Microsoft Corporation: Corporate Business and Strategy - Essay Example

Microsoft Corporation: Corporate Business and StrategyExecutive Summary This paper is about the Microsoft Corporation. The main focus is on the background of the company and various influencing factors for analyzing its strategies with the help of SWOT and PEST analysis. It reveals the effective leadership quality of Bill Gates behind the success of this corporation. The research shows whether their strategies will have any impact on the entire economy of Unite States of America (U.S.A.) along with the world. Though Microsoft has lots of strong competitions in the software market they have to be more conscious about their offerings and products. Product development on a regular basis and providing services in a cost effective way should be the primary consideration to keep their position ahead from their competitors. Introduction of Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is the largest software organization of the world. This company has global annual sales of ten billions U.S. dollar. There are more than 60 thousands employees working within the organization. The company has its offices over 85 countries. Microsoft develops and manufactures a various range of software products for computer devices, which are very essential for official as well as individual purposes. Microsoft markets over 40 software products, which includes three operating systems, six computer language products and many business application products like spreadsheet, file management, project management, word processing etc. Microsoft made a long journey to gradually shift from 8-bit, 16 –bit, 32-bit and finally 64-bit microcomputers. IBM, Tandy, Apple, Compaq, Olivetti, Wang, Siemens, Philips, and NEC are the companies whose microcomputers support the software produced by Microsoft (Goldman, Sachs & Co and Alex Brown & Sons, 1986, p.5). Microsoft distributes their products through Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) and retail channels. This company generally provides OEM with master copies of the software to other companies and let them to market their products. On the other hand Microsoft uses independent distributors, large volume dealers, government agencies as representative of their products. This kind of domestic retail marketing involved the marketing of packaged software products (Goldman, Sachs & Co and Alex Brown & Sons, 1986, p. 5). There are many milestones achieved by Microsoft. In the year 1975 this company developed a BASIC interpreter for personal computers named as MITS Altair. After that within a few years Microsoft licensed the BASIC interpreter to many companies like Apple Computers, Commodore International and Tandy Corporations. Simultaneously Microsoft introduced Microsoft FORTRAN, Microsoft COBOL and Microsoft Macro Assembler in the market (Microsoft Company 15 September 1975, 2012). In 1978 Microsoft selected ASCII Corporation as its representative in Japan to market their products (The History of Microsoft, 2012). In the year 1980 the company introduced an operating system for 16 bit multi-user computer system called XENIX and UNIX. At the same time Microsoft SoftCard was introduced, which was a product that enhanced the quality of software and hardware (Chapter 1 Background, p. 12). In the year 1981 IBM introduced its personal computer, which offered the Microsoft MS-DOS operating system and the BASIC interpreter. At the same time a language product of IBM PC (personal computer) was introduced in the market (Irfanz, 2012). In the year 1982 Microsoft Multiplan electronic worksheet came into the market and this was the first time when Microsoft introduced its application software. Microsoft introduced many products at that time and simultaneously was also started expanding its business in the European market (Microsoft Corporation-Early History). Moreover Microsoft had established a press to publish the computer oriented books (Programming Windows 6th Edition, 2012). Microsoft Mouse, a device for pointing and editing was introduced in the year 1983 and in the same year Microsoft Word was added to its product line (Alexandru, n.d.). In 1985 Microsoft integrated spreadsheet with business graphics and database module into the Excel to match their software with Apple Macintosh and it also advanced its Microsoft Windows that can run on the MS-DOS operating system (Goldman, Sachs & Co and Alex Brown & Sons, 1986, p.2). After that Microsoft Introduced Microsoft Office in 1990. This software is a combination of different application of Word and Excel (Markgraf, 2012). After 1995 this Company was expanding its product line into computer networking and World Wide Web (www) (Goldman, Sachs & Co and Alex Brown & Sons, 1986, p.2). Microsoft has developed various operating systems according to the need of their customers. In the year 1995 Windows 95 came into the market then windows 98 and Windows 2000 came in the year of 1998 and 2000. The upgraded version of Windows 2000 introduced as Windows XP in 2001. Lastly Windows Vista has come with various new applications and advanced security system for their registered users. Over the years and successive products Windows has always tried to provide its customer with different features and advanced security system. (Microsoft News Center, 2006). So, one can see that by various steps like product innovation, development of the products, spreading into different countries Microsoft has made themselves a large organization. This company shows their performance through their financial statement regularly to their share holders and those statements are certified