent times and currently they are trying to diversify their product portfolios. Apart from operating system market, Microsoft is currently trying to diversify to other fields such as search engine business, online book selling business, entertainment business, mobile communication businesses etc. Microsoft, one of the all-time greatest companies in the world, suffered many setbacks recently because of the problems in their network structure. Until the beginning of 2000, Microsoft failed to realize the importance of network structure in enhancing business growth. They failed to realize the importance of strategic tie ups with other companies until recent times. They thought that their monopoly in OS market alone will help them to maintain their supremacy in global IT market. However Apple, Google etc like companies are causing tremendous challenges to Microsoft which forced Microsoft to make drastic changes in its network structure. Outsourcing and offshoring are some of the bi-products of globalization. Earlier, Microsoft tried to utilize the American knowledge and manpower alone for developing new products and services. However, America is a country in which labor cost is much higher than that in other parts of the world. Globalization helped Microsoft to exploit the cheap labor markets in overseas countries. Currently Microsoft is outsourcing many of its jobs to countries like India, China etc. Even though president Obama is against the concept of outsourcing, Microsoft has realized that it is difficult for them to challenge its competitors using resources available in America alone. Microsoft calculated that their monopoly in operating system market is unchallengeable and they can keep that monopoly intact forever. However, companies like, Google, Apple etc started to cause big problems to Microsoft at the beginning of 2000 and they succeeded in dethroning Microsoft from the top spot. The loop holes in business strategies caused the downfall of Microsoft from the top spot of being the most valuable technological company in the world. Microsoft has realized the importance of product diversification, strategic alliances and internationalization of business quiet late. They started to realize the fact that a monopoly in one sector may not help an organization to improve its overall performances. The above late awareness forced Microsoft to establish meaningful tie ups with prominent companies like, Nokia, Facebook, Motorola, Yahoo, Amazon etc. References 1. Bellis M. (2011). Bill Gates - Biography and History. [Online] Available at: http://inventors.about.com/od/gstartinventors/a/Bill_Gates.htm, [Accessed on 11 August 2011] 2. Directions on Microsoft, (n. d). [Online] Available at: http://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/sample/DOMIS/orgchart/sample/orgchart.html[Accessed on 11 August 2011] 3. Define Outsourcing - definition with meaning (2011). [Online] Available at: http://www.bizbrim.com/outsourcing/define-outsourcing.htm [Accessed on 11 August 2011] 4. Facebook and Microsoft Expand Strategic Alliance (2007). [Online] Available at: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/oct07/10-24facebookpr.mspx [Accessed on 11 August 2011] 5. Gillikin J. 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