by an independent public accounting firm. This keeps clarity in action and entices their share holders to keep faith on the company for long run. Bill Gates strong leadership qualities behind the success of Microsoft Corporation Since its inception, Bill Gates has been the chairman of the Microsoft Corporation. Under his leadership Microsoft has become a global leader for providing software services. In the year 1975 Bill Gates had started his business with the help of his childhood friend Paul Allen. At that time he left Harvard to devote his full energy to Microsoft. They understood the importance of computers so they had begun to develop software for personal computers. Bill Gates wrote two books “Business @ the speed of thought” and “The road ahead”. Gates has donated these two books to the non-profit organizations. These books gave these institutions an idea of implementing technology in education and helped in developing skills among students. The leadership qualities that enabled Bill Gates to build Microsoft were focus, authenticity, courage, empathy and timing. Bill gates had huge experience in coding this helped him to maintain his focus in writing programmes that helped him eventually to build his empire. He was original in his approaches and was courageous to start the company with very little facilities. Also the decision to join hands with IBM was a very timely move for the company (Ward, 2012). Bill Gates intelligence, his ability to set the vision and mission for his company, innovative nature, risk taking ability made him a great leader of Microsoft (Microsoft News Center, 2011) Stake holders’ Involvement in Microsoft As a huge organization Microsoft has large number of stakeholders so it will create a great influence on them while making any strategy. The company should take in mind that the decision, which they are taking, is going to match their stake holder’s interest. The arrival of new stake holders always makes the company think about the various ways to satisfy them. For this the company might be facing a conflict with their existing stake holders while giving their new stake holders a certain amount of advantages (Articlebase, 2009). Microsoft does not have any specific policy to handle their stake holders. They make their stake holders engage in their Environmental Principles. Furthermore, the company conveys their objective, target their stake holders, share holders and customers. Microsoft does not provide trainings to their staffs about managing their stake holders. Microsoft has also not involved their external stake holders in corporate decision making. Too much involvement of stake holders can hamper the decision taking ability of the company (Microsoft Corporation, 2004). SWOT Analysis for Microsoft SWOT analysis implies the strength, weakness, opportunity and threat for a particular company. EVR Congruence is a model, which deals with environmental aspects, value and resources of the company. In case of this model the strengths and weaknesses of a company are the parts of resources (R). Then analysis of the environmental part (E) includes the opportunity and threats for the company. Lastly the value (V) of a company is analyzed by the analysis of stakeholders (Thompson & Martin, 2005, pp.125-127). Here the analysis is done in the current context. Strength Microsoft has innovated wide range of products, which satisfies their customers need. Windows Vista is the latest operating system, which they are offering to their users. Microsoft Corporation’s good brand image is the strong point for them. Technological advancement of the organization helps them a lot to upgrade their products. Like Microsoft Excel. It is upgraded by Microsoft by including lots of extra applications in it. These days Excel is used as equity research tool in many companies. Microsoft introduced various products, which are used for multipurpose works. Microsoft’s dominancy in Operating System and Microsoft Office for Personal Computer considered as their biggest strength. Their business model depends on high return on equity, which means higher amount of net income of the organization is returned as a percentage of share holder’s equity. Moreover, return on Equity indicates how much profit a company is generating from their shareholders money (Indigo Equity Research, 2012). Weakness Microsoft Corporation is very slow while growing in the mobile phone sector, tablet PCs and internet search. In recent times, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are providing their users better accessibility to the internet. Increasing employee retention rate, frequent reorganization, excessive regulation and autocratic environment have been destroying the creative environment within the organization (Indigo Equity Research, 2012). Opportunities Microsoft has some opportunities to increase their market shares by introducing Windows 8 and up gradation of Microsoft Office software. Microsoft is providing server facilities to their clients by providing them cloud computing services. Acquiring Skype which is an Internet communications company, for $8.5 billion will open new opportunities s to attract customers (Microsoft Officially Welcomes Skype, 2011). The result has been positive so far the as the audio & video calling software is doing well in the market. So this thing will allow them to enter in to the new market. Recently Microsoft has done an agreement with Yahoo for internet search. This agreement involves Yahoo’s algorithmic and paid search platform to Microsoft with Yahoo (Indigo Equity Research, 2012). Threats The main problem for Microsoft is that the Personal Computer market is maturing gradually so they have to diversify their products. These days Chrome, android and Apple becoming the serious threat for Microsoft because they are providing same facilities like Microsoft (Indigo Equity Research, 2012). PEST Analysis for Microsoft PEST analysis considers the analysis of political, economical, social and technological factors of any company. The macro environment factors are the uncontrollable factors that have a great influence on the organization decision makings process (Thompson and Martin, 2005, p. 168). Political factors A political factor includes taxation policy, political stability of a government (Thompson and Martin, 2010, p. 85). U.S tax rules affect Microsoft dividend policy. Though Microsoft wants to give their share holder more dividends but it is for U.S. taxation policy they cannot give more than what they are giving. Microsoft used to pay $0.52 per year to their share holders. The company is earning half of their money from outside of the U.S. so that they are not allowed to give dividends on the profit, which they are incoming outside of the country (U.S. Tax Rules Affect Microsoft Dividend Policy, 2011). Political stability matters a lot for any company. If the government changes regularly then it can affect the policies of the particular country regarding taxation policy, monetary policy and many others. So with every change in the government policies the company policies have to be modified. This issue can make a real challenge for the company. Microsoft has been politically accused by Netscape for offering their customer Windows operating system with Internet Explorer (IE). According to Netscape, Microsoft was trying to make a monopoly market in the web browsing sector through providing Internet Explorer with their operating system (The Political Issues surrounding Microsoft, n.d.). Economical factors Economic factors include money supply within the market, exchange rate, economic growth of a country etc. Such factors decide how “easy or how difficult it is to be successful and profitable at any time because they affect both capital availability and cost, and demand” (Thompson and Martin, 2010, p. 85) Greater money supply increases the rate of inflation for which the general level of prices for goods and services increases. So with the increment of money supply the products of Microsoft will be costlier (How high inflationary rate affects on business and economy, 2012). Currency exchange rate also affects Microsoft. As a U.S. company Microsoft trades its products in dollar. So if the dollar rate increases then the products price will also higher for other nations. The company has earning half of its profit from outside of the U.S so changes in exchange rate influence its business greatly. U.S. is a developed economy and the people earn well, so higher economic growth makes people to consume more products and this thing helps a business to earn more. The same happens for Microsoft. Social factors Social factors include income distribution, education, living status and the average population age factors (PESTEL analysis of the macro Environment, 2007). These factors ascertain demand and taste patterns of potential customers and will differ as per the disposable income of the people. Such factors might provide both opportunities and threats for firms (Thompson and Martin, 2010, p. 87). Good income distribution motivates users to consume more products of Microsoft. High living standard motivates the people adopting new and advanced technology for their daily works. Education is important to understand technological aspects. U.S. is well advanced in case of above social factors so it is good for the company with respect to their earnings from the U.S market. Technological factors Technological factors include advancement of technologies within the country. Therefore, if a company wants to do business in a particular country, then the technology of the company must be compatible with the technological prospects of a particular nation (Thompson and Martin, 2010, p. 87). Microsoft is well advanced in technology so it can develop its products according to their customers’ needs. In recent times, Microsoft provides online services such as Microsoft search, portal, advertising and personal communications services. They have been providing Windows Server, SQL Server, and Visual Studios. The latest invention of Microsoft is Skype, which gives the facility to their customer of doing online video calls. So above mentioned services and products shows the technological advancement of Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft, 2011). Porters Five Force Model analysis with respect of Microsoft Company Porter’s Five Force Model (Figure 1) The model of five forces was developed by Michel E Porter. This model is used for analyzing a particular industry. This model is based on the theme of analyzing an industry and with the help of this analysis a company can formulate a strategy, which should meet the opportunities and threat in the organizational external environment. These five forces are discussed below (Presentation tips: Porter 5 Forces Analysis, n.d.) Risk of potential competitor Microsoft has lots of threat from different new companies like IBM, Sun Microsystems, Oracle because they are coming with their new software products that have the same application as the Microsoft software’s are providing to their customers. In the personal computer market, Microsoft predominately comprises DOS and Windows. In this market of providing operating systems, the prime competitors are Apple and IBM. In case of Apple the operating system that they are providing is only applicable on Macintosh personal computers and it does not run many business applications, which are available in DOS and Windows. IBM’s OS/2 operating system suffers the same problem. So Microsoft has some potential competitors in the software market but they are somehow lagging behind Microsoft. Hence this company needs to develop their products so that their software will be in the advanced position in the market (Competitive Analysis, 2006). Threats of substitute for Microsoft In recent time, Microsoft has a great fear of losing their market shares because lots of substitute products are available in the market, which can replace the Microsoft products. Some examples are Yahoo, Sony and Apply. Recently, through these the users are getting faster accessibility than Internet Explorer. Linux is one of the most popular and cheaper alternatives of Microsoft operating system. Mac OS X is another substitute for the windows operating system. Because of the popularity of this operating system many software are available in the market. Outlook Express is provided by Microsoft for mailing. Though the software has gone through many development stages, it cannot match up with the popularity of Gmail. Gmail is the effective replacement for Microsoft Paint and this software is freely available to the users (Roach, 2012). Industry rivalry among established firms Microsoft considers Google , Firefox and Apple as their potential rivals because lots of new products are introduced by them, which can be considered as latest alternatives available in the market for the Microsoft products. Microsoft thinks that Linux Operating System, Mozilla and Opera are not their competitors anymore because their software are well advanced than the above mentioned products (Staff Writer, 2011). The products offered by Google, Firefox are more sophisticated and technologically advanced which makes it more popular amongst the users. Over the decade, it has lost its market control to new entrants like Apple. Also Bing that was a search engine launched by Microsoft in 2009 failed to make its mark in the market over Google. Also, the market share of Microsoft is 14% currently where as it has reduced to a mere 64.8% from 65% in case of Google (Microsoft's Lost $5.5 Billion On Bing (So Far), 2012). This shows that Microsoft’s dominance or hold over its market share has been reducing over the last ten years. Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power depends on the ‘degree of substitutability’ (Thompson and Martin, 2010, p. 93). When Microsoft holds a monopoly position in the market then the users have no choice but to buy their products for their computer applications. But these days’ people have various options available to them in terms of operating system and software. The switching cost is not very high for the software products. Therefore, these aspects increase the opportunity to bargain more with the concerned company (Strategy Analysis, n.d.). Bargaining power of suppliers Microsoft captures a large percentage of the software market and they are well advanced with their products. Their operating systems, application software are serving people well. Those software are very user friendly than the other software available in the market. They first introduced operating system with vast applications. Many companies or individuals are using their product so to acquire new products includes the switching cost for them. So as a supplier they have a huge power to bargain as a supplier. Strategies for growth of Microsoft Corporation Ansoff’s matrix is the effective tool to analyze the growth strategy for Microsoft. By the help of this matrix a company can decide on their existing and new products and their market growth strategy (Thompson and Martin, 2005, p. 141). Ansoff’s matrix (Figure 2) Market Penetration Market penetration is the process of making more sales in the existing market, which the company has already captured (Thompson and Martin, 2005, pp.412-413). Microsoft has already captured a huge percentage of shares in the software market. The net revenue of Microsoft in the fiscal year 202 was $28.37B while in the last fiscal year of 2011 it increased to $69.94B. Also the head count increased from 50,621 in 2002 to 90,412 in 2011 (Facts About Microsoft, 2012). thThis shows that Microsoft has been successful in expanding its business. This is further supported by the fact that Microsoft continued its market penetration strategies by introducing new products like windows phone 7 in 2010 (Facts About Microsoft, 2012). But as the number of market entrant introducing new technologies and software are evolving Microsoft should look forward to eliminate these competitors from the market. Product Development This implies modifications or additions to the current set of products (Thompson and Martin, 2010, p. 452). Microsoft has introduced many new products in their existing markets. It has launched products like the Kinect with Xbox2 game console. Kinect is an add on feature of the previous model that allows users to play without the use of controllers (Xbox 360 + Kinect , 2012). Also new versions of its software like Windows 7 in 2009 and Microsoft office 365 in 2011 shows its product development strategy. Like these days Google Chrome and Mozilla are providing better accessibility to the internet than the Internet Explorer software (Cloud Computing News, 2011). Linux is the easy available and cheaper operating system than Windows. So like this in many areas of the software Microsoft has to develop themselves by offering products in cost effective and advanced ways (Broersma, 2005). Product development is the best way to upgrade software to match the current requirements of the customers. Market development Market development is the strategy when one organization or a company enters into a new location or a new market and introduces its products there for expanding its business. Here the companie’s existing products are relaunched in the new markets. According to a recent report Microsoft introduced its products by opening subsidiaries in countries like Albania, Czech Republic, Korea, Puerto Rico (Facts About Microsoft, 2012). This can again be supported by the fact that the employment number offered by Microsoft has increased to 93163 worldwide (Facts About Microsoft, 2012. Diversification Diversification is important to retain customers and is an important competitive strategy (Thompson and Martin, 2010, p. 454). In this strategy, new products are introduced in new markets. The diversification strategy followed by Microsoft is centric as it focuses mainly on software and web based technologies. Microsoft has diversified its products over the years beginning with the windows 2000 in 2000 to Windows Phone 7 in 2010 ((Facts About Microsoft, 2012. By offering the various ranges of products for mobile and desktop, Microsoft Corporation is diversifying their products to capture the biggest part of the software market. Microsoft has another opportunity for business expansion. That is to enter into the mobile application software market. This market has few players. Besides the desktop market, Microsoft should make their products compatible with mobile applications. Now Microsoft has launched Windows phone and MS Office for mobile. So it can be said that Microsoft is forming new products to enter new markets for their market development (Microsoft’s Phone Market Move into the Spotlight Wednesday, 2012). Besides computer and mobile application software, Microsoft has entered into the gaming market. In November 2005 Microsoft launched XBOX 360 (Farhoomand & Tsang, 2006). From the tests mentioned above and from the reports found it is understandable that Microsoft has evolved strategically over the last ten years. The company that began in a garage firm has acquired a world wide face. Usage of technology and features like market diversification and product development has led to company to increase its market share. Strategically, acquiring companies like Skype that was conducted recently was a good move for the company as it will help the company to increase its user base. The company which was established in USA has spread its subsidiaries almost all over the world in the last decade. Also by introducing new products in the last couple of years over its previous ones the company has taken a strategic move of attracting the customers. Philanthropic organizations run by the company are also a strategic move to build friendly relations in new expanding markets. So, it can be said that over the last ten years, Microsoft has been successful in implementing various strategies that have enabled the company to remain one of the most recognized companies in the world. Conclusion and recommendations Microsoft has been a large organization with an efficient management and an effective leader. It has expanded and flourished globally as revealed by the SWOT and PEST analysis. Microsoft has developed their strategies and products according to their customers need. It has formed alliances with companies like Skype to capture new markets. There have been many such instances of Microsoft’s glory. But the recent trend in the financial reports depicts a new story. The power of Microsoft is being threatened by new market entrants like Google, Yahoo, Apple. These companies have a user base that has outnumbered that of Microsoft’s. Also the decline is market share is a significant indicator to it. Microsoft has tried to expand its business by launching many new products like Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, the controller-free Kinect for Xbox 360, Zune Music and Video, and Media room as well as PC and mobile interactive entertainment and softwares but still it seems to be on the run in this market competition as the products offered by its rival are more in demand. Secondly, Microsoft is seemingly diverting from its values of maintaining originality. This becomes evident from the fact that it introduced its first tablet pc called Microsoft Surface. This concept of tablet pc was introduced by Apple. This has possibly led to its losing its customer’s loyalty. There is a huge responsibility on management to set standard objectives for their company. They need to recognize the market segments, which have brighter prospects and plan well to capture maximum market share. They should not engage themselves in unethical practices to eliminate their competitors as it might hamper their brand image and also monitor well to prevent such practices and duplicity. They need to maintain the values and originality that were followed by its founder. References 1. Alexandru, (n.d.), Mouse History In Photos, available at: http://www.topdesignmag.com/mouse-history-in-photos/ (accessed on June 30, 2012) 2. Articlebase (2009), Stake holders and How they Affect Your Business, available at: http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/stakeholders-and-how-they-affect-your-business-760088.html (accessed on June 30, 2012) 3. Broersma, M. (2005), Linux 40 percent cheaper than Windows, exclaims IBM, available at: http://news.techworld.com/operating-systems/4321/linux-40-percent-cheaper-than-windows-exclaims-ibm/ (accessed on June 30, 2012) 4. 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